Additional screen in check-out process
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2002 3:37 am
Hi Loren and all,
our company is based in Germany and therefore we need to abide to
german/european law for any ecommerce transaction.
Since last year a lot of need ecommerce laws and guidelines have been
implemented and also the BGB (Bundesgesetzbuch) which regulates very basic
issues in Germany has been changed to implement paragraphs for e-enabled
transactions. I have been studying these rules and laws together with our
attorney over the last months and have done a lot of minor and major changes
to our ordering process.
In one of these paragraphs it is stated "that the ecommerce has to give the
customer the technical means to recognize any potential error in his order
and to correct those".
In order to fulfill this requirement, an additional screen in the checkout
process where all data that the customer has entered are displayed and a
question like "You have entered the information above for your order, please
check and if everything is correct, please click ORDER NOW or click BACK to
correct your order" would be sufficient.
In Germany we are also required to clearly state in the ordering process
that the customer has the right to return the ordered items within 14 days
of receipt without need to give any reason and that he will get his money
back. I have build this into the shipping screen so far, but it would be
better to have this also in the 'check your entred data' screen just before
the order is submitted.
Point is that if any ecommerce business is not complying with the laws and
guidelines, any competing business can file a claim against the business,
resulting normally in payment of some 1.500-3.000,- EUR/US$ for attorney
fees and a penalty of 50.000,- EUR/US$ if the circumstances that provoqued
the claim the first time are repeated afterwards (e.g. the reason for the
claim is not stopped immediately.)
I would like to ask to consider to build in an (optional?) additional screen
in the ordering process as described above in one of the next releases of
shopsite.
Thank you for you attention,
Niko
www.watersafety.net
our company is based in Germany and therefore we need to abide to
german/european law for any ecommerce transaction.
Since last year a lot of need ecommerce laws and guidelines have been
implemented and also the BGB (Bundesgesetzbuch) which regulates very basic
issues in Germany has been changed to implement paragraphs for e-enabled
transactions. I have been studying these rules and laws together with our
attorney over the last months and have done a lot of minor and major changes
to our ordering process.
In one of these paragraphs it is stated "that the ecommerce has to give the
customer the technical means to recognize any potential error in his order
and to correct those".
In order to fulfill this requirement, an additional screen in the checkout
process where all data that the customer has entered are displayed and a
question like "You have entered the information above for your order, please
check and if everything is correct, please click ORDER NOW or click BACK to
correct your order" would be sufficient.
In Germany we are also required to clearly state in the ordering process
that the customer has the right to return the ordered items within 14 days
of receipt without need to give any reason and that he will get his money
back. I have build this into the shipping screen so far, but it would be
better to have this also in the 'check your entred data' screen just before
the order is submitted.
Point is that if any ecommerce business is not complying with the laws and
guidelines, any competing business can file a claim against the business,
resulting normally in payment of some 1.500-3.000,- EUR/US$ for attorney
fees and a penalty of 50.000,- EUR/US$ if the circumstances that provoqued
the claim the first time are repeated afterwards (e.g. the reason for the
claim is not stopped immediately.)
I would like to ask to consider to build in an (optional?) additional screen
in the ordering process as described above in one of the next releases of
shopsite.
Thank you for you attention,
Niko
www.watersafety.net