E-Commerce and M-Commerce

Chapter No. 5

E/M-Commerce

What is E-Commerce?

DEFINITION

Sharing business information, maintaining business relationships and conducting business transactions using computers connected to a telecommunication network is called E-Commerce.

Or

Any form of business transaction in which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges of documents or direct meetings amongst officials.

E-commerce is simply ‘doing business online’

Or

E-Commerce is buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet.

Main Activities of Electronic Commerce

1. Buying and selling of products
2. Shopping of products
3. Producing financial statements
4. Doing business online
5. Buying products and services through web store fronts
6. Over internet, intranet, extranets and other networks

Broad goals of Electronic Commerce

1. Reduced costs
2. Lower product cycle time
3. Faster customer response
4. Improved service quality

E-Commerce Technical Components

1. Client or PC Workstation
2. Transaction Server
3. Database Server
4. Database Transaction
5. Router
6. Internet Communication Line

Model of E-Commerce

1. BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B)
2. BUSINESS TO CUSTOMER (B2C)
3. CUSTOMER TO CUSTOMER (C2C)

E-commerce Applications-example

•RETAIL STORES - Books, Music

•AUCTION SITES

•COOPERATING BUSINESSES –Placing orders, paying invoices etc.

•ELECTRONIC BANKING

•BOOKING TICKETS - TRAINS, CINEMA, AIRLINES

•ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

•FILLING TAX RETURNS WITH GOVERNMENT DEPT.

1.  Business To Business E-commerce (B2B)

• Local LAN of business would normally follow TCP/IP protocol of internet and is called corporate intranet
• Purchase order entered by business1 in its PC and electronically dispatched to vendor (by e-mail)
• Vendor acknowledges electronically the order
• Vendor dispatches goods (physically) and delivery note electronically to business1
• Business 1 can compare delivery note against order -both are in computer readable form
• Discrepancy note (if any) can be immediately sent to the vendor(business 2)
• Business 1 can carry out all local transactions using its LAN
• Local transactions are inventory update by stores - advice to accounts to pay for goods taken into stock
• Accounts can make payment electronically to Vendor

Implementing B2B E-commerce-requirements

1. Agreed on formats for Purchase order, delivery note, payment order etc. Standard known as EDI (Electronic Data Interchange Standard) is used to send documents electronically.
2. Each Business must have corporate intranet and the two nets are connected by PSTN or leased line.
3. Transactions must be secure - particularly if PSTN is used.
4. Secure electronic payment methods are required.

  

2) Business to Customer B2C E-commerce

1. Customer uses a browser and locates vendor or he has vendor's web page address
2. Sees Vendor's web page listing of items available, prices etc
3. Customer selects item and places order. Order may include credit card details or may be cash on delivery
4. Vendor checks with credit card company customer’s credit
5. Credit card company OKs transaction
6. Vendor acknowledges Customer’s order and gives details of delivery date, mode of transport, cost etc
7. Vendor orders with distributor who ships item to vendor's warehouse from where item supplied to customer
8. Customer's credit card company debits his account, credits vendor's account and sends bill to customer for payment.

3) Customer to Customer C2C E-Commerce

How to Create an E-Commerce Web Site:

Step One: Establish Your Online Identity with the Right Web Address

•      The first step toward e-commerce is selecting the name of your site. Your Web address (also called a URL or "domain name"), tells customers who you are and how to find you on the Internet.

•      Make it memorable: "Amazon.com“

•      Describe your business: "Flowers.com" obviously leads one to believe they can buy flowers on the site.

•      Keep it short: "onlinecdstore.com" don't work as well as a simple phrase: "cdnow.com"

•      com/edu/org sites: E-commerce businesses most often register a name with "com" as the domain name extension (the letters after the dot; also called a top-level domain, or TLD), but names with ".net" and ".org" (for "organization") are also common. Other suffixes include ".tv" for rich content/multi-media websites, ".edu" for schools and universities, ".biz“ for small businesses, and ".info" for resource Web sites.

Step Two: Build a User-Friendly Site

•      An overview of your company, its products and services, and their applications.

•      Complete product or service descriptions, including features, key benefits, pricing, product specifications, and other information, for each product or service.

•      Testimonials or success stories so customers can see how similar individuals or organizations have worked with you.

•      An FAQ section that anticipates and answers customers' common issues.

•      Keep download times short.

•      Your company name, logo, and tagline prominently displayed. Take full advantage of the opportunity to showcase your brand identity.

•      Contact information. Don't make it difficult for visitors to find your phone number, e-mail address, mailing address, and fax number.

•      A link to an "About the Company" page for customers to quickly learn who you are and what your business offers.

•      A site menu listing the basic subsections of your site. Keep this menu in the same place on every page throughout your site to make it easy to navigate.

•      A "What's New" section for news, announcements, and product promotions. Frequently updating this area will encourage customers to return often.

Step Three: Set Up Your Web Server - or Select an ISP to Host Your Site

•      Your Web site is a series of files that reside on a special computer, called a Web server, connected to the Internet.

•      Small and medium-sized businesses prefer to turn to an ISP or Web hosting company, instead of investing in the hardware, software, and infrastructure necessary to get online.

•      Shared hosting or dedicated server

•      Availability

•      E-mail accounts

•      SSL Encryption

•      Support

Step Four: Minimize the Risks of E-Commerce

•      Encryption

•      Authentication

•      Digital Certificates

Step Five: Accept and Manage All Kinds of Payments

To accept credit cards online a company must:

–     Open a merchant account

–     Purchase credit card processing software

–     Integrate the credit card processing software into the transaction system

•      Acquiring Bank: In the online payment processing world, an Acquiring Bank provides Internet Merchant Accounts. A merchant must open an Internet Merchant Account with an Acquiring Bank to enable online credit card authorization and payment processing.

•      Credit Card Association: A financial institution that provides credit card services that are branded and distributed by Customer Issuing Banks. Examples include Visa® and MasterCard®.

•      Customer Issuing Bank: A financial institution, such as a bank, that provides your customer with a payment instrument. The issuer is responsible for the cardholder's debt payment.

•      Payment Gateway: A service that provides connectivity among merchants, customers, and financial networks to process authorizations and payments. The service is usually operated by a third-party provider such as VeriSign.

Step Six: Test, Test, Test

•      You may be eager to launch your e-commerce storefront, but take time to review and test your site thoroughly before going live.

Step Seven: Promote Your Site

•      Register your site with search engines(SEO).

•    Put your domain name everywhere: Brochures, advertisements, business cards, and even hats, jackets, and t-shirts.

•      Advertise

•      Search engine optimization (SEO): The application of strategies intended to position a Web site at the top of Web search engines

•      The key to SEO is understanding the algorithms the search engines use to determine the ranking of the results returned to the searcher

Electronic Payment System:

India’s e-commerce market is worth about Rs 50,000 crores in 2011. An e-commerce payment system facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for online transactions. Also known as a sample of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increasingly popular due to the widespread use of the Internet-based shopping and banking.

Electronic payment has revolutionized the business processing by reducing paper work, transaction costs, labour cost. Being user friendly and less time consuming than manual processing, helps business organization to expand its market reach / expansion.

Some of the modes of electronic payments are following.

1. Credit Card
2. Debit Card
3. Smart Card
4. E-Money (E-Cash, E-Cheques, E-Wallet)
5. Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT)

1. Credit Card:

Payment using credit card is one of most common mode of electronic payment. Credit card is small plastic card with a unique number attached with an account. It has also a magnetic strip embedded in it which is used to read credit card via card readers. When a customer purchases a product via credit card, credit card issuer bank pays on behalf of the customer and customer has a certain time period after which he/she can pay the credit card bill. It is usually credit card monthly payment cycle. Following are the actors in the credit card system.

•      The card holder - Customer

•      The merchant - seller of product who can accept credit card payments.

•      The card issuer bank - card holder's bank

•      The acquirer bank - the merchant's bank

•      The card brand - for example , visa or master card.

Credit card payment process:

There are two parts to payment processing: authorization and settlement.

    1. Authorization: 

The customer makes a purchase and provides credit card information to a POS terminal.

1. The POS terminal encrypts and relays the information to the payment processor. The payment processor uses a payment gateway to relay the credit card data to the Visa/MasterCard network.
2. The payment gateway verifies credit card information by asking the appropriate credit card association for charge approval.
3. Upon receiving the request for charge approval, the credit card association asks the card issuing bank to approve the charge.
4. The issuing bank accepts or declines the charge and relays the message back to the credit card association. The credit card association transmits the message to the payment gateway. If the card is approved, the customer is notified that the transaction is complete.

•         The entire authorization process takes approximately two to three seconds.

2. Settlement:

1. The card issuing bank sends payment to the credit card association. The credit card association transfers the payment to the payment processor. The payment processor deposits the full amount into the merchant account.
2. The underwriting bank transfers the deposited funds from the merchant account to the merchant’s business account. The merchant can then access the funds from his or her business account.
3. The entire settlement process takes approximately three days.

2. Debit Card:

•     Debit card, like credit card is a small plastic card with a unique number mapped with the bank account number. It is required to have a bank account before getting a debit card from the bank. The major difference between debit card and credit card is that in case of payment through debit card, amount gets deducted from card's bank account immediately and there should be sufficient balance in bank account for the transaction to get completed. Whereas in case of credit card there is no such compulsion.

•    Debit cards free customer to carry cash, cheques and even merchants accepts debit card more readily. Having restriction on amount being in bank account also helps customer to keep a check on his/her spending.

3. Smart Card:

•  Smart card is again similar to credit card and debit card in appearance but it has a small microprocessor chip embedded in it. It has the capacity to store customer work related/personal information. Smart card is also used to store money which is reduced as per usage. Smart card can be accessed only using a PIN of customer. Smart cards are secure as they stores information in encrypted format and are less expensive/provides faster processing. Mondex and Visa Cash cards are examples of smart cards.

4. E-Money:

•         E-Money transactions refers to situation where payment is done over the network and amount gets transferred from one financial body to another financial body without any involvement of a middleman. E-money transactions are faster, convenient and saves a lot of time.

            E.g. E-Cash, E-Cheques, E-Wallet

•         Online payments done via credit card, debit card or smart card are examples of e-money transactions. Another popular example is e-cash. In case of e-cash, both customer and merchant both have to sign up with the bank or company issuing e-cash.

5. Electronic Fund Transfer:

•         It is a very popular electronic payment method to transfer money from one bank account to another bank account. Accounts can be in same bank or different bank. Fund transfer can be done using ATM (Automated Teller Machine) or using computer.

•         Now a day, internet based EFT is getting popularity. In this case, customer uses website provided by the bank. Customer logins to the bank's website and registers another bank account. He/she then places a request to transfer certain amount to that account. Customer's bank transfers amount to other account if it is in same bank otherwise transfer request is forwarded to ACH (Automated Clearing House) to transfer amount to other account and amount is deducted from customer's account. Once amount is transferred to other account, customer is notified of the fund transfer by the bank.

ECS (Electronic Clearing Service):

•         It is a mode of electronic funds transfer from one bank account to another bank account using the services of a Clearing House.

•         This is normally for bulk transfers from one account to many accounts or vice versa.

•         This can be used both for making payments like distribution of dividend, interest, salary, pension, etc. by institutions or for collection of amounts for purposes such as payments to utility companies like telephone, electricity, or charges such as house tax, water tax, etc

•         or for loan installments of financial institutions/banks

•         or regular investments of persons.

RTGS Vs NEFT:

•         Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) - Which can be defined as the continuous (real-time) settlement of funds transfers individually on an order by order basis (without netting). 'Real Time' means the processing of instructions at the time they are received rather than at some later time; 'Gross Settlement' means the settlement of funds transfer instructions occurs individually (on an instruction by instruction basis).

•         National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) - is electronic funds transfer system, which facilitates transfer of funds to other bank accounts or branches across the country.  NEFT is an electronic fund transfer system that operates on a Deferred Net Settlement (DNS) basis which settles transactions in batches.

Payment Gateway:

A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. It is the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets.

Payment gateway protects credit cards details encrypting sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, to ensure that information passes securely between the customer and the merchant and also between merchant and payment processor.

Paypal:

•         PayPal is the faster, safer way to send money, make an online payment, receive money or set up a merchant account.

•         PayPal is a payment services provider and acts as such by creating, hosting, maintaining and providing PayPal Services to you via the Internet. PayPal services allow you to send payments to anyone with a PayPal Account, and, where available, to receive payments. PayPal service availability varies by country.

•         PayPal is an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee.

E-Billing:

•         Electronic billing or electronic bill payment and presentment, is when a company, organization, or group sends its bills over the internet, and customers pay the bills electronically.

Micropayments:

•         A micropayment is a financial transaction involving a very small sum of money and usually one that occurs online. PayPal defines a micropayment as a transaction of less than 12 USD while Visa prefers transactions under 20 Australian dollars,  and while micropayments were originally envisioned to involve much smaller sums of money, practical systems to allow transactions of less than 1 USD have seen little success.

1.      A customer goes to an online music store and purchases a single song that costs $0.99. 

2.      A person goes to an online gaming company, selects a game and play it for 30 minutes.

3.      A person goes to a Web site selling digital images and clip art. The person purchases a couple of images at a cost of $0.80.

POS System:

•         Point of sale (also called POS or checkout, during computerization later becoming electronic point of sale or EPOS) is the place where a retail transaction is completed. It is the point at which a customer makes a payment to the merchant in exchange for goods or services. At the point of sale the retailer would calculate the amount owed by the customer and provide options for the customer to make payment. The merchant will also normally issue a receipt for the transaction.

•         On a macro level, a point of sale may be a mall, market or city. On a micro-level, retailers consider a point of sale to be the area surrounding the counter where customers pay. Also known as "point of purchase". 

Features of POS system

1.      Ease of use. Look for software with a user-friendly graphical interface

2.      Entry of sales information

3.      Pricing 

4.      Updating product information 

5.      Sales tracking options

6.      Security 

7.      Taxes 

Advantages of E-commerce

1.      Buying/selling a variety of goods and services from one's home or business

2.      Anywhere, anytime transaction

3.      Can look for lowest cost for specific goods or service

4.      Businesses can reach out to worldwide clients - can establish business partnerships

5.      More flexibility in a website to add and remove a product or products than in catalogues or brochures

6.      Wider choice and no wastage of time

7.      Middleman eliminated

8.      Inventory size reduced because of reduction in transaction time

9.      Order processing cost reduced

10.  Electronic funds transfer faster

11.  Supply chain management is simpler, faster, and cheaper using ecommerce

12.  Can order from several vendors and monitor supplies.

13.  Production schedule and inventory of an organization can be inspected by cooperating supplier who can in-turn schedule their work.

Disadvantages  of E-commerce

1.      Electronic data interchange using EDI is expensive for small businesses

2.      Security of internet is not very good - viruses, hacker attacks can paralise e-commerce

3.      Privacy of e-transactions is not guaranteed

4.      Inability to touch and feel, since the selling is online

5.      From the Indian context, internet access is not widely available at present

6.      Payments by credit cards requires faith in the system security

7.      E-commerce de-personalises shopping. People go shopping to meet others

8.      window shop and bargain

M-Commerce

Mobile Commerce (m-Commerce): The delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless technology.

Mobile Commerce as meaning "a retail outlet in your customer’s pocket."

Definition: The use of wireless handheld devices such as cellular phones and laptops to conduct commercial transactions online.

Mobile commerce transactions continues to grow, and the term includes the purchase and sale of a wide range of goods and services, online banking, bill payment, information delivery and so on. Also known as m-commerce.

Mobile commerce (m-commerce, m-business)—any e-commerce done in a wireless environment, especially via the Internet. Creates opportunity to deliver new services to existing customers and to attract new ones. 

M-Commerce Terminology

n  Generations

n  1G: 1979-1992 wireless technology

n  2G: current wireless technology; mainly accommodates text

n  2.5G: interim technology accommodates graphics

n  3G: 3^rd generation technology (2001-2005) supports rich media (video clips)

n  4G: will provide faster multimedia display (2006-2010)

n  GPS: Satellite-based Global Positioning System

n  PDA: Personal Digital Assistant—handheld wireless computer

n  SMS: Short Message Service

n  EMS: Enhanced Messaging Service

n  MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service

n  WAP: Wireless Application Protocol

n  Smartphones—Internet-enabled cell phones with attached applications

Attributes of M-Commerce and Its Economic Advantages

n  Mobility—users carry cell phones or other mobile devices

n  Broad reach—people can be reached at any time

n  Ubiquity—easier information access in real-time

n  Convenience—devices that store data and have Internet, intranet, extranet connections

n  Instant connectivity—easy and quick connection to Internet, intranets, other mobile devices, databases

n  Personalization—preparation of information for individual consumers

n  Localization of products and services—knowing where the user is located at any given time and match service to them

Drivers of mobile computing and M-Commerce:

1. Widespread Availability of Mobile Devices: It is estimated that within a few years, about 70 percent of cell phones will have Internet access (“smart-phones”). Thus, a potential mass market is available for conducting discovery, communication, collaboration and m-commerce. Cell phones are spreading quickly even in developing countries.
2. No Need for a PC: Today’s PDAs and some cell phones have as much processing power as personal computers did just a few years ago, and possess the range of software available to PC users. This suggests that the smart phone-not the PC-may soon become the foremost tool that connects people to the Internet.
3. The Handset Culture: Another driver of m-commerce is the widespread use of cell phones, which is a social phenomenon, especially among the 15-to-25-year-old age group. These users will constitute a major force of online buyers once they begin to make and spend larger amounts of money. The use of SMS has been spreading like wildfire in several European and Asian countries. In the Philippines, for example SMS is a national phenomenon, especially in the youth market. As another example, Japanese send many more messages though mobile phones than do Americans, who prefer the desktop or laptop for e-mail.
4. Declining Prices and Increased Functionality: The price of wireless devices is declining, and the per-minute pricing of mobile services declined by 50 percent in recent years. At the same time, functionality are increasing. Also, a flat fee (e.g., monthly) encourages more use of mobile devices.
5. Improvement of Bandwidth: To properly conduct m-commerce, it is necessary to have sufficient bandwidth for transmitting text; however, bandwidth is also required for voice, video, and multimedia. The 3G (third-generation) and 3.5G technologies provide the necessary band width.
6. The Centrino Chip: A major boost to mobile computing was provided in 2003 by Intel with its Centrino chip. This chip, which became a standard feature in most laptops by 2005, includes three important capabilities: (1) a connection device to a wireless local area network; (2) low usage of electricity, enabling users to do more work on a single beat charge; and (3) a high level of security. The Centrino (Centrino 2 in 2008) is making mobile computing the common computing environment.
7. Availability of Internet Access in Automobiles: The number of cars equipped with high-speed Internet access has increased and will continue to grow.
8. Networks: A driving development of mobile computing is the introduction of the third- and fourth-generation wireless environments known as 3G and 4G, and the adoption of Wi-Fi as a wireless local area network (LAN), WiMax and wide area networks.

Applications of M-Commerce:

Top 10 items consumers intend to purchase if they are available for purchase on mobile

1. Tickets for airline
2. Tickets for movies
3. Gifts
4. Books
5. Tickets for live concerts/events
6. Clothing, shoes, accessories
7. Computer software
8. Home appliances
9. Donation 
10. Health and beauty products

M-Commerce Security Issues:

It is useful to consider secure m-Commerce solutions as incorporating the managerial and technological procedures and processes that are applied to mobile commerce to provide the following properties:

1. Confidentiality
2. Authentication
3. Integrity
4. Authorisation
5. Availability
6. Non-repudiation

These six areas form the basis of all secure m-commerce solutions.

1.      Confidentiality states that all information must not be divulged to unauthorised persons, devices or processes. It has two types; forward and backward confidentiality.

2.      Authentication means that each of the communicating partners are able to identify each other. The purpose of authentication is to ensure that each party to a transaction is 100% verified, trusted and is not an impostor.

3.      Integrity maintains the protection of data and makes sure it is not altered, corrupted or changed in any way during transmission by outside unauthorised parties. The successful assurance of in-process integrity during an m-Commerce transaction greatly adds to the overall security.

4.      Authorisation steps to verify that the user is allowed to make purchases must also be facilitated

5.      Availability is where the authorised user has reliable and timely access to personal information so that he/she can adequately perform transactions. Unlike wired services, mobile unavailability of services is a big problem, if not handled properly.

6.      Non-repudiation is basically the assurance that a user cannot deny that they have carried out a transaction. With m-Commerce transactions, a digital signature is commonly used to ensure that down the line a person cannot later deny that they did not carry out a given transaction.

You can take steps on your own to improve security in the new world of m-commerce. Just follow these tips:

1. Use a PIN, password or pattern to lock your phone. (For Android users, the instructions are in your Location & Security settings.)
2. Download apps only from trusted stores.
3. Keep your operating system and apps updated.
4. Log out of sites after you make a payment. Don’t store your ID, username or password on your phone and avoid transactions when you are on public Wi-Fi.
5. Avoid giving out personal information. If you get requests via email or text for account information, contact the business directly to confirm.
6. Install a security app  includes free protection from viruses and malware and warns you before you proceed to risky websites. For an additional fee, you can upgrade to Premium Security, which enables you to remotely locate, lock, alarm or wipe a lost device.
7. When choosing a mobile phone, consider its security features.

8.       Configure the device to be more secure. Many smartphones have a password feature that locks the device until the correct PIN or password is entered.

9.       Configure web accounts to use secure connections. Accounts for certain websites can be configured to use secure, encrypted connections (look for “HTTPS” or “SSL” in account options pages).

10.   Do not follow links sent in suspicious email or text messages. Such links may lead to malicious websites.

11.   Limit exposure of your mobile phone number. Think carefully before posting your mobile phone number to a public website. Attackers can use software to collect mobile phone numbers from the web and then use those numbers to target attacks.

12.   Carefully consider what information you want stored on the device.

13.   Be choosy when selecting and installing apps.

14.   Maintain physical control of the device, especially in public or semi-public places.

15.   Disable interfaces that are not currently in use, such as Bluetooth, infrared, or Wi-Fi. Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in software that use these interfaces.

16.   Set Bluetooth-enabled devices to non-discoverable. When in discoverable mode, your Bluetooth-enabled devices are visible to other nearby devices, which may alert an attacker or infected device to target you.

17.   Avoid joining unknown Wi-Fi networks and using public Wi-Fi hotspots. Attackers can create phony Wi-Fi hotspots designed to attack mobile phones and may patrol public Wi-Fi networks for unsecured devices.

18.   Delete all information stored in a device prior to discarding it. Check the website of the device’s manufacturer for information about securely deleting data. Your mobile phone provider may also have useful information on securely wiping your device.

19.   Be careful when using social networking applications. These apps may reveal more personal information than intended, and to unintended parties. Be especially careful when using services that track your location. 

Mobile ATM: ICICI Bank Case Study

ICICI Bank launches Branch on Wheels in Maharashtra

• First private sector bank to launch Mobile Branch with ATM
• Launched in Kolhapur, Maharashtra by Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr. Prithviraj Chavan and ICICI Bank Executive Director Mr. Rajiv Sabharwal

Kolhapur, Maharashtra: ICICI Bank Limited, India's largest private sector bank, today announced the launch of its "Branch on Wheels" as part of its financial inclusion plan that aims at providing banking services in villages which are so far devoid of banking facilities.

The "Branch on Wheels", the first of its kind initiative by any private sector bank in India, was inaugurated at Kolhapur in Maharashtra by Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharahstra and Mr. Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director of ICICI Bank.

The "Branch on Wheels" is a mobile branch with an ATM that offers basic banking products and services such as savings accounts, loans, cash deposit/withdrawal, account balance enquiry, statement printing and funds transfer/DD/PO collections, among others.

The mobile branch with an ATM will be operated at specific timings of the day in pre- identified, unbanked villages through a van that will be stationed at specified locations. It is equipped with a GPS tracking system, laptops with 3G connections, LED TV, a safe, a printer, public announcement system, an UV Lamp that detects forged cheques, a note counting-cum-authentication machine that identifies fake currency notes and a unique low weight ATM. Two ICICI Bank officials and a guard will manage the mobile branch with ATM. The nearest branch of the Bank will act as the parent branch of the "Branch on Wheels", routing all the cash and transactions for it. The "Branch on Wheels" which has been launched in Kolhapur today, is mapped to the parent branch at Bazar Bhogaon, near Kolhapur. It will cover four unbanked villages namely Borgaon, Waloli, Katebhogaon and Warnul.

Mr. Prithviraj Chavan, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who was the Chief Guest at the launch function said: "It gives me immense pleasure to unveil ICICI Bank's first 'Branch on Wheels' in the country. I am certain that this initiative of launching a mobile branch with an ATM would go a long way to provide basic banking facilities to the unbanked villages in Maharashtra. Financial Inclusion is a key agenda of the government and it is very
encouraging to see that ICICI Bank is playing a strong role in this area. "

Mr. Rajiv Sabharwal, Executive Director of ICICI Bank said,"ICICI as a Group has always recognised the potential of rural India and the importance of inclusive growth. We have always tried to take a holistic approach to provide financial services in rural and remote areas. In line with this approach, we have already launched 308 Gramin branches across the country to provide basic banking services in unbanked villages and plan to scale it up to 500 this fiscal. Today's launch of 'Branch on Wheels' is yet another step of the Bank to expand its reach to the villages which are devoid of banking facilities. "

The Bank, through its network of rural branches and Business Correspondents (BCs), provides banking services across nearly 15,000 villages and has 16 million basic savings accounts at July 31, 2013. Under its financial inclusion plan, the Bank offers end-to-end products to the farm sector like Kisan Credit Cards for working capital, agricultural term loans for financing capital expenses and loans for financing of agricultural produce kept by farmers in warehouses. The Bank has 3382 branches, including more than 660 in rural areas and 11,000 ATMs.

Mobile ATMs: Customers of ICICI Bank can access their bank accounts through mobile ATMs. These ATMs are kept in vans and parked at locations that have a high traffic of bank customers suchas the commercial areas in a city or up-market residential areas ICICI Bank now provides standard ATM facilities through ATM vans. This facility has been tried at Mumbai, Chandigarh and various places in Kerala during specified timings.

Bulk Deposits: The ICICI Bank’s Bulk Deposit ATMs enable customers to deposit large amounts atone time. Unlike conventional ATMs, which are able to accept only 30 notes at a time, these ATM sallow the deposit of huge amounts. The Bulk Deposit ATM is available in Mumbai’s Vashi sector branch office of ICICI. The bulk deposit facility can be availed of by select customers who need to deposit huge amounts of cash. 

1. Prepaid mobile recharge

2. Buying and renewing Internet packs (such as those of TATA Indicom Internet service provider and Sify).

3. Making donations for Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanams, Nathdwara temple and Shri MataVaishnodevi shrine.

4. Mutual fund transactions, and Bill payments

5. Mobile phone as a Virtual Wallet: The mobile phone has been transformed into a virtual wallet, a new innovation in mobile commerce. On September 19, 2005, Airtel, ICICI Bank and VISA announced the launch of mChque, a revolutionary new service, which is a credit card using the mobile phone. This is the first mobile-to-mobile payment option which enables Airtel customers and ICICI Bank Visa cardholders to pay for their purchases with their Airtel Mobile phones. The service has eliminated the need for carrying physical cash for making a purchase and also the problems associated with the point of sale (POS) terminal since the mobile phone services as a secure POS and a payment mechanism.

6. Locating ATM

7. Locating branch

8. Alert facilities like salary credit, account debit/credit, cheque bounce, etc., and

9. Queries on banking, cards and demat account.