Study guide · 5.2
Understand Internet commerce basics
Internet commerce lets people buy goods and services, pay digitally and stream media from almost anywhere. Understanding how payments and in-app purchases work, and their risks, helps you shop safely.
A study feature written by ExamDragon, not part of the real exam. Each heading is one of Certiport's skills for this objective.
5.2.1Describe goods and services
- Goods are physical or digital products you own or receive, such as a book, a phone or a downloaded app.
- Services are work or access provided to you, such as a ride, a repair, a course or cloud storage.
- Many online offers are subscriptions: you pay regularly for continued access.
- Digital goods are delivered instantly; physical goods involve shipping, delivery times and returns.
- Read the description, price, total cost with shipping and taxes, and the return or cancellation policy.
Example: A student buys a printed textbook (a good) and a one-year subscription to an online language course (a service).
5.2.2Explain how digital payments work
- Digital payments include debit and credit cards, digital wallets (such as phone wallets), bank transfers and buy-now-pay-later services.
- When you pay by card online, the details are sent over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection to a payment processor that checks them with your bank.
- Digital wallets often use tokenisation: the merchant receives a substitute number instead of your real card number.
- Contactless payments use NFC when you hold a card or phone near the reader.
- Extra checks such as a one-time code or app approval confirm it is really you.
- Credit cards often give stronger fraud and purchase protection than debit cards or direct transfers; check your provider's terms.
Example: A shopper pays with a phone wallet in a shop; the phone asks for her fingerprint and the shop never sees her actual card number.
5.2.3Describe in-app purchases and their security concerns
- In-app purchases (IAP) are items or upgrades bought inside an app, such as extra levels, coins, ad removal or subscriptions.
- They are usually charged to the payment method linked to the app store account.
- Risks include accidental or repeated purchases, children spending without permission and unclear virtual currency prices.
- Use the device's parental controls or purchase approval, require a password for every purchase and review subscriptions regularly.
- Buy only through the official app store; avoid third-party sites offering cheap in-game currency, which may be scams.
Example: A parent turns on purchase approval so every in-app purchase on a child's tablet must be approved from the parent's phone.
5.2.4Identify examples of media streaming services
- Streaming plays media over the internet without storing the whole file first.
- Examples include video services (Netflix, YouTube), music services (Spotify, Apple Music) and podcast apps.
- Live streaming broadcasts events as they happen; on-demand lets you choose what and when to watch.
- Streaming uses data continuously; higher quality uses more data and needs a faster connection.
- Many services offer offline downloads that stay inside the app while your subscription lasts.
Example: On a limited mobile data plan, a user lowers the video quality setting and downloads episodes over Wi-Fi before a trip.
Key terms
- E-commerce
- Buying and selling goods and services over the internet.
- Digital wallet
- An app that stores payment cards and makes payments from a phone or computer.
- Tokenisation
- Replacing card details with a substitute number during payment.
- In-app purchase
- A purchase made inside an app after it is installed.
- Streaming
- Playing audio or video as it is delivered over the internet.
Easy to confuse
- A free app can still charge money through in-app purchases.
- Downloaded streaming content usually cannot be moved outside the app and expires when the subscription ends.
- HTTPS protects the payment in transit but does not prove the shop is honest.
After this guide: You can distinguish goods from services, explain how digital payments work, manage in-app purchases safely and name streaming services.