The general procedure of online transaction negotiation includes four links: inquiry, quotation and acceptance. The most obvious difference between electronic contracts and traditional paper contracts is that the contract must be digitally signed and certified by a third-party authoritative certification agency before the signing function can be realized.
1. Inquiry
Inquiry, also known as price inquiry, refers to the expression of one party to the transaction asking the other party about the relevant transaction conditions of the purchase or sale of a certain commodity to invite the other party to make an offer. Its content may involve price, specifications, quality, quantity, packaging, delivery period, and requesting samples, product catalogs, etc. In actual business, inquiries mostly ask about prices, so inquiries are usually called price inquiries. Inquiries can be made by any party who wants to trade, and their form can be oral or written. The purpose of inquiry is to test the other party’s sincerity in the transaction and understand its opinions on the transaction conditions, and sometimes it can be the starting point of a transaction. However, it has no legal binding force on both buyers and sellers, is not a necessary link in transaction negotiation, and has no fixed format.
2. Offer
An offer is also called a quotation. It refers to the act of one party proposing various transaction conditions for the purchase or sale of goods to the other party and expressing its willingness to reach an agreement with the other party and enter into a contract based on these conditions. In business, an offer is usually issued by one party after receiving an inquiry from the other party, but it can also be issued directly without the other party’s inquiry.
3. Counteroffer
A counteroffer is also called a counteroffer. It is an expression that the offeree does not fully agree with the content of the offer and proposes to modify or change it. The form of a counteroffer can be different. Some explicitly use the word “counteroffer”, while others do not. The content indicates that the modification of the content of the offer constitutes a counteroffer. It should be noted that a counteroffer is a rejection of the offer. Once a counteroffer is made, the original offer becomes invalid and the offeror is no longer bound by the original offer.
A counteroffer is equivalent to a new offer made by the offeree to the original offeror. After the counteroffer is made, the party making the counteroffer becomes the offeror.
To make a counter-offer to a counter-offer is to make a counter-offer to a new offer. In actual business, there can be multiple counter-offers in the negotiation of a transaction, that is, repeated bargaining until the final agreement on the transaction conditions is reached and the transaction is concluded. If the transaction conditions cannot be agreed upon during the bargaining, and either party has no intention to continue the negotiation, the negotiation will terminate and the transaction will not be concluded.
4. Acceptance
Acceptance means that after receiving the offer or counter-offer from the other party, the offeree unconditionally and completely agrees to the content of the offer within the validity period, is willing to reach a transaction with the other party, and promptly expresses it by statement or behavior. This is called commitment in law.