UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies.

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:12:00 +0800

The Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It will improve how the government operates internally, as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. At the same time, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.
(Source: http://www.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm)
So far, the implementation of Malaysia E-Government project in progress is:
1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

To fully utilize the e-government applications, a guideline should be provided to the nation on how to use the electronic services provided. The system should always be updated to ensure a more secure and efficient services provided. The core government applications should also be improved and integrating more e-services across agencies.
In order to make the right decisions and avoid falling behind, government will need to identify and resolve the different issues that have arise from the transitional period during which traditional and e-government co-exist.

Review On A Local E-Commerce Site

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:51:00 +0800

Flowers-for-you is registered as Flowerz Dot Biz to the Companies Commision of Malaysia. It is an online Flower Delivery Shop in Malaysia and strives to provide high quality service of direct flowers order processing at a reasonable cost and a 100% satisfaction guaranteed goal for every order made.

In my opinion, the designs and layout of Flowers-for-you are quite beautiful and attracting. Moreover, this website is user friendly as it has FAQ(frequently asked questions) section that answers the customers about the problems relating to placing an order and delivery guidelines.

However, there are few areas that I think Flowers-for-you should improve. First of all, in order to view the graphics and catalogs, this website requires customers to install “Microsoft Silverlight” software. This might troublesome customers to spend their precious time to install the software. Besides, although customers have installed the software, there are still some runtime errors occurred when they want to view the
Silverlight Catalog. More to the point, the design of “Wedding Package Samples” is interesting but it takes time to download the photos. In the "Wedding Package Samples", customers have to flip the pages to view each photo. This may cause customers to feel tired and bored if they flip too many times.

Due to the above reasons, a normal customer may ignore to place an order with Flowers-for-you. Therefore, Flowers-for-you has to improve or even eliminate those frustrating problems to make its business more successful.

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction.

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:57:00 +0800

An e-auction is an electronic “reverse” auction where suppliers use internet-based software to bid against each other online and in real time against a published specification. Industry experts predict a veritable explosion of e-auction fraud cases as the number of e-auction participants continues to increase. Online auction fraud is already the most frequently reported form of Internet fraud. Types of e-auction fraud consist of bid shielding, shilling, fake photos and misleading descriptions, improper grading techniques, selling reproductions and so on.

In order to prevent e-auction fraud, e-auction participants can choose to participate in a voluntarily identity verification process. This is because the e-auction sites have had problems finding a practical way to verify the personal identification information of their users. eBay uses the services of Equifax to verify user identities for a $5 fee. Verified eBay User, a voluntary program, encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification. By offering their Social Security number, driver’s license number, and date of birth, users can qualify for the highest level of verification on eBay.

Besides that, e-auction participants can elect to use an escrow service, typically paying up to 5% of the total transaction value. The escrow fees are based on the amount of the transaction and the method of payment. A neutral third party holds the buyer’s funds until the purchased item arrives and is found to be what was bid for, arriving in the condition described in the auction. For items valued at more than $200 or when either a buyer or seller feels the need for additional security, eBay recommends escrow services.

Furthermore, e-auction participants can also go for purchasing insurance for certain auction transactions. eBay offers insurance underwritten by Lloyd’s of London. Users can cover up to $200, with a $25 deductible under “Fraud Protection Program”. The program is provided at no cost to eBay users.

Others than that, e-auction participants can also decide on having some offered items authenticated as a result of the e-auction sites view the transactions on their sites as private and do not vet the offerings or descriptions themselves. The seller nominally pays for the authentication, but the payment is typically reflected in an increase in the winning bid, due to the additional security. eBay has begun to provide third parties to authenticate certain offered items, at the option and expense of the sellers.

E-auction participants can also opt for educating themselves about their auction counterparts, with varying degrees of reliability, by accessing the e-auction sites’ feedback forums. The e-auction sites solicit feedback from their users, in the hopes of turning their customers into equivalent of their police force. The eBay Feedback Forum allows registered buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations. It provides users with the ability to comment on their experiences with other individuals.

Review on post: “UK to get tough with illegal downloader

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:41:00 +0800

(review source: http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Legal)

New law to ban illegal downloader by way of cutting off their internet connection is now being proposed by UK government. Among the contents of the new proposed law are
“ISP who failed to enforce the rules could be prosecuted and details of customers suspected in illegal downloading can be made available to the courts”.

However, this new proposed law seems insufficient and even not really workable. Following are several reasons that show why illegal downloader will not face a UK ban:
1. This proposal was just a draft consultation green paper which could be defined as “a proposal without any commitment to action”. The government receives many of these on a daily basis and they are just treated them like junk mail.

2. This proposal is totally and completely unworkable in the real world. For ISPs, banning customers and exposing themselves to billions in liability is not a good business strategy. As such, ISPs will not accept liability for the contents of packets, and it would be definitely impossible for them to open and check if every single download and upload was legal without the entire internet grinding to halt.

3. It would be impossible to tell the different between illegal downloading and legal activities, for instance, downloading software patches, using torrents to share stuff legally, playing online video games, using VoIP, photo sharing, telecommuting, and many others.

4. This idea goes against the ruling of the European Court which states that European member states are not obligated to disclose personal information about suspected file shares. It would also in contradiction with Article 10 of the European freedom of expression law which gives every European the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

5. WIFI piggybacking and encrypted packets make it impossible to tell who is downloading what in the first place. These techniques are only getting more sophisticated, while for the most part, the content industries collectively remain as dumb as a box of hair.

Corporate Blogging: A New Marketing Communication Tool for Companies

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:29:00 +0800

Blogging is not restricted to only individuals or personals, an organization may as well create its own corporate weblog. The corporate weblog will be used by the organization to reach its organizational goals. According to NewPR Wiki, there are 136 organizations having their own corporate blogs (updated until February 4, 2008). They are some of the huge successful organizations such as Dell, Coca-cola, Google, Yahoo, HP and many more.

Basically, corporate blogging can be categorized as either internal or external. The internal blog is generally accessed through the organization’s intranet. So only the people working within the organization (e.g. employees, managers) can access to the internal blog. This encourages employee participation, free discussion of issues, collective intelligence, direct communication between various layers of an organization and developing a sense of community.

The external blog will be the publicly available weblog where employees, teams or spokesperson can share their views. It is also used to announce new products, explain and clarify policies, react to public criticism on certain issues, as well as being an informal press release of the organization’s ongoing activities. Besides, external blog is useful as it can have diverse audiences besides the above such as customers, product evangelists or influencers providing valuable feedback on customer services, exclusive previews, product testing and marketing plans for further organization improvement.

The application of pre-paid cash card for customer

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:14:00 +0800

Pre-paid cash cards is one of the electronic cash cards which is getting popular nowadays. It is quite similar with debit cards because they both use existing money, rather than borrowing and both of them draw funds from your bank account, usually a checking account. Meanwhile, pre-paid cash card always need a personal identification number to be keyed in for the transaction to be authorized. As such, unless you tell someone about your personal identification number, no one else can ever use your card. On the other words, if it is being stolen by others, we do not need to worry about losing of our money.

Since pre-paid cash cards are considered as the most secure and safe financial transaction cards, it is being widely used by the consumers. Consumers normally use it to make an-online purchases. Once the goods or services offered by a seller through a website are selected, the identification code would be provided to the seller who will then transmits it for verification. If the identification code is associated with the valid and active account as well as sufficient cash balance inside the account, an approval code is sent to the seller and the purchase price of the selective goods or services is debited from the cash balance of the account. In India, more and more people are now using pre-paid cash cards such as Itzcash cards, Done cards and Icash cards to book online train tickets against the earlier days when primarily credit and debit cards were used.

Pre-paid cash cards are also particularly useful for consumers who are doing shopping at the mall or running errand out-station. Consumers generally use pre-paid cash cards like a portable access point to their checking account. They used their card at automated teller machines (ATM) to withdraw funds in cash, deposit funds and even make an inquiry regarding their checking account. This helps consumers from overspending and overdrawing their account.

Post Review: Using Touch n Go card to buy fast food in Malaysia will be a reality

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:09:00 +0800

(review source: http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing)

Touch ‘n Go now with your favorite fast-food!

Most of us have already recognized and familiar with Touch ’n Go, a pre-paid cash card which is used generally for public transport, toll and parking fees. Now, we should start learn more about this card as it is also a food cash card!
This is great news for fast-food lovers as well as cardholders as it now enables consumers to purchase fast-food using the card at 21 fast-food chains such as Burger King, 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, A&W, Carrefour hypermarket, Caltex convenience store and Cineleisure.

It is time to change using Touch ’n Go now rather than searching and counting coins as payment for your donuts. This card will do the math for you! So all we have to do is bring the card, go to the outlets that are equipped with Touch ’n Go readers for the payment purposes, order your favorite fast-food set sit down and enjoy it. No extra charge will be liable as what you order is what you pay.

Not only that, we can enjoy privileges and lots of freebies if we pay with Touch ’n Go card in those participating outlet. So I would not hesitate to choose Touch ’n Go to pay for my lunch from now on and I would surely recommend this Touch ’n Go card is a must own for everyone.

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Preventions

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:54:00 +0800

Credit card is the most widely used “currency” in the world and they are accepted almost everywhere nowadays. This small plastic card works superbly in e-commerce as a secured payment medium and it is convenient as well as easy to use. However, they can lead to a tragic and stressful ending if you misuse them.

One of the reasons families accumulating lots of credit card debt is poor money management. This is because they do not have a proper monthly spending budget or spending without ever knowing is it really necessary. By the end of the day, they probably find themselves trapped as they need to pay the snowballing interest debt. As credit can be so easily obtainable nowadays, people often place their reliance on the credit card and starts to spend more than they could earned. For instance, if one saw things that he wanted so much but cannot afford with his income, he may rely on the credit card. If this happens repeatedly and when the time comes to paying the debt back, it is your debt and your responsibility.

Another reason for credit card debts is unexpected unemployment. It can happen when the main breadwinner for the house loses job unexpectedly but yet, monthly household expenses are still needed to be incurred. As a result of zero income, families are forced to use credit card for groceries, utilities and others.

E-commerce can contribute to credit card debts as most of the web merchant will recommend to pay via credit card since it would be a more secured payment. For example, although there will rebates if you buy online for Dell computer, but a computer might cost you over thousands on a credit card debt immediately. Huge medical expenses can also contribute to credit card debt as most of the time we are required to pay first for the medical treatment. If one neither has cash in hand nor enough savings in the bank, hence credit card would be the solution to pay for such expenses.

However, there are ways to prevent our lives being surrounded by debts. Wisely use the plastic card for cash advance feature or as a payment medium in case of emergencies but not to take advantage of the credit feature. It is also encouraged to stop using credit card to make every payment as the first step to clear ourselves out of debt.

Besides that, credit card debts can be minimized if we make payments of the credit card bill on time every month If possible, we are also encouraged to pay more than the minimum required so we are not bound to pay more for the interest. Moreover, debts wouldn’t have gone skyrocketing if we control ourselves from the seduction of credit card. As a way to get ride of it, make planning for our money and save more. This can make our life easier and stress free from debts.

Electronic currency

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:34:00 +0800

Electronic currency, also known as electronic money, digital money, digital cash or digital currency; refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. This involves the use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic currency. It is also a collective term for financial cryptography and technologies that enabling it.
To date, the use of digital cash has been at a relatively low-scale. One rare success has been Hong Kong's Octopus card system, which started as a transit payment system and has grown into a widely used electronic cash system. Singapore also has an electronic money implementation for its public transportation system (commuter trains, bus, etc), which is very similar to Hong Kong's Octopus card and based on the same type of card (FeliCa). A very successful implementation of electronic currency can be found in Netherlands, known as Chipknip. (source: Wikipedia)

An example of electronic currency in Malaysia will be MEPS cash. MEPS Cash is an e-Purse application and is a convenient method for routine daily purchases. It is one of the multiple applications contained in Bankcard; allowing Bankcard cardholders to load electronic monetary value into the chip. MEPS Cash serves as a convenient payment method for transactions, eliminating the inconvenience of carrying large volume of cash as well as the hassle in handling coins. The transactions operate off-line, which allow a much speedier transactions.

Click here to get to know how shop with MEPS Cash.

Mobile Payment System in Malaysia: Its Potential and Customers' Adoption Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:46:00 +0800

Mobile payment referred to mobile web payment or WAP billing. It is the collection of money from a consumer via mobile devices such as mobile phone, SmartPhone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc. It has been widely adopted by a wide range of leading companies, such as World Wrestling Entertainment, PayPal, Google Checkout and etc. However, in Malaysia, there are not much companies adopt mobile payment systems. CIMB, Maxis, and Neowave are the Malaysian companies which currently introduce mobile payment systems to its customers.

Mobile payment systems address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It unlocks the power of the mobile phone to make payments, allowing registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN via SMS. This gives the freedom to shoppers to buy products and pay the merchant using their mobile phone without being physically present at the store. Furthermore, when it comes to online selling, selecting a payment gateway is one of the major obstacles faced by the merchants in Malaysia. There are too few choices available, worse, none of these limited choices are cost effective. This problem has been addressed by mobile payment system, since it allows merchants to take online order without the need for online shopper to disclose their credit card information. As a result, it will encourage more consumers to shop online and this will definitely be a great boon to the e-commerce industry in Malaysia.

Mobile payment systems provide a safe and secure condition for customers as well as merchants. With mobile payment, customers do not have to be concern of cash, cheque or credit card handling problems or fraud. The mobile payment system conforms to the stringent requirements set by Bank Negara Malaysia and the participating banks. In addition, mobile payment offers super fast settlement in T+2 Days. As compared to other payment systems, mobile payment system guarantees that the transactions are settled in 2 working days. Normal credit card or cheque will require at leat 3-4 days for clearance. As for Internet payment gateway, it normally takes between 2 to 4 weeks or more.

In conclusion, mobile payment systems in Malaysia have offered a great deal of promotions to encourage customers or merchants to adopt the newly introduced payment system. It is inevitable that mobile phone will become a payment tool. Mobile payment enables the mobile phone to function like a credit card and allows users to pay from wherever they may be.

How to Safeguard Our Personal and Financial Data

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:46:00 +0800

With just a few clicks on the mouse, E-Commerce allows us to shop online at over thousands of online stores, more options together with detailed description of the product. We can buy almost anything he wants such as books, airline tickets and many more. This is a fun, practical and economic way to shop but sometimes, things may go wrong shopping online. For example, e-mail address being sold to third parties and personal or financial information being stolen. Thus, in order to shop safely and wisely online, we should take the following sensible precautions.

We should always use a true credit card rather than a debit card, check card, or an ATM card to pay for the purchase. This is because if something goes wrong such as someone has used the credit card without authorization, we are protected under federal law for a limited charge to $50. Debit and ATM cards are not protected by the federal law to the extent that credit cards are.

Nowadays, most E-Commerce websites would require us to log-in before placing an order. Keep the log-in password private and never reveal it to anyone. Besides that, we should not use commonly known information such as our social security number, birthdate as a security question in case of forgotten password. This may prevent someone log-in to our account and perform unwanted transaction.

It is encouraged to shop online at secure websites as they use encryption technology to transfer information from our computer to the online merchant’s computer. This technology provides more secure of our personal and financial data such as credit card number for the reason that it scrambles the information in order to prevent hackers from obtaining it. Only authorities with legitimate access privileges have the ability to unscramble the code.

It is a must procedure to provide certain information such as name and address to the web merchant when placing an order. But sometimes, they may ask further information such as occupation, annual income, and leisure lifestyle. This kind of information is used to target us for marketing purposes which can lead to spam, direct mail and telephone solicitations. Therefore, disclose only the bare facts when ordering or leave the site if it insisted for such information.

Additionally, we should never give out our social security number to the web merchant. This is definitely neither a requirement for placing an order at an E-Commerce website nor they have the need and rights to ask for it. By doing so, we can prevent our identities being stolen by imposters. For instance, imposters may use victims’ social security number to apply for new credit cards.

Threat of online security-How safe is our data?

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:07:00 +0800

Threat to online security has become a problem in today’s online businesses, especially e-commerce. Data sent over the internet will be open to potential threats if measurable safety is not taken.
Among the major threats include:-

Trojans and system monitors- Once inside a computer, Trojans will open a communications port and report back to a computer through the Internet. The Trojan itself may include keylogger, or might be use to download a keylogger program. This system monitors will track everything that the computer’s owner does, include collecting passwords, credit card numbers and other sensitive data. The information is then stored in a file where it can be retrieved from the internet. To protect our computer, we will just need to install a firewall and antivirus program. Both of theses programs will keep the Trojans from entering into our computers illegally.

Spyware- A spyware is a program that runs in the background on a user computer without the user even knowing it is there. These types of threats generally collect data from the infected machine and through that machines internet connection, the data collected will be transmit to a third party. Such threats can be installed from visited websites and in many cases is bundled with software and is installed without the end users knowledge during the software's install process. We can install anti-spyware program which can detected all the spywares inside our computer and then deleted them.

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:56:00 +0800

The growth in e-commerce brings with an increase in the variety of fraudulent web activities conducted by the unscrupulous. 3rd party certification is a way of providing assurance to both business and consumer where the assurance is actually achieved by displaying an independent organization’s trust mark or seal on an approved participant’s web site. Nevertheless, trust marks can only be considered reliable if the party providing the assurance employs globally accepted criteria and standards in its website evaluation process.

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates is one of the 3rd party certification programmes which being applied in Malaysia. SSL secures website by encrypting information and providing authentication which allowing customers to connect over a secure HTTPS connection. It provides businesses and consumers with the confidence that private data sent to a website, such as credit card numbers, are kept confidential. In Malaysia, SSL is widely being applied in businesses which have an online store or accept online orders and credits cards; have to process sensitive data such as address, birth date, license, or ID numbers; and need to comply with privacy and security requirements. Mphonline.com is VeriSign SSL certified where there is a logo being attached on the website.

Another 3rd party certification programme being applied in Malaysia is Trust-E Web Privacy Seal. It merely serve for the purpose of building confidence with consumers and driving revenue of the business by letting customers know that they can trust about the business with their personal information. In protecting privacy of jobseeker on posting online resumes, Jobstreet.com has the Trust-E seal which guarantees privacy and confidentiality for registered resumes. As such, the jobseeker has the final say on who to send the resume to or who shall have access to its contents.

Review on Post: "Growing threat from mobile malware"

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:39:00 +0800

(review source: http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet%20Security)

Mobile malware is indeed a threat for mobile users, even though the malware is not so threatening compare to computer malware. The mobile malwares “are around 20 years behind those plaguing PCs now, according to a security company chief” (CNET News.com, September 2007).

The history of mobile malware generally started from June 2004 with the release of Cabir. Since that time, the rate of growth has consistently sent the message that mobile malware is emerging as a legitimate threat. To date, most of the malware targeting mobile devices has been proof of concept code written to call attention to potential threats. However, there are a few examples of code written to cause serious damage, stealing of data, eavesdrop on conversations, and incurring additional charges on customer accounts.
In September 2007, McAfee's Avert Labs released a whitepaper discussing the ways hackers might attack Windows Mobile-based smartphones. The greatest threats lie in 7 areas:
-Text messages
-Contacts
-Video
-Phone transcriptions
-Call records
-Documentation
-Buffer overflows
For more information, go to

http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS4876519484.html

Most analysts predict that the growing power, functionality, and popularity of smartphones may make mobile platforms an irresistible target for malware authors by the end of 2007. The increasing threat will need to be solved even though it is still not so threatening. But in a few years, mobile malware may evolve, and may turn into like those affecting computers. The wireless industry can begin defending against mobile threats now by creating resilient infrastructures which are content aware, educating users, and implementing technical safeguards on mobile devices.

Phishing - Examples and Its Prevention Methods

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:49:00 +0800

Phishing is one of the most damaging online security threats. It is an email fraud method in which the fraudster sends out legitimate-looking email in an attempt to extract confidential information such usernames, passwords and credit card details from recipients. Typically, the messages appear to come from well known and trustworthy websites, eg: PayPal, eBay, MSN, Yahoo, BestBuy and America Online.

Phishers use a number of different social engineering and email spoofing ploys to try to trick their victims. There is a case where a 17-year-old male sent out messages purporting to be from America Online that said there had been a billing problem with recipients’ AOL accounts. The fraudster’s email used AOL logos and contained legitimate links. If recipients clicked on the “AOL Billing Center” link, they were taken to a spoofed AOL webpage that asked for personal information, including credit card numbers, personal identification numbers, social security numbers, banking numbers, and passwords. This information was used for identify theft.

Another example of phishing email is as follow:

There are several technical or non-technical ways to prevent phishing attacks. Firstly, educate users to understand how phishing attacks work and be alert when phishing-alike emails are received. Secondly, use legal methods to punish phishing attackers. Thirdly, use technical methods to stop phishing attackers. These may include detect and block the phishing website in time, enhance the security of the websites, and block the phishing emails by various spam filters.

Revenue Model for GOOGLE, AMAZON.COM & EBAY

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:14:00 +0800

Revenue model is a description of how the company or an e-commerce project will earn revenue. Basically, revenue of a company can be generated through sales, transaction fees, subscription fees, advertising fees, affiliate fees, and other revenue sources.

Google Inc.’s revenue for the year ended 31 December, 2007 was US$ 16,593,986,000. This included advertising revenue for Google websites (approximately US$ 10,624,700,000 or 64%) and Google Network websites (approximately US$ 5,787,900,000 or 35%). Another 1% of the revenue model was from licensing and other revenue (approximately US$ 181,400,000).

Links: Google's Annual Report 2007

As for Amazon.Com, the revenue models are primarily generated from sales. For the year ended 31 December 2007, the total net sales were US$ 14,835,000,000. This sales amount could be classified into two geographical areas which are North America and International. The net sales for North America were US$ 8,095,000,000 whereas the net sales for International were US$ 6,740,000,000. Now, Amazon.Com also takes the opportunities of using advertising fees as a passive income for advertisers to promote their advertisements to earn extra income.

Links: Amazon's Annual Report 2007

On the other hand, the total net revenue for eBay Inc. for the year ended 31 December, 2007 was US$ 5,969,741,000. The revenue of eBay Inc. mainly generated through transaction fees. The total net transaction revenue was recorded as US$ 5,797,920,000 or in other words, the transaction revenue was 97.1% of the total net revenue. The total net transaction revenue could be further breakdown into Marketplaces net transaction revenue (US$ 4,203,340,000 or 70.4%), Payments net transaction revenue (US$ 1,401,824,000 or 23.5%) and Communications net transaction revenue (US$ 192,756,000 or 3.2%). The other portions of the total net revenue were advertising and other net revenue, which stated as US$ 171,821,000 or 2.9%.

Links: eBay's Annual Report 2007

In summary, Google Inc. earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, web-based email, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing as well as selling advertising-free version of the same technologies. Its principal products and services include Google AdWords and Google AdSense. In contrast, Amazon.Com started as an online bookstore, but soon diversified to product lines of VHS, DVD, music CDs, MP3 format, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, etc. Its primary products include A9.com, Alexa Internet, and IMDb. On the contrary, eBay Inc. earning revenue through online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. Its major products and services include online auction hosting, electronic commerce, shopping mall, PayPal, Skype, Gumtree, and Kijiji.

How E-Commerce can reduce cycle time, improve employees’ empowerment and facilitate customer support?

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:03:00 +0800

Cycle time is the amount of time between a customer placing order and receiving the goods. With an online store website, customers can enjoy the benefit to do all the business transaction, including making payment one-off through this website. It helps customers particularly business people to save a lot of precious time, especially in term of queue time. Dell is one of the examples which delivered business to customer through E-Commerce helps in reducing customer cycle times for ordering approval and payment.

Others than that, E-Commerce can also improve employees’ empowerment. Central database is a tool being used by E-Commerce online store website in managing their business within the organization. With central database, employees in different department can easily access to any information needed regarding to the products, customers or even business transactions instantaneously. It granted power to employees in dealing with the process of capturing, researching and leveraging the business information.

Besides that, E-Commerce can also facilitate customer support by providing a wide range of technological solutions and communication opportunities. E-Commerce creates an easier means for customers to purchases goods and services and offers a unique way to display and describe about the products in an informative, visual and interactive way through an online store website. As such, customers will be able to have direct access to products information, new products updates, promotions, product discounts and much more information by just visiting the online store website day or night whenever they like as the E-Commerce opens for business 24 hours. In addition, some of the online store website provides customer support chat tool enabling seller make friendly and personable contact with visitor comes to their retail website. It can be indirectly improve customer satisfaction and even visitor loyalty.

An example of an E-Commerce failure and its causes

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:58:00 +0800

MCI’s short lived 1-800-Music Now for example, is a music store that permits both telephone and online ordering of music CD’s. The telephone service is a toll-free service where users can hear the free samples of the music first and then make selection whether to purchase the music to an operator. On the other hand, the online order will be without human assistance. The business was introduced as one of the first ever serious attempts at an e-commerce music store. The money-losing ventures started in 1995 and cost MCI about $40 million investment in the project. Only one year after it was launched, it has already cost a total lost close to $50 million on that project and finally shut down in December 1996. The failure of MCI’s investment in the e-commerce business, 1-800-Music Now was recognized in the press to a variety of factors. This includes:

1) Weaknesses in music industry in that year, leading to deep discounting by retailers.
2) Many called the toll-free service just to listen for free music sampling, and finally not signing up to make any purchases.
3) Compared to the traditional ways of purchasing music CD’s in the music store, the price were higher due to expensive advertisement to be played on MTV.
4) At those times, online ordering was not sufficiently popular among peoples, the site were seemed not easy to use compared to ordering through traditional stores.
5) Managers of the Internet group for MCI responsible for the project was not dedicated and reported they were just hanging around while stock was sinking into a deep discount.

An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:46:00 +0800

E-commerce success can be seen in Amazon.com, Inc, one of the first major companies to sell goods through the internet. Amazon.com is an online book retailer, which later also involve in selling other products, such as DVDs, electronics, toys, games, home improvement items, software and video games. The success of Amazon.com is due to three strategies that have been used, including cost-leadership, customer differentiation and focus strategies (Saunders, 2001, pp.122-123).

Amazon.com used the cost-leadership strategy by differentiating itself primarily on the basis of price. It offers a considerably lower price with the same quality products when compared to other companies. Their second strategy is customer differentiation. Amazon.com provides current and prospective customers with differentiation of design, quality and convenience.Amazon.com always selects a differentiator that is different among the competitor and this enable their consumers to recognize and differentiate its product from other competitors. The third strategy, focus strategy, takes one of the two earlier strategies and applies it to a small area of trade within a market. Amazon.com focuses on outstanding customer service as a portion but not the whole market as each portion of the market has its own demand and requirement.

With these three strategies, Amazon.com is able to stand as one of the pioneer in e-commerce.

The History and Evolution of E-commerce

noreply@blogger.com (UBAI3013 E-COMMERCE) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:36:00 +0800

What is e-commerce? E-commerce (Electronic Commerce) can be defined as buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The meaning of e-commerce has changed over the last 30 years. In the late 1970s, e-commerce facilitated commercial transactions by using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), to allow businesses to send commercial documents electronically (eg: purchase orders, invoices).

In the 1980s, the growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines and telephone banking were also forms of e-commerce. Since 1990, e-commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing. In year 1992, CompuServe offers online retail products to its customers. This gives people the first chance to buy things off their computer. In year 1994, Netscape arrived and released the Navigator browser under the code name Mozilla. Netscape providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). Since Netscape released, the first online bank opened, Pizza Hut offered pizza ordering on its Webpage and it attempts to offer flower delivery and magazine subscriptions online.

In year 1995, two of the biggest names in e-commerce are launched. They are Amazon.com by Jeff Bezos and eBay by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb. Besides that, the first commercial-free 24 hour, internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and NetRadio started broadcasting. Dell and Cisco began to aggressively use Internet for commercial transactions. From year 1998 onwards, electronic postal stamps can be purchased and downloaded for printing from the Web. According to Business.com, in year 1999, retail spending over the Internet reaches $20 billion. In addition, the peer-to-peer file-sharing software Napster was launched too. Furthermore, the dot-com bust in year 2000. Meanwhile, the U.S. government extended the moratorium on Internet taxes until at least 2005. In year 2003, Amazon.com had its first year with a full year of profit.