M-Commerce and Social Media: The New Frontier

Mobile Commerce: Security Threats PART I

2013-02-21T08:24:00.000-08:00

After my last blog I started to brainstorm about the level and what type of security risks M-Commerce and Social Commerce need to mitigate or assure.

Given the rise of sales in Smartphones and Tablets and the immense volume of downloadable applications and increasing volume of apps being developed, (personal) data and the protection of it will be key for any business to succeed.

In this blog I will provide a bit more background on the type of security issues M-Commerce & M-Users are exposed.
Furthermore I will try to provide some information on who are what creates those threats and what the key drivers are. To finalize a current overview of the business practices and which security gaps need to be closed fast.

"We saw mobile malware grow from zero to 350,000 in three years, while in the PC world, it took 14 years to reach that number," Trend Micro CTO Raimund Genes.

The current situation, signaled by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) this month and echoed by leading mobile security providers like Metaforic and Infosecurity, creates a catastrophic risk to individuals, businesses and governments

The FTC & leading industry security providers base their outcry on two missing key components:
- Lack of standards and wide variety of development practices
- Low awareness of security risks by consumers

"FTC officials are likening the current state of the country’s mobile security practices to the “wild, wild west,” suggesting that many companies operating in the mobile space have little to no concern for mobile security" source John Torney

According to new research (Nov. 2012 by Bit9) one-quarter of more than 400.000 Android Apps examined in the Google's Play store pose security risks to mobile-device users.

Bit9 notes this doesn't means these apps are Malware, but they could do damage if compromised because the user granted (so much) permission. These are POTENTIAL threats!!
Bit9 categorized these "questionable" and "suspicious" Android Apps in Google Play as follows:

42% access GPS location data (incl. wallpapers, games & utilities)
31% access phone calls or phone numbers
26% access personal data (contacts + emails)
9% use permissions that can cost the user money

Bit9 defined risk level according to relative degrees of privacy intrusion and the App's feature set (f.i. ability to wipe devices or change system settings)

More interesting are the findings of a survey of 138 IT professionals responsible for the mobile security of over 400.000 users (employees) in their organizations.

78% don't believe mobile manufactures focus enough on security
71% allow employee owned devices to access their organizations network
93% allow Apple's IOS to access their organizations network
77% allow Android devices to access their organizations network
96% allowing personal devices also allow employees to access email using the device
85% allow personal devices to access the company calendar data

In 2013 people will purchase more than 1,2 billion mobile devices. Mobile platforms will continue to expand at rocket speed, as people are forecast to download over 70 billion mobile apps by 2014

Some recent examples of corporate data breaches

Jan. 21. Human Resources and Skills Canada bans use of portable data devices following a data breach affecting 583,000 persons. The breach resulted from a hard drive discovered missing since November 2012. The disk contained names, birth dates, addresses, social insurance numbers and student loan balances for persons with loans through the Canada Student Loan Program from 2000 to 2006.
Jan 23. Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., and the Stanford University School of Medicine reveal they're notifying about 57,000 patients about a data breach that occurred Jan. 9. The breach happened when a password-protected laptop was stolen from a physician's car.
Jan 24. Jeffrey Ness, one of 5000 people affected by unauthorized access to motor vehicle records by a Minnesota state employee, files lawsuit in federal district court alleging violation of data privacy laws.
Jan. 24. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe is fined $395,000 by the UK's Information Commissioners Office for a data breach in April 2011 that compromised information -- including credit card numbers -- for millions of customers

2013 Likelihood of Encountering a Threat

The Global Likelihood that a new user encountered a mobile threat from June '12 till October '12 was 0,84%

The statistic seems relatively small, however the volume of current mobile device users, but keep in mind that every threat is driven by financial, political and/or publicity motivations

Most people including myself think of cyber crime as so fat hacker trying to steal money from you. Truth is that any kind of Malware developed is designed to directly obtain your personal data and to distribute it for financial, political or publicity gain.
Political gain probably will raise an eyebrow with a lot of people since in the Western world this is somewhat outdated (except for Richard Nixon in the 70's). During the last Russian General Elections various cyber attacks aimed at opposition parties did take its tolls with servers being offline at times it needed to be online, effectively depriving parties to broadcast and interact with the public.

2013 Predictions

Toll Fraud Takes the Cake in 2013

Toll fraud will continue to dominate the 2013 mobile threat space, despite forward momentum on the platform to block these types of attacks. This is due to the following:

Systems Architecture: Premium SMS protections are only baked into the latest versions of Android (4.2 / Jelly Bean); the first devices are just now shipping with this firmware version, and will not significantly penetrate the market until late 2013.

Ease of Attack: Toll fraud will remain the easiest path to financial gain for malware authors within the base of mobile consumers. It does not require significant technical sophistication and provides considerable "easy money" that is built into most mobile networks via pre-existing billing channels. A 2012 example, FakeInst, pretended to act as an installer for legitimate popular apps such as the Opera Browser (hence the names ‘OpFake’ and ‘Fakebrows’) or WhatsApp Messenger.

Spam Heats Up on Mobile

SMS-based spam will increase in its volume across mobile networks in 2013. A surge in the number of malicious applications, toll fraud-based and otherwise, such as ConnectSMS, actively collecting contact information from infected devices.

Mobile Banking/Payments Top of Mind But Have Little Payoff

Mobile banking has become mainstream, and mobile bank fraud has continued to remain an issue, predominately for European users. The majority of mobile banking threats begin with PC-based malware and include a malicious mobile app that intercepts verification codes, known as mTANs, sent to customers’ devices via SMS. Standalone mobile banking fraud without a PC component is not yet prevalent. Mobile payments are still in their early stages;

Mobile Becomes Hotspot for Targeted Political Surveillance

In 2012, FinSpy provided the first evidence that mobile surveillanceware is actively being used to monitor political targets. Marketed to law enforcement personnel, FinSpy software was discovered targeting human rights activists in Bahrain. We expect to find more politically motivated targeted surveillanceware emerge in 2013.

Businesses Challenged with Employee Empowerment vs. Control

Finding the right balance between protection and employee empowerment will be the challenge of 2013. Over the past few years, there has been a surge in the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon. Employees often use consumer cloud services to store / transfer sensitive corporate information, broadening the target, often accessing these at work, or Bring Your Own Network (BYON). As corporate IT administrators seek to gain control over mobile devices, there is potential that by over-correcting for the problem, employees will seek new ways to subvert processes and policies that constrain the pure consumer experience.

Mobile App & Browser – Constant Threat Vectors

Mobile applications will remain the central collection point for our personal data – from location information, messaging, calendars to social circles. They will also remain the most straightforward channel for privacy attacks that seek to collect that data. The mobile browser will continue to be the largest remote attack surface on mobile devices. Attacks of this type provide a vector for intruders to attempt to break in, independent of creating a trojanized mobile application, making it a target for a broad-based attack.

Privacy Crackdowns Happen Across the Board

Mobile privacy will be a major issue in 2013, as long as applications continue to access personal or device-specific information without gaining proper informed consent. There will be continued pressure on app developers in the form of government action, industry self-regulation and consumer pressure. The State of California has started to crackdown on apps and developers that do not provide sufficient mobile privacy policies.

The 2013 outlook presents a complex challenge as supply and demand both from business and mobile device users is increasing, so is the availability and implementation of new technologies and innovations.

The thin line between data security and data breach is only a push of a button away....

This is the end of part I of this blog! Thank you for reading! In my next blog I will go further into Toll Fraud and other security threats to our mobile devices and mobile businesses!

Want to know a bit more? Download Verizon's Data Breach Verification Report by pushing the button

M-Commerce & Social Commerce: The New Frontier?

2013-02-17T13:41:00.001-08:00

In my last blog I went into the Rise of M-Commerce and the huge potential it has. To support my believe, the below graphs support it and detail it!

Click to Continue!

The above makes me think and ask myself the following questions:

I. What is the best device user group to target?

Will PC/MAC suffer the same faith as the CD?

Who uses which device?

What content do Mobile Device Owners browse?

II. How does social media link into it?
How does Marketing have to adapt?

III. How does Social Commerce distinguish itself from B2C?

"Social Commerce provides social context to the shopping experience. It is not B2C"

"The use of Social Technologies to connect, listen, understand and engage to improve the shopping experience"

Both quotes I found in a little presentation by the Altimeter Group which you download here

Have all my questions been answered? Yes it has put my focus and understanding in place, having said so I did stumble on "the annual survey of changing B-2-B buyer behaviour" which provides some very interesting data! Interested? Download below

DOWNLOAD SURVEY HERE

The last two blogs have been very much data and research driven! It almost feels to me like building a business case! I will try in the future to combine my own experiences with the data available!

Keep on reading! I really appreciate it!

The Rise of M-Commerce

2013-02-13T08:31:00.001-08:00

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! I really appreciate your interest and hope some of you will suggest a few things!
Since I started using Twitter (@Nessinuet) about a week ago I have discovered a new world, full of information and to be honest; too much to keep up with. It is turning out to be unexpected well of information!
After the Twitter week my focus is pretty much narrowing on the basics!

The first question I ask myself is the following:
What type of (niche) product will my business be offering? After I have determined that, the procurement side will have to developed, after that the below chart will serve as Blue Print

The rest of the blog, just warn you will be more of a statistical nature! Keep reading it won't be boring :)

TIME FOR SOME SOCIO-ECONOMICAL DATA!!!

It is estimated that by 2015 E-commerce will reach $1,5T in revenue globally (as graph below)

The business expected growth for the US alone is 8,5%

A good example of the increase in ecommerce businesses is the impact it has on the conventional Retail Sales (as in below graph) Interesting statistic is that Scandinavia saw an increase of conventional Retail sales whilst traditionally Scandinavia is a pioneer in the field!

MCOMMERCE: THE INEVITABLE WAY TO GO

MCommerce also know as Mobile Commerce basically means making your business & advertising available to potential customers. Below stats show an interesting graphs to support my own view that mobile technologies(not only for ecommerce) are the future

The entry of the IPhone & Smartphone lead to a surge in "Mobile Internet Use" with an increasing volume of consumers expecting business to tailor to their demands as the graph on the left demonstrates.

Browsing via Mobile Devices has increased significantly on a monthly basis, online retailers have benefited from this new technology. Times are changing though with Customer Experience and Social Media signalling a need for most businesses to embrace "Social Business" and value "Social Authority" I urge you to read both Dion Hinchcliffe and Matt Peter's articles.

Another interesting M-Market fact that surprised me is that MCommerce is pretty much embedded in Asia since the change of the century, whilst in the US it has not yet kicked off. Especially South-Korea and Japan are the pioneering "MMarkets"

The volume of payments via Mobile
Services indicate the rest of the world is slowly embracing it and will become
more developed "MMarkets"

After having been on Twitter for one week I have become convinced that e-commerce is developing more into MCommerce operating within Social Commerce. Trend, Momentum, Social Appeal, Tailored Customer Experience will be the future.

That means for me that after I have found my little Niche Product I will have to offer more then a platform (website/store) to (potential) customers with product alone. I will have to offer an experience including a solid social footprint.

But the biggest lesson of the week I found in a blog written by Billy Murphy called "Entrepreneurial Diworsification". A straight to the point blog with some great advice. Please take some time to read it!

That is it for this week. My frequency of blogging might be somewhat irregular (weekly or bi-weekly) but don't let that discourage you!

The basics require more then just ideas!

2013-02-01T13:26:00.000-08:00

It has been some time since my last post due to the fact that I have become a father, our daughter has priority over a blog that I like writing, as I am sure you can understand

Having said so in my last blog I referred to SEO which I have went into but have to read and try again before I can say or summarize anything useful about it.

Going over the ecommercefuel blog a couple of times, playing with Google Keyword & Google Analytics, reading various different articles and blogs I have learned a few things but more importantly it has made me think and guess what! I am going to share those thoughts.

I have become pretty much convinced that starting your own internet based business requires a bit more thinking, planning, execution and determination than your average in the street store. Why is that?

First of all you need to find a product that you are willing to sell that carries enough revenue potential and has a relatively high yield.
Secondly once you found your product you need to have a web domain which is uniquely registered to your business ensuring you do not use an already registered domain name. For this you will have to go via ICANN as this is (as far as I have been able to determine) and internationally recognized organization.

After the above you have to start generating traffic to your website, targeted marketing campaigns just to get noticed, you haven't sold anything just yet.
Once you got those basics started you will still need to be able to attract customers and increase your customer base. I think the way forward is to offer various products for specific target groups using various types of social media. That part is still under construction in my head. I did read an excellent article that provides a "behind the screens" view of ecommerce (in this case somebody trying to buy a webstore).

Last week I bumped into an old acquaintance who is a CEO for a SME production company, we started talking and touched on the subject I am currently investigating and trying to get my head around. His company is active in a dying market, revenue numbers are dropping (globally) for the last 10 years. He employs over 500 people and his main worry is that sooner or later he has to lay off parts of his staff.

We surfed to his website and to demonstrate my case I went to Google Keyword + Google PageRank and entered a few criteria. What we both discovered that we ended up in an internet arctic land. Very low statistics for his company and his competitors (A Brands globally known) both domestic and international. Basically nobody knows about it or nobody has an interest in it. Probably a bit of both.
That could be the niche I am looking for. Some of you will be saying: Leave it! It is dying! Probably true, but it doesn't mean you can't make money out it :) Remember the introduction of the quartz powered digital watches in the 80's? Back then everybody was convinced convention watches would be extinct in a few years...

After showing him an article arguing the "Next Big Thing" aka Social Commerce we suddenly found ourselves talking about strategy, targeted markets etc etc.
We agreed on the fact that niche + internet arctic land + SOE + marketing campaigns + social commerce could actually very well work for the products we have in mind. Remember the best products are prices between $100 - $ 200 with good margins. I will keep you posted on this one!

In the mean time my small little bulk purchases have arrived from China, so it is time to start testing the market again and see if I can make those products work for me

I will hopefully be able to blog a bit more frequently!

Thanks for taking the time to read me and please use the voting buttons!

Things to do and a look into the future (WTF!)

2013-01-17T14:58:00.000-08:00

I wrote this blog whilst in the background "Inner-City Big Fun 1988" playing, I suggest you read it whilst enjoy some 25 year old dance hit and follow up with some nice "90's hip hop":.

My first lessons learned, now it is time to start organizing my thoughts on things I discovered. I can tell you that in my head things are chaotic, unorganized, not structured, basically the same as the Mayor Of London, Mr Boris Johnson's hair style.

First things first; I have to start somewhere and most likely with the basics:

- establish my own company whether I want to start as a Sole Trader or Ltd. is something I have to discuss with a Tax Attorney or somebody who is experienced and is willing to provide guidance

- become not only familiar but really understand the working of Data Statistics (Google Keyword, Adsense, SEO etc etc), traffic generation and use it to my advantage

- find a niche product

Once I have a clear understanding of those I can start applying it too my own business

I have started to go over "The Beginners Guide to SOE" if you are interested download it at no cost at all.

After having spend quite a bit of time on really getting to obtain a sense of direction I can say that slowly but surely I am starting to grasp some of the before mystifying, last but not least due to ecommercefuel.com whose website has provided me with a sense of direction, which a lot of beginners like my self obviously lack. Please download the free guide if you want to know what I am talking about!

Having spend a bit of time reading it I have a theory or maybe even a philosophy on the creating, building and expanding any ecommerce store (front). I am a buyer on some of these sites, since my wife got pregnant we discovered that buying online was much cheaper then the conventional store, so we placed a few orders:
- Baby pram
- Baby room
- tons of other stuff.

I will share you our customer experience:
- Tons of other stuff: Delivered on time and in full within lead time
- Baby Pram: after having placed the order (and paid $1000) on October 29th we received the order confirmation, followed by 3 weeks radio silence. We contacted the store who informed us that the color we ordered was not in stock we could choose some other color. We didn't agree to that and inquired about the lead time for that pram. Well it was only 8 weeks.. So we demanded a refund. Two weeks later, after threatening to fail a complaint for fraud, we finally received our money back. No excuses, nothing from the Seller..
- Baby Room: Ordered on December 28th (holiday season we realized). We place the order and paid in full. We immediately received a phone call that the order would be delayed for one week, if that was ok, if not refund. We agreed to the week notice as it is makes sense. We are still waiting for it to arrive and my patience is running low. Credit to the store, they do inform us, however the expected delivery date is expected (not confirmed) the first week of February... problem, our child is due then. Refund is an option but who tells me other stores can deliver in before the 24th of January...

Conclusion:
- Apparently both sides are drop shippers and the kind that does not have an interface to the suppliers inventory.
- "Keeping your customer happy" is not in their interest, not fulfilling your delivery promise is one thing, but not reimbursing, whilst customers have to threaten with Police intervention is next to Criminal!

Now my little theory comes to light:
If I run an internet store (or drop shipper) what would I at all cost need to retain:
a. Spotless reputation
b. 100% Customer Orientated
c. Provide Quality Products in my store
d. Keep my "inventory" up-to-date
e. Create a 100% delivery promise (On Time in Full), if not see point b, see point c, see point d
f. 100% Happy RETURNING Customer

*The above does not include the relationship you have to build with your various suppliers in order to commit to the above

If I take into account the developing Mobile Technologies, Social Networking, Global Mass (product) Sourcing, Fast changing global Trends; I have come to the belief that in the current ecommerce landscape everything is about offering competitive pricing combined with an INDIVIDUAL customer approach. Additionally as a business you need to retain the flexibility to adapt too dynamic trends in consumer trends.
Since you normally are not limited by geographical location (the conventional store is) the possibilities and opportunities are endless, but it is not just coming your way, as a business it is my belief you need to keep up to date with the latest technological developments and apply those to keep your customers happy.

A good example is how to generate a customer base is Andrew Youderian;s free Ecommerce book. Today I received an email from him where he offers to take things to the next level, offering a 4 month course to make sure you realize and establish a working and successful ecommerce store at a modest cost of $49,99 and it comes with a 30 day money back "no questions asked"...

Do I mind paying that? No absolutely not! Why not? Well he provided the introduction for free (c.Quality Product) and it was extremely useful to me (b. 100% Customer Orientation). So I am a happy customer and eager to learn more (f. 100% Happy RETURNING CUSTOMER) and if I am not satisfied I get my money back without questions asked (e Create a 100% delivery promise). I take his business serious and it has delivered (a. Spotless Reputation)
Is the above rocket science?? No not really! A lot of sites offer these types of services, but charge a fee (although nominal) which stops people like me from even trying it, since I only was orientating myself. That makes me realize that if you want to lure your customers you need to provide something that keeps them coming

This was it for today, I hope you enjoyed the music provided in the hyperlinks :)

Thank you for reading the blog! Add this blog to your favorites, subscribe and please people COMMENT with any feedback!

Till next time

First Lessons Learned Part II

2013-01-16T14:41:00.001-08:00

Hoping you enjoyed my blog yesterday as it was one of an informative nature. Last night I continued to fiddle and play with some of the new "Gadgets" (SEO/Ad Sense/Key Word etc) and dammit it becomes interesting ! Ha! Did you know in 2012 the most popular Search Term in Poland (by men) was for "Hair Grow Products"? Did you? Be honesty you didn't know that! Neither did I.

The next step is to find out what websites are available in that area for your selected region and before you know it you start to be better informed. Additionally Google PageRank Checker is a pretty convenient tool to discover the strength of a website, in terms of traffic etc (honestly I don't know what to add now as I am sometimes still confused.) the lower the ranking is (9 being highest and 0 being lowest) the more chance there is that you stumbled on a niche, or a product that really reaches a small audience. That is something I'll need to balance; my enthusiasm and the story the data tells.

Anyways as usual I get my hands on something and in general there always seems to be a catch 22 or something that frustrates me. In general they all have one thing in common; THEY CENTER AROUND REGISTRATION! After having to contact the customer services of Ebay.com, Paypal, Allegro, PayU regarding activation of my accounts or addenda I requested it all got sorted quickly and without causing me to explode, which is credit to them. Last night I got so happy about this blog I decided to buy a domain name for my blog at a minor cost of $10,00 for 1 year. Sounds good? Bet ye arse it does! I only had to activate my Google Wallet; after signing in with my mail account only had to add my Credit Card details, browsed through the menu - GOD Google provides on occasion a proper customer experience- selected my domain name (.com) and proceeded through the check out. What da Fook!??? Is see my details appear for about 1 sec, followed by a white screen.. After refreshing the browser (Chrome) and re-entering the entire cycle over I became disillusioned and wrote an email to Google's CS. I am still waiting for a response. Not what I expected by I am learning every day! It is probably not the best commercial for Google, but Paypallseems to have a smoother running show, having said so Google seems to put its money on the future; mobile wallets, a good business choice. In the main time I am still without my domain name

Additionally I noticed that the internet has created some professions with rather sexy job titles:
- Profit Engineer
- Social Media Mercenary
- Virtual Assistants
I probably will bump into more creatively chosen job descriptions but it remains interesting to see that part of traditional job titles being revamped, reinvented or those jobs are actually a result of evolution!

My parting shot today is called "HOW TO GET THE WRONG KIND OF ATTENTION ON EBAY" At first I did not notice it :)

Keep on reading me and keep on subscribing (nobody has I believe, but you can always be the first one)

First Leassons Learned!

2013-01-15T12:35:00.002-08:00

I have been of the blogger for a short time, not because I was fed up with it all, nope, just because the research I was involved in took a lot of time. Searching and browsing takes more time than reading a book I found out but I did progress in trying to understand what E-commerce is all about.

As I blogged before I listed my first item on ebay.com an occasion to celebrate? No don't be silly, millions do it everyday! It had it listed for a term of 7 days and chose to spend some advertising money on it (about $2). After days of carefully monitoring my object I only acquired 9 views and nobody even took the bother of "watching" it (option in ebay). What a disappointment! Then again a reality check is never a bad thing.
I asked myself a few questions:
- Is my product to expensive?
- Is my product visible enough?
- Is my product to expensive?
- Are my shipping terms a problem?
- Is my product attractive enough for anybody?

Well all the above caused me to start searching Google like an idiot for people or companies with similar problems. After some frustrating searches and some surprising results I learned there is such a profession as profit engineer. Very interesting but not what I was looking for. My jackpot came when I stumbled upon E-commerce Fuel. This was exactly what I was hoping to find! I suddenly realized that Andrew Youderian has basically written a blog about his life and route to building a successful e-commerce business. He even went as far to publish an e-book you can download for free. A bit sceptical I downloaded it and it took me by surprise. A nicely written and summarized guide. A lot of stuff in there that I never even heard was brought to my attention. Ever hear of the following:
- Measuring Online Demand
- SEO
- Match Types
- Page Ranking

This is just a quick summary of all the things that Andrew Youderian has been so kind to share, but it has been educational and really opens up a window of opportunity once I fully understand the working and linkage of it all.

Anyways back to my attempts "to make money out of the internet by the bootstraps"! Well what have a learned when I project it to my one product online: It is was to highly priced, the product has no name reputation and it will never have, it was not visible enough. So I relisted it again against a lower price, more visible but it still doesn't change the fact that it is simply not popular enough. So Andrew is right; find a niche with a product that sells to a target audience

That is where i am going to spend some time on now!

Update you soon!

Any questions or remarks let me know!

Keep on reading subscribe to me!

The Plot Thickens... Every action triggers crucial questions

2013-01-10T13:53:00.001-08:00

For those of you who read this for the first time; I am an internet dinosaur now trying to establish if I will be able to sell something on the internet via any auction site. I will never post any direct links to my auctions in this blog as it is not meant to make me money but to share a bit of insight. If you find that valuable that is the biggest pay off for me!

Yesterday my accounts on both ebay.com and the local website got activated. On both sites I listed some items to see what happens. What has happened? Nothing really, watching paint dry is more exciting than my first steps as an internet seller... Hold don't stop reading I haven't finished.

What I noticed is that most sites will offer you, against a modest fee, enhancements that will make your auction item easier noticed by the shopping crowd. Of course I refuse to pay anything additional and try it the gold old fashioned way, by the Bootstraps (yes my new motto in life)

The interesting thing I realized is that for the first time in my life I approach a product from a Sales point of view (for all you adult website maniacs yes you can abbreviate it too: POV) and not from a consumer point of view. If I project my listings in current shopping mall, I have my little shop with hundreds of people passing by, some of them taking a peek, most of them not interested as they are looking for a different product. Why look at the cigar store if you are looking for a smoked salmon.
Mmm it has made me realize that visibility and targeting is probably the most important thing to get a consumer's attention, nothing new but again; Selling presents a different perspective than buying and I am just realizing that NOW! God it feels good to be alive!

The question I ask myself is how do I get people to notice my products, buy them and return in the future.
If I look at the products I have on listing; an old watch, slightly overpriced if I am honest. Two new leather bags.
The used old watch will sooner or later be sold if I only drop the price, which I could do but that would ruin my experiment
The two leather bags are on offer for 14 days at "buy-it-now" rates and will most likely sell.

What do I have to offer to a potential buyer?
The only thing I can offer them is real quality against a, I think, fair price. I will respond to all their queries and ship according to the terms and notify them accordingly.
Now that I am reading the above, it makes me realize I have nothing "special" going for my little venture! Just a sound correct business moral

What does my potential buyer see?

My entire history on the auction site (which is rated by the entities you do business with) is not even above 10, so no detailed feedback available for any potential customer only that all is a "100% positive" and that I am only recently active and only accept Paypal or PayU. I am prepared to return default product etc. Again sound correct business moral

Secondly I have no special focus market or some product or segment I am concentrating on. Anything will do at this stage. As I wrote earlier in one of my blog, given the size of the internet and the availability of product that will be a challenge to master it all.

What impression does my venture make on possible first time buyer?

New guy, not much product, no specialization, small fish. All of it is true, still no reason not buy the watch or a bag for yourself! Hence granting me my first sale! :)

Last and not least I have to come to an early conclusion that my enthusiasm itself is not enough, I have to really think, come up with a plan or goal. After that I will have to make decisions into what direction I will steer my interests.

Thanks for taking the time to read today's contribution, if you are really interested how it all will develop subscribe to my blog or "Google plus" it :)

Till the next blog!

Activating an account to Sell online.. it took more than I'd expected

2013-01-09T13:48:00.001-08:00

In my previous blog I vented my frustration regarding Ebay.com's activation of a sellers account.
Well I have to be honest 24hrs can, and in this case, makes a difference.

I contacted the CS of Ebay.com via the chat window and within 4 minutes the issues was solved.
The Customer Service rep simply transferred my profile from the US (.com) to the country I reside (.x)
My listing etc was swiftly executed after that.
The problem itself; listing as a non US based resident on Ebay.com will probably cause a few new subscribers a bit of good old fashion tantrums, all in the game I suppose. Still better to register on the local domains of ebay (co.uk/.de etc) to avoid all that

Something that surprised me but made sense is that before you activate your account a cross boarder agreement (relating to Tax/Excise and Customs Duty) will be presented to confirm and agree too, if you decline I have no clue what happens!

A couple of things you should be spending a bit of time on when selling or buying at sites like Ebay.com:
- Go over the commission Ebay charges you for selling
- Shipping conditions and other charges might and in most cases will impact significantly
- Ebay.com will present you with the accepted payment conditions and which services you prepared to accept. Be secure in how you handle your cashflow! Protect your data and identity, Paypal is the most widely accepted.

If you purchase from outside the EU, be sure you check your local Customs Website whether or not excise or import charges will be levered by Local Customs. The same goes for a sold good; for instance in California a Sales Tax is being levied which you should make clear to your buyer that he/she is responsible for that one.
I also checked the option of becoming a Sole Trader with local Tax Services, more as a future option then something permanent.

Next time hopefully a less boring and less logical post

Enthusiastic and starting

2013-01-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

In my last post I just provided an introduction as to what drove me to the internet. Just to put things into perspective; I started using ebay.com and others on the 16th of December 2012.. so not even a month ago.

My enthusiasm is slowly becoming obsessive; after buying and receiving my Manga stuff in good order. I decided to leave positive feedback with the seller. I saw a little tab that would direct me to his online shop and decided to have a look. Maybe a good deal on paper or colored pens. Much to my surprise the seller was offering Electronics, Baby Clothes, Phones and huge volumes bulk goods. Not really the specialized Manga store I'd hope for.

The next week I spend the nights after my wife is asleep browsing sites, trying to get a grip or handle what is available out there. One hint to you: Everything is available! From Lear Jets to little plastic soldiers you can find anything...

And that is exactly the point; buying something is relatively easy if you are looking for something specific and you know what you want in term of quality and price.

I decided to sell an watch I bought 6 years ago in a shop. I went into my account clicked the Sell button, created a complete profile of the product including pictures and description.
Since it is my first offering Ebay informs about the terms ect ect. Shipping conditions are causing me a headache, but ok, selling one article cant bankrupt you but you can't ignore it either, neither it turns out can you ignore the fact that you have to activate your sales account on ebay.com....

That is where my enthusiasm turned into sheer frustration! As it turns out, if you register on ebay.com you have to provide a Proof of Identity (POI) if you are not a US Citizen or based in the US I was told. Ok no problem; the customer service was professional and swift, provided me with a... FAX number!? What the F! a Fax??? Oh most be a mistake, so I requested an email address so I could scan all over to Ebay. This is apparently not possible. So I tried Paypal, which needs to be activated as well. I will receive a code on my bankstatement within 48 hrs... nice but I am still waiting for that one.

So I am still enthusiastic but that verification process if you want to sell something is needed from a business perspective, but I can drive you up the wall. I tried online fax services like Pamfax all of those failed to deliver my faxes.
Anyways currently I am researching a bundle of options and opportunities and will update you in my next blog!

Leave some comments or tips if you read this!

Introduction

2013-01-08T14:10:00.001-08:00

Just in case you stumble on this blog and you think I am the new Internet guru; Let me manage your expectations: I am not an Internet Guru with all the answers. The opposite!
After having worked for Forbes 500 companies for more then a decade in various management and consultancy roles in Credit (Finance) and Offer-to-Cash for manufacturing and oil companies I received an offer from a world famous or notorious bank ("The Bank" as they call themselves) to become a Associate Director. After two weeks into the job a strategic change within the organizations' management model was executed not much later I found myself without a job, 3 months salary in my bank account.
For the first time in my life it dawned to me that I had achieved all goals I set in early 2000 when, being a high school drop out, I emigrated to Ireland to get a chance to work in office environment (about $15K gross a year) whilst 13 yrs later I was managing a business over 200 people and earning over $100K a year excluding bonuses in Eastern Europe. Achievement had made me lazy, spoiled and started to impact on my private life.
After being put on "Garden Leave" the first 3 to 4 weeks I was angry, feeling sorry for myself and deeply worried about the fact that by Feb. 2013 we are welcoming our first child, with money running till April 2013 it is by far the most ideal scenario.
On the other hand I have a lot of spare time on my hands and decided to take up an old hobby: Manga Drawing. Only problem was that the specific pens and pencils are for sale at ridiculously high prices in local stores. I decided to register with a local auction website and try my luck. Much to my surprise it did save me 35% on the pens alone, specific paper and books saved me even more.
The world had opened and I am seeing potential, enthusiastic as I am I went searching and comparing prices etc etc.

It has triggered something in! I feel alive, enthusiastic, eager and above all I can control my own direction

Next Blog will follow soon