Three ways for Sure-Fire E-Commerce Success!

After some browsing about some successful eCommerce webbys, I found 3 similar factors in all of them:

1. Nicely designed, good-looking, awesome, website!

The website is the shop/showroom of every eCommerce site, and its important that it looks and feels good to the user! Although web design is important, whats equally crucial is that the website must be easy to navigate so the user can find what he or she is looking for. In other words, it must be user-friendly! Also be sure to include tons of pictures of the products you're selling, a good rule for that is: "You can never have too many photos" Since the user do not get to see the item in real life, photos, reviews and videos are invaluable to helping the user feel like they have "experienced" the product prior to purchase.


2. A merchant account!

As 99% of internet transaction is done through credit cards, you need to make your website convenient to its user by making sure it is able to accept all major credit cards. You would lose tons of business if payment is inconvenient for the user!


3. A "shopping cart" and a secure server to accept transactions

The shopping cart allows your customers to choose and place their chosen products in the cart just as one would do in shopping mall. This cart will, at the end of the shopping, total the products and give the total cost of the products chosen. Also, you will need a secure way to encrypt the financial information given by your customers so they can feel safe while giving you this sensitive information.

The Risks of Social Media

Social media is the new big thing for this generation. Social networking sites are basically online communities that allow people to keep in close proximity to all their friends. This includes having profiles, blog posts where you can regularly inform your friends of your new happenings. Of course, you can go to your friend's page and get updates from them too!


However, as social networking gained more popularity, it was only a matter of time before it attracted unwanted attention. Social networking sites are now increasingly on the radar of cybercriminals!


These are the risks involved:

1. "Plain old" possibity that your account can be hacked
2. Which leads to -> Data leakage or compromise of privacy
3. As a result, possibility of: identity theft
4. And the threat of malware, spyware and viruses from applications

So, no matter what, I feel you should always take precautions:

1. Be aware of what kind of information you share online
2. Limit excessive sharing of private information (credit card number is usually a bad idea)
3. Be wary of strangers pretending to know you (stating your information that can be found of networking sites to gain trust) and requesting your passwords
4. Scan your computer regularly using a trusted anti-virus software (which is my group's project presentation so listen up!)

Origins to Present: The Amazing Internet

The Internet as we know is now almost 45 years old. Do you realise there was actually a time when the World Wide Web did not exist? Especially for me, that's really hard to imagine in this day and age where I have been so used to techonological conveniences in my everyday life.



Indeed the internet has come a long way from its humble beginnings from 1969. On September 2, two computers at University of California, Los Angeles, exchange meaningless data in first test of Arpanet, an experimental military network. That was the beginning of the internet. It has come a long way, latest statistics in 2008 reports world internet population surpasses 1.5 billion, with 250 million users coming from China alone.

WHO’S BUYING WHAT (January 1999)

MEN

– men mostly buying computers, CDs and videos

– 12.6 million male shoppers research automobiles and buy auto parts

– 9.4 million men buy computers online

WOMEN

– number of women buyers up 80%

– 9.6 million women bought books, CDs and videos

– 6.9 million women buy clothing online

– 6.4 million women buy computers online

This is an interesting video I found that shocked me with statistical figures of internet and techonology today.