Problems associated with transfering funds online and safeguards
September 11, 2008
The main issue with transferring funds is the fear of hackers identifying important information regarding your accounts and banking funds.
Another issue is hoax emails- if you receive on of these emails you should send a copy to hoax@cba.com.au and do then delete it without providing any details.
Safe guards you can use to prevent these things happening to you include:
- Protect your password
- Register for NetCode SMS or Token
- Protect your personalised identification questions and answers
- Set daily withdrawal limits that better suit your needs
- Safe computing practices
- Secure your computer
- Email alerts
- Update your mobile number
How to protect yourself from online scams and frauds
September 11, 2008
- Creating a credit card specifically for online shopping as it makes it easier to monitor for fraudulent activity, since the payments aren’t mixed up with daily purchases.
- Setting up a separate e-mail account to register for online shopping sites, and using a different password for that account than your regular e-mail account. As hackers can infiltrate details, like passwords for other accounts.
- Don’t purchase anything on a site that is not safe (Padlock symbol).
Glossary
September 11, 2008
Phising- The practice of luring unsuspecting Internet users to a fake Web site by using authentic-looking email with the real organization’s logo, in an attempt to steal passwords, financial or personal information, or introduce a virus attack.
Fraudulent: Involving, or proceeding from fraud, as actions, methods, or gains: a fraudulent scheme to evade taxes.
Ebay
September 11, 2008
Is an American Internet company that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping websitein which people and businesses buy and sell goods and services worldwide. Ebay also owns also owns PayPal, Skype, StubHub, and other businesses.
Ebay has many categories from which to branch into, some including electronics, art, books etc.
Ebay is a very efficient way of selling and buying products that you want/ need.
Paying methods of online retailers
August 28, 2008
Woolworth’s: Uses a number of different payment methods such as Cash on Delivery (COD) though this costs a service fee up to $17.50. It also accepts credit cards
- VISA
- MasterCard
- AMEX
- Diners Club
Amazon:Uses a range of payment methods such as eftpos, and also can be delivered. You can also purchase an amazon visa card which offers payment deals.
Ebay: Payment methods on ebay include paypal, bidding etc. For larger items, some sellers offer the option of paying for the item when it is picked up in person. You can also have items delivered to your nearest post office. Australia Post will take delivery of your payment and forward the seller the payment by money order. Sellers offering pay on pick up must do so in conjunction with PayPal.
If you are under 18 the barriers for shopping online include;
Advantages and Disadvantages of e-commerce
August 26, 2008
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Instant access to a wide range of information sources around the world | Data overload |
| Comparison shopping is made easier | Can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between advertisements and articles |
| Information can be accessed at any convenient time | Cost of computer purchase and installation |
| Information can be easily stored for future reference | Information is inaccessible to those who are not online or computer literate |
| Businesses can sell to a worldwide market | Distractions caused by on-screen (pop-up) advertisements |
| Can access up-to-date information | Difficult to verify the accuracy and integrity of information |
| Email makes follow-up contact easier | Damage caused by viruses |
| Faster and cheaper than traditional research methods | Websites may not be regularly updated |
| Information can combine text, graphics and pictures | Sometimes there can be too much irrelevant information on a site |
| Can be time wasting, due to inadequate search skills | |
| Not all businesses have a web presence |
The developments of the company amazon.com over the last ten years includes:
- 2001-Honour system and donations: allowed customers to make donations or buy digital content, with Amazon collecting 2.9 percent of the payment plus a flat fee of $0.30 USD.
- 2002-Web services: Provided programmatic access to many features leveraged behind the scenes on its website.
- 2004- created “channels” to benefit certain causes. For example donations set up from 9/11.
- 2005-Prime: Amazon Prime offers customers free 1-day shipping in the UK, Japan and Germany and free 2-day shipping in the United States, for a yearly fee of US$ 79 or £49. The service also offers discounted priority shipping rates.
- Shorts: offers exclusive short form content, including short stories and non-fiction pieces from best-selling authors, avialable for immediate download.
- Mechanical Turk: application programming interface (API) introduced allowing programs to dispatch tasks to human processors.
- 2006- S3: Amazon launched an online storage service called Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). Introduced with unlimited number of data objects.
- Discussion boards: Launched product wikis and discussion forums.
- EC2: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a virtual site farm, allowing users to use the Amazon infrastructure with its high reliability to run diverse applications ranging from running simulations to web hosting.
- 2007-Amapedia: a collaborative wiki for user-generated content to replace ProductWiki was introduced/updated.
- Unbox: Amazon launched an online video on demand service.
- MP3 downloads: launched a new music store (currently in beta) called Amazon MP3, which sells downloadable tracks.
- Vine: which allows top product reviewers free access to pre-release products from vendors participating in the program.
- FPS: launched a payment service specifically targeted at developers.
- Kindle: launched Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader which downloads content over “Whispernet,” a free EV-DO wireless service on the Sprint Nextel network.
- Simple DB: introduced a database system, allowing users of its other infrastructure to utilize a high reliability high performance database system.
- 2008- Amazon mp3: announced they would be rolling out their Amazon MP3 service to their subsidiary websites worldwide throughout the year.
The uses of a kindle is there to let users download books, newspapers and blogs over a wireless connection.
It could revolutionise the book industry beacause it does not require a computer and takes less than a minute for a full-length book. This speeds up the process and makes it more efficient.
E-commerce is especially suited to this product beacuse it has such a diverse range and is very cheap and efficient.
Ease of navigation- Was a bit cluttered and did not have approprate colour shemes but besides that the ease of navigation was substantial.
Layout of the homepage- Was presented well, though could be clearer with better use of colour etc.
Methods of payments- Were excessively filled with detail which made it confusing.
Ease of product selection- Was easy to navigate what you want.
Return and refund policy- Was effective and was an easy and quick process.
Delivery charges and options- Were straightforward and easy to follow.
Advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce
| Disadvantages | Advantages |
| There is no universally accepted standard for quality, security and reliability. | Different levels of product information can be accessed online globally, which makes it easy for customers to compare and evaluate |
| It is unstable, expensive and insufficient in particular areas | Business can provide wide range of choices to extend markets and opportunities. |
| If a business system’s scalability is not sufficient and upgradeable, it will result in degradation, slowdown, and eventually loss of customers. | Helps organizations decrease costs in creating, processing, distributing, storing and retrieving information. |
| Lack of trust. | Extended trading hours: 24 hours a day 7 days a week. |
| Danger of hackers. | Wider range of choices-providing better comparison shopping. |
| Cannot fell and touch e.g. furniture | Search for shops or perform other transactions anytime in almost any location. |
| Misleading colours etc. | Cheaper goods and services. |
| Purchasing at home rather than by traveling around. |
Mukti Business: B2B and B2C
August 24, 2008
Mukti Botanicals is a privately owned manufacturing, wholesale and direct sales business. This means that it functions as a B2B (business to business) business by selling items directly to pharmacies, health food stores, beauty therapists etc.
It functions as a B2C (business to consumer) business as it also sells items direct to consumers.
The important factors that need to be considered when seeting up an e-comerce site:
What product and services to be sold online: Not all products or services are suited to being sold online. Examples of products sold online are books and cd’s.
Are there any business partners to consider? Before making these products or services available online, consider that once online, anyone, anywhere can see and purchase them.
What price to charge and what pricing model? Should the pricing/fees be the same as that charged to face-to-face customers? Determine how much to charge for freight and handling for the various quantities that can be purchased online.
How to present your products and services? What will be the means by which users see and select products and services?
How are the products or services to be delivered? Directly online, by post, courier, or collected in peson by the purchaser.
Payment method and timing: Do you want to be paid by credit card, cheque, money-order, cash? What are your limits and retrictions?
Security and reliability: What level of security of your e-commerce solution is required or appropriate?
Fulfilment: What is the availability of the goods and services for sale? You might fall into the situation of requiring instantaneous payment but then cannot supply the goods.
Inventory/catalogue: You may need to have a direct link between the website and the catalogue systems on your office computers.
Maintaining the e-commerce solution: How often will you need to add, delete or update the details of products and services on the website – eg prices, availability? You will need to balance the need for efficiency and ease of updating with the cost of the proposed maintenance solution.
Managing risk: Providing an e-commerce solution carries with it some risks.
