Th3 WorLd of E-CoMmerc3

Things to Take Note to Prevent E-auction Fraud When a Consumer Participating in an E-auction

An auction is a market mechanism by which buyers make bids and sellers place offers. Auctions are characterized by the competitive and dynamic nature by which the final price is reached. Electronic auctions (e-auctions), auctions conducted online, have been in existence for several years on local area networks and were started on the Internet in 1995.

Internet auction fraud is a growing epidemic worldwide, as online shopping has grown significantly every year that online shopping has been available. Most internet auction fraud cases involve straightforward scams where consumers allegedly win merchandise by being the highest bidder. All sounds good until they send the payment and never receive the merchandise. Everyone can lower their risk by knowing what auction fraud is, how to detect it, and how to prevent falling for it.

Below are some tips on keeping your risk at a minimum when purchasing items from an online auction website.

Become familiar with the auction website. Look into the websites protection policies. Never assume you are protected from auction fraud.

Before placing a bid, learn as much as you can about the seller. If you can’t find anything out about the seller, than avoid doing business with them. Never fall for promises of better deals by moving away from the original auction website.

If the seller wants you to use an escrow service you’ve never heard of, look into it. Check out the website. Call up customer support. If you can’t confirm the legitimacy, don’t use it.

Never ever give out your social security number, driver’s license number, credit card number, or bank account information until you have thoroughly checked out the seller and the escrow service.

Always save 100% of the transaction information. You’ll be glad you did in the event your case makes it to court.

If after the sale you feel the item/payment should have been delivered already, try to work it out with the seller/buyer.

References:
http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/260/267260/online_appendices/Turban-Appendix2A.pdf

http://www.crimcheck.com/background-check-news/whats-internet-auction-fraud-and-how-do-i-prevent-it

by Wong Leed Chen

Posted on 12:16 PM by 4EvEr and filed under week 6 | 0 Comments »

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

Nowadays, in order to improve the effectiveness of government operate to improve service, Malaysia had implemented the electronic government. The e-government initiative launched the country into the Information Age. E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).

There are 7 main project in MSC:

Project Monitoring System (PMS)
Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
Generic Office Environment (GOE)
Electronic Procurement (EP)
Electronic Services (E-Services)
Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)
E-Syariah

The entire website allow user to download various kind of form for any government department application. The website has dual languages which are Bahasa Malaysia and English. Besides, there are 4 types of E-government services which are Government-to-Citizen (G2C), Government-to-Business (G2B), Government-to-Employee (G2E), and Government-to-Government (G2G).

However, there are some problems faced in e-government implementation:

Language barrier – Although the website provide dual languages, most of the government websites using Bahasa Malaysia. Some other Chinese citizen might not able to understand as well.
Technological barrier - Lack of technical infrastructure and often website down.
Online behaviour - Malaysians remain skeptical on being distrust on electronic transaction especially on online banking buying from an Internet store.
Lack of public awareness - Public are not aware of the services offered especially elder and those who not familiar which computer.

E-Government adoption is affected by website design elements which included sense of perceived risk, feeling of perceived control and prior Internet experience, and also by citizen satisfaction with the quality of its services.

Customer satisfaction: E-Government adoption requires that citizens show higher levels of satisfaction with the online service provided by the government. This will increase the rate of e-Government adoption.

Website Design: Personalization of websites, customization of product offerings, and self-care are the three key features can build relationship with the visitors and enhance their experience.

User Characteristic: User characteristics included perceived risk, perceived control, and internet experience. Experience influences a citizen’s trust of e-Government. Users, who have prior experience and satisfied with the service, will continue use e-Government services. Perceived risk refers to security and privacy issues that could discourage the use of online services. It is important to ensure that citizens can transact online securely and their personal information.

Service Quality: Online service quality for e-Government refers to quality of content provided on the website, the speed of the response to the citizens concerns with problem solving approach, and the availability of names. On the other hand, telephone and fax numbers of personnel must be available all the time. Besides, the integration of an offline channel with online channel so that citizens could interact with government departments through other means if necessary.

The government should be able to propose an effective strategy to encourage citizen’s adoption of e-government by focusing on these 4 areas. This can lead our E-government project to a successful era.

Refrences:
http://e-comm4entrepreneur.blogspot.com/2008/07/e-government-in-malaysia-its.html

http://www.myeg.com.my/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-government

http://www.hasil.org.my/english/eng_index.asp

by Foo Seow Min

Posted on 9:49 AM by 4EvEr and filed under week 6 | 0 Comments »

Corporate Blogging: A New Marketing Communication Tool for Companies

The rules for reaching buyers through online communications have changed dramatically. Most marketers know and use several ways to tell their story on the web, such as email marketing and newsletters, through the media or via a company’s marketing communications website. While these tools are important, now we have another important alternative: the corporate blogging.

Corporate blogging is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goal. Corporate blog has divided into three types and there are internal blogs, external blogs, and CEO blogs.

Corporate blogging is used as the new marketing communication tool for companies because it is a way of promoting about anything whether it may be public relations, marketing a new product, improving brand image and for research.

One of the pros of corporate blogging is posts and comments are easy to reach and follow by employees due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation

threads. Besides that, a search able archive of thoughts and ideas can be created and jotting down within an hour through corporate blogging that cost cheaper than other ways. Lastly, executives can receive the important information from employees and customers’ questions and feedback that will be permanently recorded on the blog and increases the efficiency while decreases the time wasted on needless e-mails.

In conclusion, corporate blogging is getting important for corporation to deliver the message privately or publicly since it has become a new less time consuming and less expensive way to reach potential and current customers.

Refrences:
http://www.internetviz-newsletters.com/bulldog/e_article000404957.cfm

http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/magazine/4/1/corporate-blogs-for-technology-businesses

http://38blog123.blogspot.com/2008/07/corporate-blogging-new-marketing.html

by Lim Hui Min

Posted on 5:44 PM by 4EvEr and filed under week 6 | 0 Comments »

Review a Local E-commerce Site

The local E-commerce Site I want to review is Eko Solution (http://www.eko-solution.com/). It is develop based on Penang (Malaysia) since 2002. It focuses web design services in Penang and northern religions. It is a web design and application specialist.

Eko Solution has provide corporate web design, ecommerce web design, shopping cart, online credit card payment, and web site redesign service.

They have provide several services, include:

Corporate & flash web design
Web site redesign service
ecommerce web site with online payment
ecommerce Shopping Cart system
Content Management System (CMS)
Online Product Catalogue & web site
Member Login, Purchase & Reward Points System
Web Portal (Advertising & Listing subscription)
Special Web site development
PHP scripts & MySQL database
Web hosting service
Domain name registration

The layout of Eko Solution is neat and easy to understand. They are using the bright yellow and white colours in words and use the blue and black colours be the background colour, it is easier to catch the attention of clients. The font also clear and easy to read. They are also easy to one page from one page, so the clients just need to click on the link that they want to, but they do not have the search engine service. The speed that to open the website is fast, clients no need take too long time to wait it download the website.

The layout of the Eko Solution:

Eko Solution has provide shopping cart for the clients and also provide the demo for clients to preview the design.

The shopping cart that they provide:

Eko Solution accpets the online credit card to make the pyament. Clients can accept online credit card via Paypal and receive money at any time into local banks (selected only) and use ATM card as normal to withdraw. The bank does not charge ATM withdrawal fee. Eko Solution has teach clients how to to add VISA Electron debit card into Paypal in order to withdraw money. They also provide tutorial to guide clients through the video step-by-step and through live training via Skype.

Online Payment Page which accepts Credit Card & Paypal

Step-by-step on How to add your VISA Electron debit card into Paypal in order to withdraw money

1. Login paypal, under "My Account", mouseover to "Profile" and select "Add or Edit Credit Card".

2. Enter your card details and click "Add Card" button to confirm.

3. After completing the card registration process, go to "My Account", you can see on the left appear a new link "Link and confirm card". Click on it.

4. Click "Save and continue" button to proceed.

5. Read the instruction. In order to ensure that you are the owner of the card, Paypal will try to charge your debit card USD1.95 (refundable after you verified it) . Click "Continue" to activate the verification process. After the next 2-3 days, check your debit card online e-statement (faster) or your printed statement for the 4-digit secret code in the transaction details.