8 Tips for Growing an Online Business(2)
- Posted by dongyang in Trade knowledge
- 2008, January 3rd
Tag : business, E-Commerce, trade
Step 5: Establish an expert reputation for yourself to drive even more traffic to your site.
People use the internet to find information. If you provide valuable information for other sites to use--and include a link back to your site--you’ll get more traffic and better search engine rankings. Some ideas for establishing yourself as an expert include:
Give away free content, like articles, videos or other useful information, and distribute that content through online article directories and social media sites.
Include “send to a friend” links on your site's valuable content.
Become an active expert in industry forums and social networking sites where your target market hangs out.
If you use these tactics, you’ll reach new readers. But even better, every site that posts your content will link back to yours, and search engines love links from relevant sites and will reward you in the rankings accordingly.
Step 6: Use the power of e-mail marketing to keep in touch with your visitors and turn them into buyers.
When you build an opt-in list, you’re creating one of the most valuable assets your online business can have--permission to send visitors e-mail. Why is e-mail marketing so valuable?
You're giving potential customers something they've asked for.
You're developing lifetime relationships with people in your target market.
The response is 100 percent measurable.
It's cheaper and more effective than print, TV or radio advertising because it's highly targeted.
It can be almost entirely automated.
Anyone who visits your site and opts in to your list is a very hot lead. And there's no better tool than e-mail to let you effortlessly follow up with those leads.
Step 7: Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling.
One of the most important internet marketing guidelines is to develop every customer’s lifetime value. At least 36 percent of people who have purchased from you once will buy from you again if you follow up with them. Closing the first sale with a customer is by far your most difficult task--not to mention your most expensive one. So here's how to get them to buy again:
Offer products that complement their original purchase.
Send out electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem on their next visit.
Offer related products on your "thank you" page.
If you reward customers for being loyal, they'll become even more loyal to you in return.
Step 8: Start an affiliate program to maximize your sales and revenue.
Once your business is up and running, it's time to launch your affiliate program. Affiliates are people who promote your products on their sites for a cut of the selling price. Every time they send you a buyer, you pay them a commission.
An affiliate program is a simple, low-maintenance way to grow your business. Once you get your program set up, all you have to do is share your marketing materials with your affiliates and send out checks when they make sales.
By doing this, you don't have to go out and spend money on advertising--your affiliates do the advertising for you. Better yet, you only pay them when they make a sale.
The internet changes quickly, but the principles of how to start and grow a successful online business have changed very slowly in the more than 10 years I’ve been in the business.
If you’re just starting out, stick to the sequence of steps in this quick guide. If you’ve been online awhile, do a quick review and see if there’s a step you’ve been neglecting or never got around to doing in the first place. You can’t go wrong with the basics.
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8 Tips for Growing an Online Business(1)
- Posted by dongyang in Trade knowledge
- 2007, December 25th
Tag : business, E-Commerce, trade
Don't know how to start and grow an online business? Here are 8 tips that can help attract visitors to your site and guarantee your success
Step 1: Find a need and fill it.
Most marketers make the mistake of finding a product before they have a market. But unless people are actively searching for your product online, you'll never make a sale. The trick is to find a group of people with a common problem they're trying to solve and then solve it.
Thankfully, the internet makes market research easy. Here are some easy steps for researching your market:
Visit online forums to see what questions people ask and what problems they’re trying to solve.
Figure out which keywords a lot of people are searching but not many sites are competing for.
Check out your potential competitors by visiting their sites and taking note of what they’re doing to fill demand.
After you've done this, use what you’ve learned to create a product for a market that already exists--and do it better than your competitors.
Step 2: Write sales copy that sells.
On a website, your copy has to do the selling for you. There’s a proven formula for writing sales copy that'll take visitors through the selling process from the moment they arrive:
Arouse interest with a compelling headline.
Describe the problem your product can solve.
Show them why you can be trusted to solve the problem.
Add testimonials from people who've used the product.
Talk about the product and how it benefits the user.
Make an offer or a guarantee.
Create urgency.
Ask for the sale.
Throughout your sales copy, focus on how your product or service is uniquely able solve people's problems or make their lives better. Think like a customer and ask, what's in it for me?
Step 3: Design and build your website.
Once you’ve got your market and product and you’ve nailed down your selling process, you’re ready to build your site.
Remember to keep it simple. Your website is your online storefront, so be sure to make it customer friendly. You have less than 10 seconds to grab a visitor's attention before they're gone. Some important tips to keep in mind:
Use a plain, sans-serif font, like Arial, on a white background.
Make your navigation clear and simple and keep it consistent throughout your site.
Only use graphics, audio or video if they enhance your message.
Include an opt-in offer so you can collect e-mail addresses.
Step 4: Use search engines to drive targeted buyers to your site.
How do you get traffic to a brand-new site? Pay-per-click advertising, which has two advantages:
The ads show up on search pages immediately.
They allow you to test different keywords, headlines, prices and selling approaches.
Not only do you get traffic immediately, but once you've figured out what keywords are working best, you can use them throughout your copy and code, which will help your rankings in organic search results.
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How E-Business Can Benefit You
- Posted by Jessica in Trade knowledge
- 2007, December 25th
Tag : B2B, E-Commerce, trade
You wont realize the power of the Internet until you experience the power of doing business online. This is called e-business and opens up the world to the product or service that you sell. You dont even need a building or staff to operate an e-business. You can operate out of a bedroom or a room in your basement. In fact, you dont even need any inventory to have your own business making money for you every hour on the clock.
The Internet lets you bring your expertise in any area to the attention of the world. If you are a writer trying to get published, why not write an ebook about any topic and then set up a website selling that ebook. You only need to have a contract with a company that will accept credit cards for you and submit payments to you on the sale of your ebook on a monthly basis. The only cost to you is to pay for the web hosting and the premium to the payment company each month. PayPal and CCNOW are two such companies that will handle all your transactions on a secure server and let you know when a customer makes a purchase. You get an email about the purchase and you send the PDF document of the ebook to the customer.
You can sell any product that you wish when you get started in an e-business. Affiliate marketing is another avenue of e-business that lets you make money. To get involved with this you find a company that is offering a percentage of sales referred to it from your website. When you write articles about the product extolling its virtues and include a link to the affiliate website, you can make a good dollar for very little work. It does take a bit of time to get started in ebusiness, but once you do get established you will be making money while you sleep.
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Advantages of E-commerce
- Posted by Iris in Trade knowledge
- 2007, November 14th
Tag : E-commerce, export, import, trade
We looked at the concept of e-commerce earlier and the various facets of business and commerce which are covered by this new and exciting technology. Now it's time to have a closer look at some of the advantages which this technology of e-commerce has to offer in the arena of international trade, import/export and global sourcing. The list is quite long and we will consider a few of those advantages which e-commerce has to offer over traditional brick and mortar concept of a business in terms of carrying out international trade concerning organisation which are spread over more than one nation, import/exports of goods and services between nations and the process of global sourcing in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency and profits of the organisation.One main advantage of e-commerce is that the phenomenon of international trade, import/export and global sourcing has a common factor of great geographical distances associated with them, which are rendered short by the use of e-commerce. Just imagine a trader sitting in a house in the US and trying to negotiate about a product worth say around $100 with a buyer in
Asia. Now without the use of e-commerce to carry out this international trade (albeit at a very low scale) or import/export, the profits and margins would be too meagre to spend time and money is the same communication is to be carried out by physical travel, postal mail or even traditional long distance telephone lines. The same can be imagined about global sourcing where it would be much cheaper to buy a product or service locally than to search the earth without the use of electronic media or e-commerce.
Another advantage which stems for the first one is that one does not need to be a huge multinational organisation in order to carry out the international trade, import/export or global sourcing but can operate with minimal costs and individual level since the technology is quite easy to use, economical to install and maintain.
The far and wide reaching range of buying products and services is also useful for the consumer since a person now has a lot of choices from which an option can be selected based on various factors such as location, price, product suitability and so forth. In fact in the coming days, e-commerce would be used to conduct most of the activities associated with international trade, import/export and global sourcing.
Hence we have discussed a few benefits of e-commerce in the area of doing international trade, import/export and global sourcing but that does not mean to say that e-commerce does not have any drawback. These would be discussed separately in the next article.
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what to do to make company brochures look professional
- Posted by liulang in Trade knowledge
- 2007, November 14th
Tag : business, company, E-Commerce
Whether you own a business or have information you want the public to see, a brochure can help you get the point across. A well-written and well-designed brochure will get you more sales, whether you are selling products or a service. The following steps will give you an idea about how to make it professional.
Step 1, determine why you need a brochure and what you want it to do. Too much information on a brochure has a negative affect because the brochure looks too cluttered. You want the reader to glance over the brochure and know exactly what message you are trying to convey.
Step 2, reach your target audience. Trying to get everyone's attention will result in getting no one's attention. Figure out who you are aiming your services at and talk directly to them.
Step 3, talk about specific things in your brochure. Trying to explain every aspect of your business will take up too much space and too much of the reader's time.
Step 4, design your brochure with the idea that "less is more." If you put too many graphics or text boxes, they will draw attention away from your message.
Step 5, decide on what colors you want to use. More color may cost more money. Sometimes a plain black and white brochure will get your message across just as well.
Step 6, write your message as clearly as you can so anyone reading it will get it. Talk about benefits rather than just listing off what you offer. Also, don't put prices in the brochure. You want to draw customers in before offering them prices.
Step 7, print your brochure by taking your design to a local printer, printing it out on your home computer or ordering it online. There are many online businesses that allow you to design and order your own brochure.
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How to Find Suppliers in China?
- Posted by lily in Trade knowledge
- 2007, November 14th
Tag : business, E-Commerce, Supplier
Okay, now we know we are aiming at the good, qulified, reliable suppliers in China.
The first thing I do is to analyze my needs. What type of suppliers I m looking for, large company? a third-party suppliers? or small family-owned ones? It is very important to get the type of suppliers and my need fit each other.
Once I'v done the first step, I go on surfing on Internet, BUSYTRADE for example, do some research on lists of China-based suppliers. After narrowing down the lists match my business demands, I use software programs to input the data onto a chart which stores company names, contact info and company statistics and something I think might be useful.
After that it's the time to develop relationships with those Chinese suppliers. I usually contact them from those that get my most interests. I emailed, telephoned, or talked with them online. Well, the important thing here is keeping the conversation record. That would give a lot information one can never find on the company 'about us'. And another thing very important is to ask them weather or not they used to be done business with buyers from where I live.
Once all those background researching homeworks have been done, I would think about a trip to China to visit my suppliers. Nothing better than face to face touch. It's not a must, but just for my own good, for the money sake. I can use a holiday in China anyway.
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12 tips for doing safe E-Commerce
- Posted by StevenGreen in Expert Blogs
- 2007, November 13th
Tag : business, E-Commerce, safe, technique, trade
1. Know more about your potential buyers by going to their website to find out more about their company. You should also search for their company name in the search engine to check their business reputation.
2. Pay close attention to big, urgent orders or government purchase orders. Use your own business experience and common sense to make a judgment.
3. Only use secure payment methods to protect yourself, such as L/C payment or a third-party payment service or an escrow service. Third-party payment services allow you to transfer money into an online account and make payments from that account without exposing your credit card or bank account information. You’re recommended to use a well-known escrow service, such as PayPal to transfer your payment.
4. Make detailed inquiries about any third-party payment company or online escrow service a buyer wants to use before you agree to use it. We have received reports of fraudulent buyers who will insist that the seller uses a third-party payment service or an escrow service that turns out to be fraudulent. The seller ships the item to the escrow service, but never receives payment or the return of goods. If a buyer insists on using a particular escrow or online payment service that you’ve never heard of, check it out by visiting its website or calling its customer service line. If there isn’t one, or if you call and there is no answer, don’t use the service. If the service claims to be affiliated with a government agency, that’s the sign of a scam.
5. Be cautious of companies from countries which are often targeted by scammers. We have received reports of fraudulent buyers who are mainly from Nigeria, Benin, and other African countries.
6. Look out for Fraudulent Cheques or Money Orders. Sometimes, your bank may not alert you that a fake cheque or money order has been rejected until after you have shipped the merchandise. If you are suspicious about a cheque because it has been written by a third party or for any other reason, call the person who wrote the check to verify that they have authorized it. If you receive a cheque or money order for an amount that exceeds the successful bid, and the buyer asks that you wire the excess funds back to him or to a third party, do not wire the money. Instead, return the cheque to the buyer, and do not ship the merchandise.
7. Pay attention to buyers, who insist on paying by credit cards because they might be using stolen or invalid credit cards. If you choose to accept credit cards, contact the company that has issued the card to verify that the name on the card matches both the shipping information and the contact information you've received.
8. Be cautious of buyers who are not concerned with the cost, quality, delivery time of the product and don’t want to discuss more details about the product with you. Generally speaking, a serious buyer should be very concerned about such information.
9. Use tracking services when shipping. For trial orders, it is usually the buyer's responsibility to pay for shipping samples; however, the seller usually chooses the shipping method. To help ensure that your items arrive in a timely manner, and to help prevent fraudulent buyers from claiming that they never received an item (when, in fact, they did), use a shipping service that includes tracking, or consider paying or charging extra for tracking services.
10. If the buyer requests that you send payment to an address other than his registration company address, it could be a fraudulent request from a scammer. Be cautious of this kind of scam.
11. Never respond to unsolicited requests to update your account information. These could be scams that can lead to identity theft. Most legitimate companies never send unsolicited e-mail or Instant Message requests for a password or other personal information.
12. Don’t use an online escrow service that doesn’t process its own transactions and requires you to set up accounts with online payment services. Legitimate escrow services never do this.
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Three key steps to boost your online sales
- Posted by sun in Trade knowledge
- 2007, November 13th
Tag : business, E-Commerce, trade
Building a successful online business is a big subject that becomes more and more important in today's business. However don't let those complicated E-solution theories scare you, it is basically only three key areas to concentrate on -
First of all, the content of your online store
Do everything you can to make it look good and worth visiting. Less than 1% of all the visitors who land on your website will contact you or make a purchase. And once they’ve gone, they may never come back. So you must provide compelling reasons for them to hand over their contact details.
Think how you use the internet yourself. In the last few days you may have made a couple of online purchases, and they were probably purchases of things you’ve bought before or buy regularly. The majority of your time online is spent finding information – researching potential purchases, reviewing the competition, checking your back account, etc. So why would your prospective customers behave any differently?
Even if your site is 100% commerce, it must also be a source of high-quality information about your area of expertise. This could include downloadable reports, copies of your press releases, product reviews, top tips and even competitions. Customers often don’t know what questions to ask (imagine the last time you had to make a purchase you knew very little about), and this inevitably makes us nervous and uncomfortable. So help them out by explaining the benefits, the application, the value, the ways to get best results, comparison of brand, etc.
And secondly, attracting visitors
Although today's most b2b platforms are providing customers bringing service for you, still you need to make your own online store competitive and user friendly. Pay a little extra, any b2b portal would characterised your site with unique design. Once you have done it and enjoyed the visitor traffic, the extra money is totally worthy.
The third kay area, what to do when somebody get on your site
As so few visitors will stay long enough to really read the content of your site, you must attempt to capture email addresses at every opportunity so that you can keep in touch with them and build the relationship directly. Newsletters are very common now and don’t often form a strong enough reason in themselves, so in order to get your visitors to hand over their details, make sure you are offering valuable information in the form of reviews and reports. Newsletters shouldn’t be disregarded completely though, as they are an excellent way to keep in touch regularly with visitors.
The opt-in approaches you use on your site are also a great way for visitors to self-qualify their interest. For example if you are a financial adviser, visitors downloading information on repairing adverse credit will be looking for a different relationship than those who download advice on buying overseas property.
Another point to remember when visitors are navigating your site is your ordering process. Are you making it difficult for people to buy from you? A look at your shopping cart abandonment rate will give you an indication of current statistics, and your hosting company can help with this.
When you’ve got that elusive customer all the way from information to ordering to checkout, how can you increase their order as much as possible? Point of sale purchases work in the real world and the online world are equally successful. You can introduce a linked system that shows “other customers who bought XYZ also bought…”, or if your business is less focused on online sales, you can ensure there are constant reminders of your full offering throughout the site.
And if it wasn’t daunting enough to collect all those email addresses, how do you keep in touch afterwards, without employing half a dozen more staff or having a nervous breakdown? Autoresponders are the answer. A quick search on any of the search engines will present dozens of autoresponder providers, and you can learn more about how these automated message systems work.
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Top 10 Mistakes of marketing online
- Posted by Jessica in Trade knowledge
- 2007, November 12th
Tag : B2B, business, E-Commerce, trade
The novelty of shopping on the Internet has worn off, and today's customers are sophisticated and discerning. Because the competition is always just a mouse-click away, you need to make sure your site is the very best it can be. Because if you do not do e-commerce right, your visitors will find someone who does. Try not to make any of these common mistakes:
1. Trying to sell the wrong product online. Not all products will sell successfully on the Internet. Inexpensive products that require a shipping charge are typically not worth selling, particularly if they can be easily purchased in most local stores. Other products, such as specialized high-end clothing, may be more difficult to sell because people prefer to try them on. Research how other e-commerce sites have fared with similar products and what tactics that have used to entice shoppers into ordering online.
2. Lack of marketing. Just because you have a product and a Web site does not necessarily mean anyone will find it. You need to market your site both online and off. Focus on your company's competitive advantage, and do your best to convince the customer that you are offering a great deal.
3. A poorly designed Web site. In their haste to get online quickly and start selling, too many e-commerce novices do not display their wares well. Many would-be Web designers crowd their sites with too much information or cram too many items on a single page. A professional-looking site that features a dozen items with clear photos and descriptions is more effective than one that includes 50 sales items all bunched together. Also, be wary of too much color, Flash animation, or graphics that can slow downloads.
4. Falling behind the times. If you do not keep your site current, you will lose out to competitors that do. Stay on top of the industry and post new items often. If customers visit your site over the course of several weeks or months and nothing has changed, they may assume the site is no longer maintained, and they may look elsewhere. A successful e-commerce site is one that stays current and appears vibrant.
5. Poor checkout procedures. Once your customers decide what they want to purchase, it should be easy to go to the shopping cart and pay without having to answer questions or jump hurdles. Make completing the transaction as easy and painless as possible.
6. Not testing your site. All the links on your site, including product descriptions, photos, the shopping cart, feedback, and others, should be routinely tested to make sure they work.
7. A hard-to-find or nonexistent privacy policy. Although most people will not actually read your privacy policy, some shoppers will want to know what you will do with the information you collect. Click here to view a sample Web site privacy policy.
8. Poor order fulfillment. Word travels fast on the Internet, and just one or two unhappy customers can do irreparable damage to your reputation. Before you launch your site, make sure you are prepared to fill the orders your customers place, and do your best to deliver your product in a timely fashion.
9. Straying from your objective. If your goal is to have an online children's furniture business, do it; don't start selling patio furniture or antiques. Too many e-commerce sites lose their primary focus and start spreading themselves too thin. Stick with your area of expertise.
10. Poor customer service. Perhaps this is the most significant area of all. Web consumers today are very conscious of customer service, and they are apt to go elsewhere if they feel you are not providing them with the level of service they deserve. If you heed only one thing from this list, make it this one. Provide excellent customer service and your satisfied customers will spread the word.
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Top 3 to consider when marketing online!
- Posted by hannah in Trade knowledge
- 2007, November 12th
Tag : B2B, business, E-Commerce, trade
1. Traffic. Without traffic, you have nothing. It is like having a store where nobody walks through the door. Without traffic, there is noone to buy your product.
2. Your Sales Letter. This is where you sell your product. It is of vital importance that you have a sales letter that converts, and you should work on it continuously to increase conversion. Otherwise those prospects that you have got to your website will just leave and go somewhere else.
3. Your list! You should continuously be trying to build your list and your network. It is easier to convert a qualified prospect into a customer, and an existing customer in to a repeat customer.
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How to Locate Better/Faster/Cheaper Suppliers?
- Posted by StevenGreen in Expert Blogs
- 2007, November 6th
Tag : E-commerce, supplier, trade
Good, reliable suppliers are critical to your business. But where can you find them? How can you locate the manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and service providers you need?
Better, faster, cheaper.
Those three magic words can turn your hot prospects into happy customers. But in order for you to give your customers better products, faster service and lower rates, you have to develop a core group of reliable suppliers who cut you good deals on the products and services you buy.
Finding reliable suppliers who will sell to you at low cost is no easy task. In fact, it's not unusual for small businesses to find they can buy certain products cheaper from Wal-Mart than they can from a wholesaler. Nor is it unusual for a wholesaler or distributor to refuse to sell to a very small business. That's because it will take their sales staff the same time to process your $150 order as it would to process a $5,000 order.
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Three Tips to Avoid Receiving Inferior Products
- Posted by MurrayClarke in Expert Blogs
- 2007, November 6th
Tag : company, E-commerce, product, trade
1.Make sure you do a thorough inspection of the company before you trade with an International company: a Factory Audit; Production Inspection; and a Pre-shipment Inspection conducted by a third party company are very important if your company is ordering a large quantity of goods from a company. This is the best way to protect your interests and reduce the risks involved in international trade. This is why, currently, more and more big buyers seek assistance from local inspection companies.
2. To protect your financial interests, use a secure payment method, such as L/C. You should also sign a business contract with your trading partner. You may also ask for a written guarantee ensuring that the products you order will be of the same quality as the samples you received. If you do have to request a refund or take a company to court, this will be strong evidence.
3. If a trade dispute occurs, try better communication with your trading partner. Most disputes are solved after discussing problems directly. Negotiate with your partner and try to find a reasonable solution. If the dispute cannot be solved after negotiations, try to get legal support to aid mediation.
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A Business E-Commerce Primer
- Posted by Allen in Trade knowledge
- 2007, November 6th
Tag : business, E-Commerce, primer
So you're ready to take the plunge and start up an e-commerce site on the Internet. Well, it's about time because most of your competitors are already out there taking their chances in cyberspace. But how can you guarantee success on the Internet? Unfortunately, there is no guarantee you will make it, but there are some steps you can take to greatly increase your chances.
"The first thing you must do is thoroughly research your industry and products," says Lisa Kerz, Senior Product Developer for the Internet for Pinnacle Decision Systems, a computer consulting and software company in Middletown, Connecticut.
"Being first in your market on the Internet isn't always a good thing. Study your competition and see what they are doing right and wrong and learn from their mistakes. If you're coming in late to the game, you have the advantage of 20/20 vision on your competitor's mistakes." You should also determine if there is a cyber-market for your product because (while you may not believe it) not everything can be sold on the Web. Run a focus group or visit online news and chat rooms to see if there is a market.
If there is a demand, remember it's sometimes easier to sell a product through a site that already exists, like a shopping portal, instead of building your own site.
"Of course, funding is always an issue for new start-up companies," Kerz says. "It used to be that if you had an idea, venture capitalists would be lining up outside your door. But now, with the instability in the Nasdaq market, many of the venture capitalists are tightening their belts and being much more selective. If you can't get enough money to start on your own, you may want to consider partnering with someone who is already experienced on the Web.
" Choosing a domain name may be one of the most important parts of your business. The Internet name game is the key to getting people to your site. Be creative. Try not to use hyphens or other punctuation in the name because they tend to confuse people. It's also smart planning to buy misspellings of your name and the rights to not only the dot.com domain, but also the dot.org and dot.net extensions. This will ensure that a competitor won't buy them in attempts to steal away your audience.
"It's important to remember that your audience is international," she says. "If you expect to be able to sell a product to a global audience, you must make sure your site is equipped to be multilingual, can accept data on foreign currencies and be able to ship to international addresses."
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How to avoid Internet Fraud
- Posted by JavedMujawar in Expert Blogs
- 2007, November 6th
Tag : E-commerce, fraud, trade
Check the credentials of potential partners before engaging in business
Be sure to check the background of all potential partners before engaging in any business over the internet.
Payment
Letter of Credit (L/C)
A Letter of Credit is the preferred payment method. However, there is some possibility of fraud due to incorrect or forged shipping documents. Minimize the potential for fraud by contacting the L/C issuing bank.
Read the rest of this entry »
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E-Commerce: Challenges galore!
- Posted by Jessica in Trade knowledge
- 2007, November 5th
Tag : e-commerce, import/export, international trade
It is true that e-commerce has changed the face of business and commercial activities such as domestic and international trade, import/export and global sourcing opportunities and the like, and has gone a long way to break barriers, yet the truth also remains that certain new barriers have raised their heads which need to be overcome as well. In this article we will take a brief look at such challenges which e-commerce presents in the current scenario and its implications to the international trade, import/export and global sourcing activities.
A survey was carried out in the UK by KPMG, a management consultancy firm which revealed that the biggest barrier which lay in the path of organisations to implement e-commerce technologies for various purposes such as international trade, import/export and global sourcing is the fact that the companies are not sure of the security aspects of the technology. It is not that sufficient standards or measures to ensure safety and security are not available; it is just that the companies are not aware or sure of the efficiency of these technologies and hence are sceptical about employing it in using them for activities like import/export, global sourcing and other forms of international trade.
Of course lots of efforts have been made by the concerned parties on such issues. One such recent example is the joining of hands by two main companies involved in online payment transactions namely MasterCard and Visa. Both these giants have jointly developed a protocol which can be used for secure transactions for purposes of international trade and making payments for import/export orders or other purposes such as global sourcing deals. This protocol goes by the name of SET which means Secure Electronic Transaction. Of course such technologies need the backing of international authorities and organisations to set up the requisite infrastructure in the required places so that in future international trade can be carried out free of barriers and without fear of import/export and global sourcing deals being intercepted by fraudsters.
Another challenge in international trade, import/export and global sourcing done via e-commerce technology is the arrangement to ensure that no concerned party denies a transaction such as receipt of order, delivery or payment and this is known as non-repudiation. This is an important aspect has work is being carried out in this direction so that the individuals and companies located far-off geographically speaking do not fear from using e-commerce technology for import/export and global sourcing activities related to international trade, but feel safe and secure about the whole process. Only then can the true value of e-commerce be realised and its potential use for international trade, import/export and global sourcing be carried out.
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