Review: Bloom.com.my

Bloom.com.my is a click and mortar enterprise. It first started as a traditional shop in 1989 and became an online shop after 18 years.

Besides selling flowers, this e-commerce site offers various gift packages for different occasions such as graduation, birthday, mother's day, father's day and even a get well package. These gift packages consists of various items. For example, for the get well package, there are a variety of choices which include fruits, brand's essence of chicken and chocolates. Some of it comes with flowers and some does not.

Prices of all these gift packages range from RM70 to RM380. The website has made it convenient for consumers who would like to purchase the flowers of gifts at a certain budget as it has links which allows consumers to shop by prices. By just clicking the link, all flowers or packages under that price category will be displayed.


Other than that, bloom.com.my also offers chocolates and cakes on sale. The chocolates are wrapped in a bouquet or in a basket which can be a perfect gift for all occasions. There are a variety of cakes on sale as well, however the pricing is a little expensive (min RM100) compared to traditional shops where we can purchase a 1/2 kg cake at RM30.00.

To order any of the items, you will just have to click on the picture of the item or the 'order now' button and it will lead you to a form as shown below:After filling in the details, just click the 'add to shopping cart' button and the following box would appear:


Here, you can update or delete the items that you have added to the shopping cart. Besides that, there are certain products available as add ons to the flowers or packages.
When you have finished shopping, just click the check out button to purchase the items. Furthermore, if you are not happy with the arrangement of flowers or other products, you can also ask them to customize the product for you.

Overall, I would give a rating of 7/10 for this website as it is user-friendly and informative. For those of you who are interested in ordering flowers or gift packages for family and friends, try having a look at this website. http://www.bloom.com.my/

How to Prevent E-Auction Fraud?

Generally, two types of online auction fraud are classified:Seller Fraud and Buyer Fraud

Seller Fraud => This kind of fraud happen more in the past which occurs when a seller fails to deliver goods after taking payment from a buyer.

Buyer Fraud => While this fraud happens to the seller when buyer pledges to purhase product but fail to make payment. It can happen in eBay or any online markets. Such fraud can take different forms, when a buyer refuse to pay for his winning bid, or buyer reversing payment after payment is made. This lead to buyer in eBay to loose listing fees, and have to find new potential buyers it lower price.

It is said e-auction fraud is a "cost of doing business", however, it is expensive and can be prevented no doubt in lower cost.

How?

Service provider such as ReliaBid, is designed to eliminate non-paying bidders and ensure quick payment from buyers. ReliaBid's subscribers website will display a unique seal which effectively ensures winning bidders promptly fulfill their payment obligations. It is a seal that communicate clear message that deters non-paying buyers. To know more..click below

http://reliabid.com/public/drop-shops.html

or watch the demo by clicking the pic below:

Another way to ensure payment reach safely to seller is taking up escrow service, which receives payments, notifies the seller and holds the money untill buyer receive the item bought. This protects online customers.

While another way is not to proceed to sales which sellers who are unable to accept credit card payment systems. This is because credit card will minimise potential loss if the number is provided to reliable vendor.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Companies always try to come out with some new marketing strategy to markets their products or services in order to achieve competitive advantage.CORPORATE BLOGGING will definitely be one of the latest marketing strategy that all the companies use to make their company more well known.

Why CORPORATE BLOGGING are becoming so popular???

Blog enable a company to control the editorial content of the website. The editorial control of corporate blogs give a company opportunity to demonstrate brand online. This type of marketing concept is EASY, INEXPENSIVE, and FAST!!! Yet similar to email, a company can use an informal, conversational style of writing. This make the company feel more "human" to the world. Besides that, customers can freely provide feedback, comment and ideas on the corporate blog. Moreover, when a corporate blogger focuses on the ideas of customers for products, he or she can receive ideas of customers into evangelists. If a company can run a successful blogging operation, a company can gain links and the opportunity to have a dialogue with many of the blog readers from the bloggers who write and refer to a company blog post.

Example of CORPORATE BLOGGING
About Direct2Dell

Dell is well known using Just-in-Time manufacturing system to run its business. As it do not have a physical store to sell its laptops, desktops and so on, customers have limited access to know more about Dell's products.How does Dell overcome this problem? One of the solution is using corporate blog. Direct2Dell- Dell official corporate blog helps dell to have direct communication channel with its customers. The blog is managed by a range of Dell employees. It is a tool that allows Dell and its customers to share their comments, ideas and insights. Dell will also provide discussion about industries issues that could impact the way they serve their customers. All the comments will be moderated and be posted-appropriate, within 24 hours. Direct2Dell has substantially helps Dell to understand its customers wants and needs even though it does not have a retail store. No doubt, Direct2Dell has helps Dell to gain more sales and loyal customes.

References->

• http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/blogspotting/archives/2005/04/who_should_blog.html
• http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/article.php/3547411
• http://direct2dell.com/one2one/default.aspx
  

Wat can u SeE?!!

izzit square??! >>>>>>>>>>


how many deers are in this picture??

did u see ten faces??



An Old man ?!

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit cards, if used properly they are convenient and a great budgeting tool. If it is abused, using credit cards can be the start of a years-long nightmare and unbelievable stress. There are some causes of credit card debts.

1. Spend, spend, and spend.Spending on credit card is same as borrowing money. If you using it without control, it will lead you to high debts situation. When you use credit card to purchase, one of the disadvantage is you will not be aware how much you have already spent, this may lead to over spending situation.

2. Income less, expenses more..
Nowadays, the price of groceries, utilities, and etc is rapidly increasing, but not in income. Because of this some group of people are forced to use credit card for purchase. This obviously leads to a risen in debts.

3. Poor money management

This is one of the reasons that why so many people accumulate a lot of debts. If you do not have a monthly spending plan or you do not keep track on the plan, you will not be aware what have you spending to, or you may spend on something which are not necessary.

How to prevent it?!

1. Having a good money management plan is very important. If you have planned properly for your expenses within the range of income you have, you can avoid using credit card.

2. Stop using credit card, unless they are necessary.Smart card user only used it to purchases something which within the range they are affordable to pay back.

3. Make sure that you settle the bills on time. if you really cannot pay back the whole balance, then you should try to paid as much as possible, or else the credit card debts will keep on grow up and up.

Review: Using Touch & Go card to buy fast food in Malaysia will be a reality

Imagine being able to buy all kinds of things just with a single card.. NO more bulky wallets, NO more long queues and most importantly.. it is convenient! With Touch & Go, all these are possible! As mentioned in Mr. Hen's post, now at the introductory stage, Touch & Go can be used at retail outlets such as Dunkin Donuts, Burger King and 7-eleven.

I personally think this would be a good move to bring technology into the daily lives of Malaysians. Emulating the success of the Octopus card in Hong Kong, we can actually see that Malaysia is trying to increase it's competitiveness internationally. With this system, we need not be afraid of bringing too much cash in hand as all cash is contained in the card itself. We just have to make sure that we have reload enough cash in the card otherwise it would be a little embarrassing if the card were to run short of credit to purchase a particular good!

However, i think it will take some time for people to actually get used to it though. As most of us have carried cash for like most of our lives, we may feel 'safer' with cash in our wallets. But i believe soon enough people will begin to realize that technology is beginning to take over in various sectors and industries.

With Touch & Go going retail, you do not have to worry about limited places to top up the card as they are also increasing the number of locations available for top-up to another 1000 locations.

Overall I think this is an informative post as I actually did not know that Touch&Go is providing this kind of service. That shows how long I have not touch the newspapers..Well, for you guys who would like to have a look at Mr. Hen's post, please visit this link: http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing

Electronic Currency

E-micropayment systems


What are MICROPAYMENT?

• Transactions that are for very small amount.
  


• Any purchase that is between %0.25 and $5.00 is considered a micropayment.
  
  

Paystone Technologies Corp

• Paystone Technologies Corp. is a private Internet payment and money transfer company dedicated to providing secure, easy, realtime Internet transactions.


• It offers micropayment systems for individuals as well as company.
  

What's really good about Paystone??

• Is an inexpensive online payment method without the risk of chargebacks from fraudulent credit card use




• Can efficiently handles small financial transactions (micropayments) as low as $0.25




• High level of security- Provide the security of 128-bit Secure socket Layer(SSL) encryption technology to protect the Internet communication between member and Paystone's server. All information transmitted to and from the member'c computer is not reedable by ant 3rd party.
  
  

Easy steps to become a member of Paystone..

1. Sign up - sign up for your free Paystone Personal Account.


2. Load Money- Paystone offers several ways to load money:
   

-Online Bill Payment/ Telephone Bill Payments

-Walk on deposit

-Mail in deposit (Canadian Residents only)

-Other Paystone Account

3. You are done- you are now ready to buy itms online from any merchant displaying the Paystone logo.

Next...

Micropayment process

1. Choose the content you would like to purchase then click buy. You will directed to a secure Paystone payment page.
   
   
2. Enter your email address and Paystoine password to confirm your purchase.
   
3. The purcahse is complete and the content can now be accessed.
   

Still not very clear how it works?

Please click the link to have a look on the Paystone's Micropayment Demo

Additional facility....

1. Send and receive money to and from anyone with e-mail address in a country that Paystone support




2. Cashing out your Paystone Account- You can transfer the money to your bank account if you have Paystone Express ATM card.

Reference

http://www.paystone.com/

E-Government in Malaysia

Implementation

The Electronic Government initiative in Malaysia was launched to lead the country in to Information Age. Malaysia has so far implemented systems such as Electronic Services System(E-services), Human Resource Management Information System(HRIMS), E-Syariah and most importantly, myGovernment Portal, which serve as the one-stop source of Malaysian government information and services for citizens. They are also other systems implemented for the advancement of information distribution. Wish to try out our very own My-Gov portal?? Click the pic on your right.

Citizen's Adoption

An example is the Electronic Labor Exchange(ELX) which is a one stop-centre for labor market information, as supervised by the Ministry of Human Resource(MOHR) that enables employers and potential employees to communicate on the same platform. The objective of this platform is to create an effective and integrated job matching process and to ensure man power's utilization is optimized. Many Malaysians has started to use such platforms situated in public places and exhibition halls when these systems are introduced.

As for the competency of E-Gov system in Malaysia, My-Gov portal has won Global ICT Awards at the World Congress on Information Technology(WCIT) 2008, which is held at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre(KLCC). The picture below depicts the moment of glory and you can click on the pic for further information:

Mobile Payment Systems in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Consumers' Adoption Strategies

Potentials

Mobile payment system is increasingly being adopted by Malaysian, young and old, nowadays. With mobile operators building a secure credit/debit/virtual card that can be used seamlessly to pay online and offline merchants, it definitely benefits our busy daily routine. Click the picture below for more info on mobile payment in Malaysia:One of the potential is the safety of the consumers because mobile phone is used to transmit payment information without the need to carry a credit card, don’t mention the cash. Secondly, such mobile service works on any mobile and it eliminates the hassle to queue up just to pay your electric bills. If you are worrying for the payment security, you can be rest assure that strong pin fraud protection patent will offer great security and inability to hack passwords.

CoNsuMers’ AdoPtioN sTraeGy

Different classes of people use mobile payment system for different purpose. The most common in Malaysia is using mobile payment to pay summons. Moreover, some use to donate to charities from their mobile devices. While busy working adults also can use their mobile devices to pay credit card debts, electric bills and phone bills. This is because all they have to activate their telephones by logging into websites. After registering their mobile telephone numbers, they can enjoy the services.

I believe with the advancement of technology and development of mobile payment software, soon, purchasing items through mobile devices will be made possible in Malaysia. Another linkto mobile payment in Malaysia,click the picture on the right-->

Phishing: Examples and its Prevention Method

We are always heard the word "PHISHING" , but what actually PHISHING means?

~It is a fraudulent attempt (usually made through email) to steal someone personal details.~

Before we discuss further, lets see how the steps the attackers does while executing a phishing attack

1. Register a fake domain name [not mandatory]
2. Setup a look alike webpage
3. Send email to hundreds of users

Lets see the EXAMPLES......

CITIBANK PHISHING SCAM



Upon clicking the link, the user is directed to the following authentic-looking page:

Another EXAMPLE:

WASHINGTON MUTUAL BANK PHISHING EMAIL

~This phish claims that Washington Mutual Bank is adopting a new security measures which require confirming ATM card details. The victim is directed to a phishing site and any information entered is sent to the attacker.

HOW TO PREVENT IT?

1) Learn to recognise a "phish"

! Never click directly on any link from your email.

! Phishing emails are usually sent in bulk. to save time, they use generic name such as " Dear Valued Customer. Therefore, be suspicious if you don't see your first or last name.

! Roll the mouse over the link and see if it mathches what appear in the email.

! Websites where it is safe to enter personal information begin with "https"- the "s" stands for secure.As such, if you don't see "https", DO NOT PROCEED.

! Business should not ask you to send passwords, login names, or other personal information through email so do not respond to any email asking for your personal details.

! Poor resolution- Phishing websites are often poor in quality because they are crated with urgency. If the resolution on a logo or in text strikes you as poor, be suspicious.

! Read the URLs from right to left. The real domain name is at the end of the URL.

! Look out for URLs that begin with an IP address.

For example,

ttp://12.12.34.34/firstgenericbank/account-update/- this is likely a phish.

2) Getting Anti virus and spyware protection that is current and up-to-date
Examples of anti phishing freeware

~ GFI-MailEssentials
~ Earthlink Toolbar Scamblocker
~ Webroot's Phish net


3) Use Internet Explore 7

~ Internet Explore 7 includes the Microsoft Phishing Filter, which helps protect you from Phish websie by warming or blocking you from reported phishing web Sites

If a web site is a known phishing site, the Address Bar will turns red, and the Security Bar will appear.


4) Verify the URL Example~ Phish Tank provide service that you can use to verify suspicious URL before you proceed with the transaction.






Useful references:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/ss/phishing_2.htm

http://www.consumerfraudreporting.org/phishinglog.php

http://kb.cadzow.com.au:15384/cadzow/details.aspx?ID=1422

http://www.phishtank.com/what_is_phishing.php?view=website&annotated=true

http://www.ecommerze.blogspot.com/

http://www.anti-phishing.info/anti-phishing-freeware.htm

how to safeguard our personal and financial data?

Scare of saving important data in your computer?Lets learn some important ways to safeguard your personal or financial information.

1. Set up a private wireless connection. If your are using a wireless connection to access to the internet, set up a secure account in order to prevent other users can log on to your account or access saved passwords or your personal information.

2. Do not save email settings or password settings. Some online banking sites, social-media web sites and shopping sites will provide the option to you to save your users id and passwords so that the users do not need to log-in everytime. If you save this information it will be eassy to let hackers to access your information and change the information or steal your confidential information.

3. Use different passwords. This is because if you using the same password for every online account you have, you are putting yourself in an unsecured position.Hackers can easily crack the password through the unsecured web sites.

4. Log out your account after you finished using the sites. Example, after you have checked your email, or your bank account especially when you are using a public computer.

5. Install anti-virus protection. This is the most common way that usually people use to prevent their personal data being hack. This is one of the web site that you can download the anti-virus software for free. If u have any suggestion, you are welcome to leave some comment.. :D

6. Avoid saving credit card information or your shopping profile online. Nowadays, many web sites such as Amazon, eBay will give you the option to save your credit card information so that you don't have to retype all the information again while you are doing some transactions.

7. Always think before providing information when solicited. Example if your received an email which ask you to valify your personal information and it provides a link, you need to be alert this may be some phishing web sites.

8. Make sure the URL has an HTTPS instead of HTTP. The "S" was made all the difference! When they is a HTTPS sites, it mean that the communication between your computer and their server is secure and encrypted. Therefore, it is very hard for someone to try to read the data as it travels across the Internet, because they do not understand or able to decirypt it.

9. Be careful with the person fixing your computer. If you are not a tech person, you will need to hand over your computer to someone else when something goes wrong. Please pass it to some people that you can trust with to prevent people to download all your personal information or back up all the important data into your hard drive or flash drive before u send to repair.

10. Lastly, if you really feel that you need extra safety to safeguard your data you can apply some advanced techniques like encryption, anonymous browsing, virtualization software, anti-virus saftware and etc.

The Threats of Online Security:How safe is your data?

Welcome!!! To the world of data LOSS.

Imagine switching off your computer at night but waking up to find an error message popped up on your computer screen, followed by innumerable important files become corrupted (especially those files where one documenting their emails containing usernames and passwords). How secure is the data in our computer, merely just by allowing it to access the Internet?

Online banking has, with the use of Internet continues to expand and for the sake of convenience, more banks and thrifts are using the Web to conduct banking business and services. Like other growing countries, Malaysians, no doubt have taken into online banking system. However, how safe is our money from fraudsters, who are luring people to reveal their personal details using increasingly advanced scams and software? Each year, online banking customers are being defrauded of more than $25million. It often happened when victims, who have fallen to phishing scams, revealed that hoax emails are sent to their inboxes, convincing them as though they are from the organizations such as bank. These emails are designed to trick the unsuspecting consumers who then idly handed over their banking account numbers, passwords and PINS. Furthermore, sadly, customers are personally liable if they disclose their password or unreasonably delay reporting the fraud. In addition to the numbers of viruses unleashed each day to engulf public and organization who are relying on Internet, valuable and confidential data cannot be underestimated.

Nevertheless, online bankers don’t need to frown because as consumers rapidly took up Internet connection for their computers, banks have also upgraded their system and continuously implementing better security system that is able to look for fraud in real time and investigating technologies such as factor authentication. Two factors authentication is achieved when a keychain sized generator is attached and synched with the bank systems and this generator will generate ever changing code. The code is then purposed to be entered into the customer’s online banking login, combining with the existing passwords and this code is send to customers via SMS of mobile phone. In practice, only a small percentage of banks are using the two factor authentication due to inconvenience to customers and added costs to banks.

The law regulator and policies makers have also contribute their part to ensure online banking is safe for consumers. Most financial institutions are required by the law to abide in using 128-Bit SSL encryption. When one is doing online banking or purchasing over the web, one must ensure your information is being transferred securely. This can be done by checking whether the domain in front of the web address is displayed as https:// (Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer or HTTP over SSL). When the user is in such web page, it is hard for another party to steal valuable information from the webpage. In addition, one’s browser should also display a little lock image at the lower right hand corner of the page.

Being the consumer, one will also need to take precaution on their side. Consumers need to be alert that banks or financial institutions will not, via emails to enquire customers to enter security or financial details but through phone calls or letters. Most banks are targeted by such counterfeit website and cause millions of losses to both banks and public. Hence, if in doubt, a consumer should not hesitate to contact the subjected banks for confirmation. Online bankers also need to take heed and be responsible on the security of their personal computers and not being accessed by unauthorized users. Prevent from using public shared computers to carry out bank transactions, installing up-to-date anti-virus software and firewall and keeping pins and passwords information in safe place will also reduce the risk of data being exposed to hackers and theft. There are also news on hackers who successfully hacked into militiary system,if you wish to know more please access to this website:

http://www.iwr.co.uk/news/hacking

Online Shopping… Is it Safe??

Cyber-shopping has also become increasingly popular in the local market. Although surfing Web and making for bargain in the comfort of your own home seem perfect, but one have to be cautious not to be exposed to threats to data and personal information theft.

This is especially the matter so when it comes to credit card payment for products offered for sale via the website. Although making credit card payments are no different from ordering on the phone, one still have to take safety measure to avoid identity theft and credit card fraud. Hence, online shoppers are advised to use a secure Web browser that encrypts confidential information. Moreover, one have to be conscious not to provide personal checking or savings account information to any online stores and avoid so-called “direct-withdrawals” from your accounts.

In contrast, online shoppers can be rest-assured to some extent on the issue of making credit card payments. For the reason being research has proved that online credit card transactions are as safe as face-to-face transactions. It is proven difficult to detect the exact number of sales and estimate credit card numbers because of its length. Credit card purchases are also well protected by special federal laws then merchandising with cash or check. Although cyber-shopping sounds scary but it actually gives the shopper a benefit which is the ability to check their account information from the comfort of one’s own home and identifying possibly fraudulent activities at anytime.

Though using online services seems exposing us to vulnerable threats to the security of our data, there are still enough sophisticated software and safety measures that can be taken by online users to prevent data loss. For further tips on how to practice safe online shopping, you can visit the website below:

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/alpha-consumer/2007/10/09/staying-safe-while-shopping-online.html

E-commerce can Reduce Cycle Time, Improve Employees’ Empowerment and Facilitate Customer Support

*Reduce Cycle time*
Cycle Time is the amount of time between a customer placing and order and receiving the goods. With e-commerce, substantial of the process can be eliminated. For instance, a customer does not need to queue to make order. Thus improve customer service and also reduce cycle time. Besides that, ecommerce can reduce cycle time by eliminating intermediaries between sellers and buyers which is also known as disintermediation. This is not only reducing cost but it also reduce the time where the customer have to go through intermediate person in order to enjoy the goods and services of the company. In addition, disintermediation leads to faster provision of products and services to the marketplace through streamlined and thus cheaper production. In addition, with the advances of technology nowadays, the speed of producing transaction online keep on increasing thus further reduce the cycle time.

A very successful company that uses e-commerce to reduce substantial cycle time is Dell Company. Dell revenue primarily gains from selling its products online. The whole buying process can be done online therefore customer no longer required to enter duplicate information in order to purchase. The electronic requisition can approved electronically and automatically become an electronic purchase order. This order will flows directly into Dell’s manufacturing system where the order are processed immediately. Thus, helping the customer to save time and also increase the company efficiency.

Dell Online Purchase Order

*Improve Employees' Empowerment*
Besides that, e-commerce can also lead to employee empowerment. By using e-commerce, employee training can be conducted online. The manager can provide CD-ROM to their employee and ask them to learn the necessary skills online. To further increase the efficiency of using this method to train the employees, the manager can even conduct a test to access their employees. Furthermore, many companies have developed its own company intranet where manager can easily communicate with their employees and vice versa. This is very hard in the conventional way of communication where every time the subordinate wants to communicate with their superior, they need to make formal appointment and that process takes time. With company intranet, the employees can get the most updated company announcement and manager’s instructions. They can even present their results to the manager online.

Coastal's Clarity CD-Rom training

*Facilitate Customer Support*
Moreover, good customer support plays an essential role in every business. Business studies have shown that happy customers will lure 4 other people to the business. On the other hand, unhappy customer will tell 10 people how unsatisfied they are with the company. Human behaviors are very hard to change, therefore, in order to attract more customers and retain current customers; a company must provide excellent customer support system. E-commerce certainly can facilitate customer support better than the traditional business trading. The common tool in a company website is FAQ. With this, the customers do not even have to ask a question but they can get the answer from FAQ. If it happens that the question in which the customer want to ask and it is not available in the FAQ, the question will directed to auto responders. Auto responders can perform 24hours per day without having to take a rest. Therefore, it can response to customer query and complaints anytime. For example, when a customer post a question to the auto responder, the auto responder can automatically send the customer the appropriate information in response to the standard question. If a customer replies to an auto responder they can receive an automated email with a link to the FAQ section to read those problem usually encounter by others.

For full picture please visit http://www.pizzahut.com/FAQ.aspx

Besides that, some company such as Nike and Jaguar provide a special function for their customer to design their own shoe and cars to increase their customer satisfaction. By allowing customers to track delivery of parcels in real time, the Federal Express website keeps customers in touch with the location of their goods and when they will arrive. In addition, a company website also provide shopping cart where it allows customers to track back the products that they selected and produce the order once. All these function has considerably increased customer satisfaction.

Please click the link below and have a look at this demo:

Fedex Insight Demo

Wanna experience customizing your own shoe or car?

Please click on the link below:

Nike

Jaguar

As such, more and more companies are engaging their business through e-commerce where it can greatly reduce the cycle time, improve employees’ empowerment and facilitates customer support.

An example of an E-Commerce failure and its Causes

The Internet and the growth of e-commerce have had a revolutionary effect upon business whether it is dealing with other business or whether it is business selling to consumers. Business man have view that the Internet as the perfect medium for start-up venture’s investment to make a quick capital gain. There are many successful examples in E-commerce such as Amazon.com, Google.com, E-bay.com and etc. However, they are no guarantee that all companies will success in e-commerce, it may because of they are not able to face the challenges in market by the use of Internet.

EToys.com is one of the top 10 dot-com flops. EToys.com was launched in 1997, it was founded by the CEO, who name Toby Lenk, COO Frank Han and Idealab Founder Bill Gross. EToys seem like the best idea for those busy parents; it offered them a chance to order thousands of toys in every catergory from the comfort of their homes. Beside that the site also had fun features, the features including gift recommendations by age and and information about popular characters, from Madeline to Barney. Etoys also has won a praise for its site design and had technically sophisicated warehouses and fulfillment operation. In 1999 during the Christmas, EToys was suffered a black eye because it failed to deliver some order in time. The first impression for new customers was ruin because of this, and people were worry of using the site again. In August 2000, the Toys"R"Us and Amazon.com has formed a partnership, it put Etoys into risk. EToys went into liquidation in March 2001, Because run out of money and other funding options exhausted.

One of the causes of the EToys.com failure in e-commerce is because of ineffective customer service or misinformation about products and services, example like the failed to deliver the order on time would destroy the image of the company, and the first impression of new customers. Customer will not feel confidence and afraid to use the site again. However, the negative response from customers is also another cause which will lead the dot-com filed into bankruptcy in E-business. This is why the reputation of a company is very important, once it is ruined; peoples will loose the confidence in such company again. For example, if the E-business fails to deliver on time, the customer will not return and they will share with their friends about their bad experience. Third, maybe effect of the errors in the company's Web site. Sometimes hundreds of errors could be found in one Web page, this is due to peoples will be frustrated to visit or log in to the company’s Web site. Beside that, inability to define clearly and to understand the market demand, the needs of the customer, or their buying habits of the marketing strategy, if it is not immensely enough or is ineffective, is another reason for failure.

Because of the causes stated above, many dot-coms have fall into liquidation. Therefore, in order to avoid the failure of an e-commerce company, useful of business strategies, and effective, strong organisational, and customer relation policies to meet the demands of its valuable customers are the key elements of the successfulness in e-commerce.

Review: Johncow.com was hacked and unhacked!

Mr. Hen's post on Johncow.com was hacked and unhacked just made me realized that people do go all the way out to get their message across! Imagine hacking your own blog! I agree with what Mr. Hen has said that this has gone a little too far as it might have upset their readers. However, based on the comments given to Johncow.com, some seem to think that it was funny as well and some were even willing to donate $100 to get Johncow back.

The post also consists of details of how to prevent our blogs from being hacked which would prove quite useful especially to amateurs. However, if it was a professional hacker, I don't think doing all that can prevent them from actually hacking our blogs but it will make life a little difficult for them though. Thus, it is still advisable to follow those tips. Here is a little video on the tips on how to prevent your blogger blog from being hacked. The linked of this website is provided in the post as well.

Watch Out! How HACKERS Steal Your Passwords! Protect Yourself Fo - video powered by Metacafe

Besides that, this post also provides links that gives tips on what you should do before your website gets hack, so that it doesn't gets hack and also a step-by-step repair if your website gets hacked. The same link also teaches you on how to know if you have been hacked. This would be useful to save all the effort which has been dedicated to the blog.

Overall, I would give a rating of 8/10 for this post as it provides useful links to learn more about protecting and saving your blog which would be useful to all bloggers. So, do go to : http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet%20Security and have a look at it!

The History and Evolution of E-Commerce

E-Commerce is defined as the buying and selling of goods over the internet particularly the World Wide Web. So how actually did e-commerce come about?

It all started in the late 1970s, when technologies such as the Electronic Data Interchange and Electronic Funds Transfer allowed users to exchange business information and make electronic transactions. This allowed organizations to send commercial documentation electronically.

In 1991 when the internet was opened for commercial use, many companies started their own company websites where they started selling over the internet.

Internet popularity increased among the public in 1994. However, rapid access and persistent connection only developed after approximately four years through the development of security protocols (HTTP) and DSL. In year 2000, a large number of companies started providing services through the World Wide Web. Although the dot-com collapse in 2000 led to the disappearance of many e-commerce companies, people and organizations started to recognize the many advantages of e-commerce. By the end of 2001, the B2B model has became the largest form of e-commerce.

E-Commerce then continued growing and by year 2007, it has accounted for 3.4 percent of total sales. At present,there are 5 leading and most well-known world wide internet retailers: Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard.

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.dell.com.my/

http://www.staples.com/

Now that we know the history of E-Commerce, let us move on and take a glance at the past, present and future of E-Commerce.

In the past..

E-Commerce began as an activity solely for business. With the introduction of the Electronic Data Interchange, companies can now trade without having any face-to-face contact. However, the cost of EDI is high and thus, it fails to support the need of organizations. In 1984 the ASC X12 was adopted where it enables full communication between any EDI supported companies. The introduction of the internet to mass markets marks the beginning of e-commerce in mass markets. This changed the role of e-commerce from wholesales to retail. With the growing popularity of the internet, business have to admit the importance of online shopping. From a humble start, e-commerce has revolutionized the world of wholesale and retail and is continuing to develop with businesses ever searching for new ways to meet the needs of the online market.

Now..

The number of internet users are ever increasing. Technology plays an important role in how people shop online. The introduction of Netscape in 1994 and Internet Explorer has revolutionized e-commerce. With more and more browsers having systems that show videos, graphics and audio, internet shopping is now much more convenient.

In the future..

There would be no long lines at the cashier, invisible shopping carts and less traveling to malls. All thanks to the evolution of e-commerce. Shoppers would be able to find their desired items through a new advertising technology called narrowcasting. Narrowcasting allows the user to enter their desired items with additional information and then produces a list of results found based on the inputs. Other improvements such as quantum processors which enables the computer to move twice as fast and the HDTV which enables users to purchase their TV sets online also shapes e-Commerce.

Thus, e-commerce will continue to develop from time to time with the advancement in technology and the increase in the number of internet users. Who knows maybe one day all transactions would be made online and there would not be anymore shops and malls? Everything is possible!