Review a local e-commerce website

Review a local e-commerce website
www.kok5kok.com
k0k5k0k Idea Fashion Store.

Recently, I have discovered that there has a web-store that selling a lot of unique and special designed tee at low price.

The main objective of k0k5k0k store is to provide the best quality, best price, and best customer service to their beloved customer. They believe that “ideas make perfect”. With their unique designed, they aim to become one of the famous fashion brand in the fashion market.

The e-commerce model of this website is B2C. B2C is the business that sells products or services to end-user consumers.

Creative idea tees, custom-made shoes and custom-made small shirts are the major products of k0k5k0k store. Moreover, all of the products that sell in k0k5k0k store are designed by his in-house designer. All tee-shirts that selling in the store are just RM25! With their unique design products, k0k5k0k store has become better known and popular in teenager’s fashion market.

The structure of this website is simple and easy to surf around. With simple html coding and navigation bar, surfers can access all information with few clicks. Besides, the web is providing high bandwidths that allow surfers surf in high-speed.

However, there are some limitations of the website. For example, the website does not provide e-payment method, such as credit card payment and Paypal. Furthermore, the security of the website has not been verified by any trusted parties.

Besides,the founder of this website is ME, k0k5k0k. ^^

From the domain registration, server-hosting, webpage design and tee-shirts design, mostly all works were done by the founder, k0k5k0k. The website was created on 1 Nov 2008. Initially, I just feel interested in creating a website with special domain, which is my name, k0k5k0k. After that, I feel that it is a great opportunity of making money in e-commerce field. So, I just make up my mind and try my best in designing all those tee-shirts and sell it out.

Lastly, although the website is still got a lot more to improve, the designs of the shirts are not that good, but I promise that I will never give up continuing to enhancing the website and design quality.
Furthemore, thanks you for supporting me, http://www.kok5kok.com/ k0k5k0k Idea Fashion Store.

Here are some of the products :

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud

- Understand as much as you can about how the internet auctions work, what your obligation are as a buyer, and what the seller’s obligations are before you bid.

- Watch out for “Advance-fee demand” – you need to look carefully at any seller of goods or services who wants you to send checks or money orders immediately to a post office box, before you receive the goods or services.

- Find out what actions the websites takes if a problem occurs and consider insuring the transaction and shipment.

- Do not simply disclose your personal data – if you see e-mail messages from someone you do not know that ask you for personal data for examples, credit card number, account number, or password, do not just send the data without knowing more about who is asking.

- Review the feedback rating for the seller, and use common sense; if the seller has a history of negative feedback, then the participants do not bid with the particular seller.

- Must ask the seller when delivery can be expected if not specified in the listing, and about warranty, exchange or return of merchandise you find unsatisfactory.

- To avoid unexpected cost, you must read the information in the listing about shipping and handling fees carefully. If not specified, you may want to clarify before you start bidding.

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

My mom always grumbles a lot towards the end of April... It's the time of the year when the tax return forms have to be submitted... My mom HATES it to the core.. I always hear her moot on how troublesome it is to send it by post and to deliver it personally. But now all of that could be done online through the government website http://www.hasil.org.my/english/eng_index.asp (my mom never grumbles in April anymore).

Well online tax filing brings me to the focus of today's post - E-Government.

E-Government is a tool used by the government to efficiently support the public. It is used to disseminate information and to increase the convenience, accessibility and quality of communication and interaction with the respective parties (it's true as my mom don't complain about tax filing anymore). I used the term respective parties because E-Government is not for the public (citizens) alone, but also for three other parties namely, the business community, other counties' government and the government employees.

E-Government was sparked by the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project in 1996 where E-Government is one of the seven flagships under this project; and under the E-Government flagship are seven projects said to be the core of E-Government.




The seven projects are as follows:

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

The application of E-Government stems from the seven project stated above. Some further application of E-Government are

• myGovernment - the official government website that disseminates the most up-to-date information released by the government
• e-Compalaint, Ministry of Works Malaysia - the site to lodge any complaints on the projects carried out by the Ministry of Works
• eKL - the government tool to improve the service delivery system of government agencies in Klang Valley
• MySMS - the government official SMS portal that enables the public to obtain government services through one SMS number 15888

Apart from the implementation of E-Government, the governemtns needs to have strategies to halp the users or potiential users feel more comfortable when using E-Government. As such the government needs to beef up the security of this system. Malaysians are very sceptical in regards to online transaction (hack.. my neighbours thinks its a sham) so the government needs to convince the users that the websites are safe and their computers won't blow up when they use them.

The reliability of this system needs improvement as well. The government related websites tend to be down (inoperative) sometimes and i feel that this should not happen as it represents the government. It will give the government a very bad impresion of inefficiency and unreliability.

The awareness of the existance of E-Government must be spread as only a handfull of people knows about it. Many do not know that they can do their tax filing online or pay their summons online. This information could be spread through the media (television especially as TV1, TV2 and TV3 are owned by the government).




Related Links

• http://www.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm
• http://www.mscmalaysia.my/article/12073046901815/12082915639335
• http://www.lawyerment.com/guide/gov/

A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog.

A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog
(http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/e-Tailing)

Opentable.com

Opentable.com, a website that provides restaurant management system for restaurateurs, is also known as ERB (Electronic Reservation Book). It is so unique that, in Malaysia, we can’t find any similar websites that is operating with this kind of model.

After I’ve been to the website, I have some ideas on the means and way to run a website, similar to opentable.com but I will be providing more functions to the surfers and restaurateurs.
I will make a website that not only contains the reservation function, but also the e-order and payment function.

Getting a good and special domain name together with a great slogan is an important beginning. Then, coming up with a well-designed layout which provides easy navigation and the provision of a highly securable system to surfers and restaurateurs will make the website more attractive and impressive.

Besides, I will design a system that works as below:

Firstly, potential customers can to make reservation through the website for their desired restaurant.

Next, customers can view the brief overview of the restaurant, restaurant’s menu, and special courses for the day, or any promotion or event available during the time.

After customers have made up their mind, they can select the time and date to dine in.
After that, we also allow customers to choose the location of their seat; for example, smoking or non-smoking area.

Moreover, customer can order their dishes and drinks with a few clicks, and leave some important message to the restaurant.

Lastly, customer can settle their bills online with a credit card.

The whole process can be done in a very easy and convenient way. Compare to Opentable.com, this website is containing more functions, such as e-payment.

(If I really successfully open this website, I will treat Sir/Miss to dine in ^^)

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies.

A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads. Currently, all major browsers (including Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 7) support RSS technology, which enables readers to easily read recent posts without actually visiting the blog, which is very useful for low-volume blogs.

In order to maintain a competitive edge, corporations are increasingly looking for opportunities to make them remain competitive in the market. Therefore, they started implementing corporate blog for their company. For instance airasia.com, trumphuniversity.com and google.com have their company blog to serve as a platform for discussion between company staff, users, customers and management.

Why is Blogging Crucial to Corporations?
What is the first image your mind conjures up when a brand is mentioned? Is it the logo, the jingle on the advertisement or the experience you previously had with the brand? Blogging allows current and potential consumers to associate the brand with a face and a personality. It reduce the distant gap that has existed between the company and the consumer. In addition, the blog is a representation of the company’s values, beliefs, philosophy and direction. Besides, blogging allows companies to communicate with customers in a more personal and direct way. Lastly, it has the power to position employees as thought-leaders in their industry, to assist in reputation management during crises; to build brand awareness and loyalty; and to increase brand visibility, traffic and links.

13 Steps to Create a Corporate Blog
1. Determine if blogging is a good fit for your company
2. Determine if your company is willing to invest in a blog
3. Create a strategy
4. Ensure that everyone is on the same page
5. Determine the Involvement of PR
6. Select Bloggers
7. Train the Bloggers
8. Writing Posts
9. Realize that the Blog doesn’t need a tone
10. Editing
11. Establish a Comment Policy
12. Develop a Promotion Strategy
13. Establish a Measurement program

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

I went back to my hometown last weekend by train. I usually took the 1.30 train in the afternoon but last week i had to take the 8.15 night train. This happened because the 1.30 train tickets were all sold out. So i wasted my whole afternoon loitering around KL missing a great dinner back at home. Yeah i was angry but what could i have done... nothing i thought, until i got on the train and took my seat. I saw the most interesting thing for that entire day - I CAN PURCHASE THE TRAIN TICKETS USING MY MOBILE PHONE (so now all of you know where this story of mine was leading to). This is something i haven't heard of at least until that day.

Purchasing train tickets is not the only transaction which could be made through a mobile phone. Bill payments, music and game purchases, phone credit top-up, movie ticket purchases and even payment for pizzas and fries could be made. So where do all the money come from? The funds come from your credit card, debit card, current account and from your phone credit.

Stating all these, i can see that mobile payment systems have a huge potential in Malaysia. I state this because 9 out of 10 Malaysian citizen have at least one hand set (some have 2 or 3; 1 for business use, 1 for the family and the last for the mistress). The model and type of hand set is not an issue as the system is applicable on all mobile phone models.

Now a days, more Malaysians are addicted to online shopping. This is a very good sign for mobile payment companies as more and more people would be aware that payments could be made through their mobile phone. Teenagers especially would welcome the mobile payment system due to not having a credit or debit card.

, Digi, and the new addition to the family U-mobile are the service providers of hand phone lines. Having a perfectly competitive environment would stimulate the market for mobile payment systems because the users will benefit from all the marketing strategies (price slashes, promotion rewards, etc.). People will pay through their mobile phones more often as the competition amongst service providers will make the system convenient and rewarding.



Having potential alone won't make mobile payment systems boom, consumers' adoption strategies must be implemented as well. the first strategy is to make known this system and technology to the public. Not many are aware of the functions of mobile payment systems. I dare say this because.... i had no idea that the train ticket could be purchase through my mobile phone and when i told my neighbors that some bills could be paid through SMS, they scolded me and said it was a sham (haha.. that's how unknown it is).

The next step is to gain the users and potential users trust by beefing up the security and reliability. There have been complains that that payment has been made but the games and songs ordered were not delivered.


RELATED LINKS

• http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/communications/0,39044192,39001884,00.htm
• http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp
• http://www.teamcalendar.com/composite-824.htm
• http://www.paymentsnews.com/2008/03/paybox-celcom-p.html

The application of prepaid cash card for consumers

Today, prepaid card are becoming mainstream products for consumers in Asia. It was only three years ago that the volume of global Visa prepaid retail sales and cash transactions first surpassed those made using credit cards. Prepaid products are about delivering greater convenience and relevance for consumers.

Consumers in Australia, India and Thailand were the top three prepaid markets in the Asia Pacific last year for transaction volume, accounting for more than 62 percent of the total prepaid retail sales and cash transactions. Below are few examples of prepaid cards:

1. Touch-n-Go


Touch ‘n Go (TNG) card is a multipurpose prepaid card which can be used in public transportation around Selangor and all highway in Malaysia. With the high demand of TNG, applications of Touch-n-Go now are expended towards the retail purchases such as fast food industry and parking fees. Adding on, TNG facilities is placed at both the KL International Airport (KLIA) and Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) since February this year. With this facilities available, consumer finds it more convenient in making transactions without taking out much of petty cash in hand.

2. Ezlink


Ezlink is one of the most prominent prepaid card in Singapore. It covers a very wide usage and can be used in different sector service including food & beverage, convenience shops, gaming, government service, health, shopping & retail, tertiary institutions, schools, private bus service and so on. With ezlink ,consumer will not have trouble having too much cash in their wallets.

3. Octopus


Octopus is one of the most successful " prepaid card" system. It is started from a transit payment system, and it has become a widely used electronic cash system. In Hong Kong, most of the people are using Octopus prepaid card in different services including public transportation services, apparel stores, bakeries, car parks, cinemas, convenience stores, fast food chains, household stores, leisure facilities, personal care stores, photo finishing stores, photocopiers, supermarkets, and vending machines. From year 2006, it had expanded its business to ShenZhen and Macau.

4. Oyster Card


Oyster card is known as " Pay as you go" cards. It is used mainly on London transport services. Starting from 2007, Oyster card also can be used to purchase goods and services. The advantage of this prepaid card over paper ticket is Oyster single fares are generally cheaper. Moreover, its credit can be used as you need it and doesn't expire and lastly, having "daily price capping" which will automatically calculate the cheapest fare for all the journeys you make in a single day.

In conclusion, with the advancement of prepaid cards, consumer can enjoy the convenience that it brings. In other words, prepaid cards makes people's lives easier.

Credit Card Debts: Causes & Prevention

Credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debt, accessed through ISO 7810 plastic credit cards.

Debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system. Debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay the company for the money he or she has spent.

Causes

1) Less Income, More Expenses
It happens that the main wage earner of the household loses his job but monthly expenses are not cut down in line with the reduction in income. This obviously leads to a rise in debt. The family is forced to use their credit cards for groceries, utilities, etc.

2) Saving little or not at all
You should save for at least 4-6 months of living expenses in case an unfortunate tragedy happens. For example, if you lose your job on January 1st, you shall have enough money to maintain your current lifestyle till July 1st of that year. Until July 1st, you can find yourself new employment or open your own business.

3) Poor Money Management
Poor money management is one of the best reasons why so many families accumulate lots of debt. Not having a monthly spending plan and not keeping track of your monthly bills makes you unaware of where your money is going. You might be spending hundreds of dollars every month towards items that are useless and have no value in your life, yet you do not realize it.

Prevention

1) Stop accruing more debt
The more you continue to spend, the longer it will take for you to pay it off. Reduce your spending. If you have high interest credit cards, transfer the balance to ones with a lower Annual Percentage Rate (APR). By the way your debt won’t increase while as you’re paying it off.

2) Make a budget and stick to it
It’s easy to overspend when you don’t have a budget. Calculate how much you have to spend and stick to that limit. Write down all of your expenses so you know where your money is going.

3) Change your spending philosophy
Are you only buying the things you really need? Those impulse purchases may feel good at the moment, but in the long run, they will only get you further into debt. If you’re going to get out of debt, you will need to change your whole attitude to spending.

A review on “Internet Security – IMPACT – To fight cyber terrorism”

A review on “Internet Security – IMPACT – To fight cyber terrorism”

Nowadays, cyber security threats have been a global major issue. From the cyber war of Estonia, we can clearly know that cyber security threats can even jeopardize a country security and economic prosperity. A country critical infrastructure is highly depending on Information Technology System for crucial operations.

However, there is no one owns the Internet, cyber security preparedness and awareness are the duty and responsibility of all Internet users.

With the implementation of IMPACT, we should be proud of being a Malaysian. IMPACT is the world’s first international public-private sector collaborative institution against cyber terrorism. The aim of the IMPACT is to bring governments and international private sectors together to deal with the increasing security threats in cyberspace. The IMPACT will also build an electronic collaborative platform in order to link all member countries. It enables experts to collaborate with one another.

Besides, IMPACT also collaborates with ITU in aiming at building synergies to provide:
1) Real-time analysis, aggregation and dissemination of global cyber threats information
2) Early warning system and emergency response to global cyber threats
3) Training and skills development on the technical, legal and policy aspects of cybersecurity.

The implementation of IMPACT - such a great non profit organization is encouraging and most welcomed. Keep it on, Malaysia BOLEH!!!





Outside the book

But, in fact did IMPACT play their roles well? Let me share somethings that is interesting ^^

Malaysia's Kaspersky Website HACKED!

(click to enlarge the photo)












Website : Kaspersky Lab: Antivirus software
URL : http://www.kaspersky.com.my/

NOTE: Kaspersky is one of the private company involved in IMPACT.





Quote of the Post

Quoted from IMPACT – A cyber-attack can be launched from anywhere in the world. The more connected you are, the more vulnerable you would be. CYBER-TERRORISM IS REAL. JOIN THE FORCES OF IMPACT.


References

http://www.impact-alliance.org/
http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet%20Security
http://www.security.org.my/index.php?/archives/Making-an-IMPACT-on-Cyber-terrorism.html

How to Safeguard Our Personal and Financial Data

The emergence of the internet and e-commerce has brought many benefits to the users such as online shopping, online banking, online trading. Almost every financial transaction could be made online. However, despite all the benefits, this advancement also brings about bane. Identity thefts occur more,financial data and even personal data are leaked, malicious programs and viruses destroy information and many more uncountable troubles. No matter what we do these troubles could not be totally eliminated; but by following the few steps and tips below, the chances of all these troubles finding you is very much lower.

Password
A password is the most fundamental protection you must apply. But what's there to it. You've been using a password all along but still your data and information have been stolen. Our question is have you been using a password the correct way?

"WHAT?? THERE'S A RIGHT OR WRONG WAY TO USE A PASSWORD???"


This is the question that might me playing in your mind now and it's answer is definitely a big YES!! For starters passwords should be something you can recall but not something so obvious like your birth date or name. It's also wise to have both alpha and numeric in your password; for example, "88cosmo88" (this is a password that we came up with on the spot so don't try to sign into our MSN using this password). Having different passwords for different accounts is also a good idea as a lost password will not lead to a loss of everything. To top things up, do not, we repeat DO NOT carry your passwords around be in on paper or in your hand phone. It'll be a big problem if you lose them.

Trusted Websites
Besides having a strong password, the websites you visit also plays a very crucial role in safeguarding your data. You should only access trusted websites. For the girls, do your online shopping through renown online traders such as Amazon.com or Walmart. For the boys, no matter how curious you are please refrain yourself from going to any websites that would corrupt your computer as well as your mind. All payments should also be made through trusted websites such as Public Bank (www.pbebank.com), Maybank (www.maybank2u.com)or Paypal (www.paypal.com).

AntiViruses


Another thing that your computer must have is an AntiVirus. As the post before mentioned, there are many viruses waiting to strike at your computer. Once infected there might be a lost of data stored in your computer or even end up frying your computer's hardware. So in order to avoid that from happening, it would be wise to install an AntiVirus. here's the list of the top 10 AntiVirus in year 2009 (http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/).



Spam
We are sure many of you have actually heard of this term, thus we'll not be elaborating on it. NEVER EVER respond to spam. We mean it never respond to spam as it is one of the phishing methods (refer to our earlier post on phishing to learn more). Some spams bring with them malicious software such as Trojan Horses and many more viruses that will cripple your computer and retrieve your information. SO NEVER EVER RESPOND TO SPAM.


The Rule of Thumb in Public Places

There are things that you should and should not do when accessing your private accounts or data on public computers. If possible don't, as you stand a risk of losing your data or finances. But if you have no choice then follow our instructions. Always look around before typing in your ID and password. You don't know when someone just happen to see you happily punching in your password and plans to steal them, so be alert. You should also make it a habit to clear all browsing history and saved passwords before logging off as you might have saved your password on the computer.

Well if you follow the step and tips that we have mentioned, we are certain that most probably, no most definitely, no MOST ABSOLUTELY all the troubles won't stumble on you.

The Threat of Online Security: How Safe Is Our Data

The threat of Internet fraud is quite real and we need to be aware of scams such as “phishing" and “pharming” where a virus or malicious program can be downloaded to your computer with the intention of stealing your personal information – from credit card information, user ID and password to online banking accounts.

There are some tips that will minimise your risk of being a victim.

TIPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF ONLINE

Watch out for suspicious e-mail or pop-up links
NEVER click on a URL link in e-mail or fill out forms in e-mail requesting you to confirm or update personal information, even if it threatens dire consequences if you don’t reply.Even if the e-mail seems to be from a genuine web site or someone you know, call first to check or type the web URL to log on to the site yourself (not from the e-mail). Also, never send your personal information to anyone by e-mail.

Protect your computer with anti-virus, spam filters and firewalls
Update your Operating System and Internet Browser regularly to ensure that you are protected. Use anti-virus software and, if possible, personal firewalls. Ensure your anti-virus software is up to date with the latest signatures.

Scan your PC for viruses and update your browser regularly
Take some time to visit any popular anti-virus web site to scan your PC. This will alert you to any virus or malicious programs in your computer. You can often download the latest security and critical patches from these sites too.

Be cautious about clicking on pop-ups and free stuff
Beware of downloading free programs and web content offering to increase the speed of your computer, free gifts, get rich quick schemes, etc.If you share your computer with others, ensure they do not visit such sites and unknowingly download malicious content.

Be selfish about sharing your password
Online fraud frequently occurs when someone has compromised the security of their password through sharing. Do not share your password with family, relatives, friends or anyone, however harmless and convenient it may seem at the time. Your password is the key that opens the lock to your personal information and should be guarded as safely as your car keys.

Finally, always clear your cache each time you logout after an Internet session. This is very important if others have access to your computer or you use a computer in public places such as Internet cafes.

Just take these steps to enhance the way you protect your personal information and ensure your Internet experience is enjoyable.

Phishing; Examples and prevention methods

Phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.



Below are two examples of phishing email from ebay which serve different functions.



This genuine looking email is a masquerade. As soon as you clicked on “respond”, you were directed to an exact clone of eBay and your personal information was stolen. These messages come in different styles and writings.

This whole email was actually an image which referred you to a scam website if you clicked anywhere on it. Your mouse cursor changed to a “hand”, if you have this set as default when you point over a link.

Despite all these phishing examples, there are also ways to prevent getting scammed.

The first step to avoid being phished is to not trust emails sent to us that requests personal information especially financial information. Normally, phishers will include upsetting or exciting statements in order to trigger our fear or happiness so that we will react immediately after receiving the email. They may falsely claim suspicious withdrawals from your bank account by telling us we are the winner of a lottery. Therefore, to avoid being phished, we must never give out our account information to other parties before checking and reporting the incident with the bank or actual company that have sent you the email.

Secondly, we must ensure the website we are using to submit our credit card or other sensitive information is secure. To ensure the website is an encrypted secured website, we must check the beginning of the web address in the browser address bar is showing “https://” rather than just “http://”. Other than that, a small chain will also show in your browser if a secured website is used. However, we must be aware that phishers can get us to enter their own website and create a “secure link” for us to provide all the information they need. They can also spoof the windows explorer to show exactly what they want by putting a window on top of the other, covering the real URL.

Another way to avoid being phished is also by regularly logging into your online accounts. Having a healthy control over your accounts is normal good conduct. It is important that we should regularly check our bank, credit and debit cards to ensure that all transactions are legitimate. If anything suspicious is observed, we should contact our bank and all card issuers as soon as possible. The Microsoft Internet Explorer browser has several security holes exploited by phishing attacks. We can download the security patches at the Microsoft Security home page, http://www.microsoft.com/security/ .

Lastly, we can always lend a helping hand to stop phishing by reporting “phishing attacks” or either “spoofed” e-mails to several groups. First of all, we can forward the email to reportphishing@antiphishing.com or either to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov. Other than that, we can also forward the email to the “abuse” email address at the company that is being spoofed, for example, spoof@ebay.com”. When forwarding spoofed messages, we must always include the entire original email with its original header information intact. Another option is to notify the Internet Fraud Complaint Centre of the FBI by filling a complaint on their website, www.ifccfbi.gov/.

How The Big Timers Play The Game

Have any of you wondered how internet big timers make money?

It's quite simple actually: they generate income through the many revenue models. Now you are wondering – what the heck is a revenue model?

Strictly speaking, a revenue model is a mold of how companies earn revenue, produce profit, and generate return on their invested capital. There are many revenue models but the most common are:

Sales of Goods or Services Model	The company gains a margin from the sales of goods, services or information
Transaction Fee Model	The company collects a fee for each transaction that is conducted through its e-Business infrastructure
Subscription Fee Model	The company charges a regular fee for the access of information or services provided
Advertising Fee Model	The company provides a platform for others to advertise in its website and collects a fee for it.
Affiliate Fee Model	The company receives payment for referring customers to other web sites
License Fees Model	The company collects a fee for e-Business processes to which the company has rights

Other Revenue Models are Referral Fee Model, Ransom Model and Sponsorships Model.

So with the knowledge of what revenue models are, you can determine how e-commerce giants roll in the cash. I will only be illustrating three companies namely - Google, Amazon.com and eBay
and the few most prominent revenue model that the giants uses.

Google’s Revenue Model

Google generates revenue mainly from advertising. The bulk of the revenue is generated through Google AdWords. Google AdWords allows clients to advertise through Google’s website.the advertisement is usually in text form or a banner ad. Google collects a nominal activation fee (USD 5) and the clients also pay Google based on per-click or per-thousand- impressions. Pay per-click is an internet advertising model which the client only pays when the advertisement is clicked. Pay per-thousand-impression means the client needs to pay for every 1000 times a user views his/her ad and an impression is recorded.

Amazon.com Revenue Model

We deem Amazon.com as one of the most successful companies in e-commerce. It generates income through various revenue models. Amazon.com started out by being an electronic retailer. It sells goods (books, music, video games, electronic gadgets, apparels, etc.) to business and also to customers online. Thus, it applies the Sales of Goods or Services Model.

Besides that, Amazon.com enables customers to sell their goods through its WebStore. Amazon’s WebStore enables customers to create an e-commerce website which is powered by the same

technology and system as Amazon. Amazon charges $59.99 per month for each WebStore (you can have multiple WebStores) plus 7% commission on each transaction made through the WebStore.

(Proceed to http://webstore.amazon.com/?ld=AZNav if interested)

Above that Amazon.com is one of the "originators" of affiliate programs. Amazon receives a referral fee from the affiliates when a customer clicks on their link and purchases goods at the transaction site. Amazon Associates provides publishers the opportunity to display affiliate links and details for Amazon.com products in a variety of formats, including product images, text links, and banners.

eBay's Revenue Model

When I mention eBay, I am focusing on eBay alone not together with its subsidiaries (Half.com. Paypal ,Kikiji.com).

eBay is a platform for customers to buy and sell their goods online (consumer to consumer). In other words eBay is the middle man. eBay focuses on the transaction fee model where it collects commission from its customers when a transaction is done through its website. When you catalog an item on eBay, you're charged an Insertion Fee. You are also charged a Final Value Fee when the item is sold. There are two fee structures based on how the goods are sold. First is the auction-style listing and second is selling the item at a fixed price.

For reference of the fee structure please go to http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html%23auction

eBay’s rapid user growth created community, content and search value streams, which in turn created the critical mass for substantial advertising revenue.

So you can now see the difference in the revenue modals used by the three giants. Google’s main revenue generating model is advertising fee while Amazon.com though have many revenue models mainly focuses on the sales of good or services model and finally eBay’s model of focus is the transaction fee model.

History and Evolution of E-commerce

Electronic commerce means doing business online, typically via the Web. It is also called "e-business," "e-tailing" and "I-commerce". Although in most cases e-commerce and e-business are the same, e-commerce implies that goods and services can be purchased online, whereas e-business might be used as more of an umbrella term for a total presence on the Web, which would naturally include the e-commerce (shopping) component.

E-Commerce was birth out of the World-Wide-Web (WWW). Although many people use the terms WWW, but the WWW is just one of the many services available on the Internet. The aspect of the WWW actually is a relatively new aspect of the Internet. While the Internet was developed in the late 1960s, the WWW came into existence more than a decade ago in the early 1990s. Since then, it has grown phenomenally to become the most widely used service on the Internet.

Although the Web has made online shopping possible for many businesses and individuals, in a broader sense, e-commerce has existed for many years. For decades, banks have been using electronic funds transfer (EFT, also called wire transfer), which are electronic transmissions of account exchange information over private communication networks.

Businesses also have been engaging in a form of electronic commerce, known as electronic data interchange, for many years. Electronic Date Interchange (EDI) occurs when business transmits computer-readable data in a standard format to another business.

In the 1960s, businesses realized that many of the documents they exchange related to the shipping of goods such as invoices, purchase orders, and bills of lading and included the same set of information for almost every transaction. They also realized that they were spending a lot of time and money entering these data into their computers, printing paper forms, and then re-entering the data on the other side of the transaction. Although the purchase order, invoice, and bill of lading for each transaction contained much of the same information such as item numbers, descriptions, prices and quantities - each paper form had its own unique format for presenting that information. By creating a set of standard formats for transmitting that information electronically, businesses were able to reduce errors, avoid printing and mailing costs, and eliminate the need to re-enter the data.

An example of an E-Commerce failure and its causes

An example of an E-Commerce failure and its causes

The most famous Dot.com failure - Boo.com (1998-2000)

Boo.com is one of the most famous dot.com companies went bust in the late 90s. The year of 2000 was a turbulent time for the internet economy, but the failure of the clothing e-tailer Boo.com, added anxiousness about the stability and capability of existing or future online retailers.

Boo.com was launched 3rd November 1999, a British Internet company founded by Swedes Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin, with an approximately with $125 million of funding by investors such as Benetton and Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVMH, Europe largest luxury goods group. With such huge amount of funding, it had not only become the most heavily funded Internet start-up in Europe, but had also become the highest profile.

Poor Web Design and User Experiences

The Boo.com website was broadly criticized as poorly designed for its target shopper and audience. For example, one of the famous criticism - “With products zooming all around the page, customers practically have to play target practice in order select the product they want (ZDNet, 29th November 1999).”

The site was very difficult to navigate and surf around. Shoppers could get lost and find no way back to their starting point. A browsing experience should be made pleasurable, simple and easy to use, and should not hindered by the overuse of technology.

Boo.com used a lot of graphics, pop-up windows, Miss Boo an animated helper and 3D images that only those with a 56k modem could see it without waiting a minutes for it to load. Due to a technology analyst from Forrester Research, points out that only 1% of home surfers in Europe and 2% in the US have such high-speed connections. With such high requirement of connection speed, it will discourage potential customers to shop at this website again.

Although Boo.com looked great, anyone visiting it in November 1999 was confronted with a formidable array of windows.

Poor Marketing

Besides, Boo.com marketed itself as a premium fashion retailer, stocking and providing quality products for the potential shoppers. However, premium products alway came with expensive charges. Traditionally, customers are attracted to buying over the Internet by cheaper pricing instead of expensive charges. Although Boo.com with high technology enabled shoppers to view the items in 3D and gave a distinct visual feel on the products, but they didn’t account the main key of internet buying – lower prices. Furthermore, Boo.com did not wish to offer discounts, as it will devalue their brand and reputation.

Overstaffed, Overpaid, Over here

Boo.com attempted to create a perfect working environment for its employee, with plenty of staffing including a call centre 8 people, and approximately 400 staff in all, which proved to be excessive and expensive. (Financial Times, 18th May 2000)

For a company that employed 400 people when it only estimated it needed 30, such disappointing revenue was hardly enough to keep it running. Perhaps that’s why eight weeks before Boo.com demise, Boo.com had only managed to generate $ 200,000 turnover in 300,000 customers. In addition, the company still needed countless millions in additional funding and spending.

In retrospect, Boo.com simply tried to do too much, too soon. With over half of Britain’s Internet users now on broadband and trust for online shopping much greater than it was in 2000, Boo.com could have seen great success.

Boo.com eventually burned through $160 million before liquidation in May 2000.



What is important is not making it look good but making it fast and easy to use – Mark Baillie

It was a real mish-mash when it went live – Jim McNiven, Kerb

In 2005, CNET called boo.com the sixth greatest dot-com flop.

E-commerce success example and its causes

AirAsia.com is one of the leading example of a successful e-commerce in Asia. AirAsia is a low fare airline in the Asia - AirAsia is one of the pioneers that started implementing online ticketing in the airline industry and has been expanding rapidly since 2001, to become an award winning and the largest low cost carrier in Asia. With a fleet of 72 aircrafts, AirAsia flies to over 61 domestic and international destinations with 108 routes, and operates over 400 flights daily from hubs located in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. To date, AirAsia has flown over 55 million guests across the region

How did AirAsia manage to achieve this in such a short period of time? Several factors have a role in the success of any e-commerce venture, and so does AirAsia.com

One of the reasons why AirAsia.com can draw customers to purchase their air ticket online is because they provide an attractive website. The tasteful use of colour, graphics, animation, photographs, fonts, and white-space percentage may aid success in this respect. As customers log in to airasia.com, they can see the striking red colour background and also two columns to choose which country and the language preference they are comfortable with. Besides, there is also a beautiful picture of airasia pleasant stewardess that welcome visitors that log on to the website.

Apart from that, airasia also provides personal attention to their customers. Personalized web sites, purchase suggestions, and personalized special offers may go some of the way to substituting for the face-to-face human interaction found at a conventional point of sale. In airasia.com, regular customers may join in as a member to be able to log in their personalize web pages to do online purchasing or online reservation. Customers are also greeted by their respective names in the web pages. Besides, customers will be notified personally if there are any latest promotions offered.

In addition, providing a sense of community is also a crucial success factor. For instance, having chat rooms, discussion boards, soliciting customer input, loyalty schemes and affinity programs can help in this respect. Airasia.com provides a blog to serve as a platform for its employee, customers, and suppliers to voice out their comments and feedback regarding the company’s services or problems encountered. This way, airasia can make changes to improve further according to the demand of its customers.

On top of that, providing an incentive for customers to buy and to return is another way to attract customers. Thus, sales promotions to this end for example, coupons, special offers, and discounts make customers feel that the purchase is worth the money they pay for. When the promotion is more worth it compared to the competitors, customers will choose to stay with airasia.

Lastly, the reliability and security of the airasia web site is essential to build customers’ trust. For instance, parallel servers, hardware redundancy, fail-safe technology, information encryption, and firewalls can enhance this requirement. With this backup and safety features implemented, customers will be more confident when performing transaction online to purchase the air tickets.