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e-Commerce Websites



Introduction

Is it really beneficial to buy and sell things over the internet?

Yes, it is. People of modern world use internet to buy and sell everything from bird feathers to books to household items, and even to shop for computers and cars. It is important to note that the credit cards of the users are not immediately maxed out and their credit rating is never destroyed (Cohen & Little, 2002).

As soon as the "World Wide Web" became popular got soaked in popularity and customized itself for the people of the non-technical field, the user-friendly approach and the convenience of internet started enticing both consumers and retailers. Retailers soon realized the magic of direct-sales and advertising and ventured their own websites for marketing their products. They started offering marketing their products and also arranged secure online ordering and payments through their website. Now with the help of internet a book selling company can sell their book online without even maintaining an actual bookstore or warehouse. Some of the savvy retails used wonderful sales models and fully utilized the accessibility of the web; amazon.com is an example.

You can use internet even if you do not want to buy or sell things completely online. You can do a little research through internet before buying anything. You can look for the price range, tax and the product quality. And if you want to buy something through internet you can look at wide range of products and choose the one you want. Websites like eBay and PayPal are proved to be the best websites for internet purchase and online payments respectively. However you may doubt whether online transactions are safe and whether you can safely submit your social security number or credit card number over the internet. Even though it is true that you need to have some precaution while submitting this information, most of these internet transactions are fairly protected.


A set of instructions to purchase from eBay

eBay offers the biggest and widest selection of Art items for you to choose from. You can even find sculptures in bronze, stone and clay made by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Auguste Rodin and all other popular artists. If you are looking for the suitable paint to paint your house, you will be amazed at the collection of paints in eBay.

EBay can be the best place for finding the poster you are looking for. You can find all your favorites by simply browsing through the eBay website. You can find posters on advertising, architecture, events, figures, portraits, movies, celebrity, floral gardens, impressionist, outsider art, pop art and several others on eBay.

Buying through eBay involves searching and browsing for getting the one you want. If you are looking for a specific item you can search for that particular item. You may enter three words describing that item into the search box and view the search results. If you are not sure what you want to buy and just want to do window shopping, you can simply scroll through items and simply browse. You can continue the search until you find something interesting. You can well review your browse results by simply clicking on the item that you want.


If you want to purchase in eBay, you need to first,

(1) Register (2) find items (3) consider the buying formats (4) Consider payment methods (5) Use My EBay and (6) Connect with eBay members (this is optional).

Registration is easy and free in eBay. You can simply fill a form and register with eBay. Later you can choose the product you want. You must the suitable buying format for you as there are numerous buying formats in eBay. Some may involve usual selling and some may involve bidding. You must then consider the suitable payment method for you. Carefully read the kind of transactions seller wants and act accordingly. Most of them use PayPal for accepting payments as it will transfer the money immediately. You can pay also through credit card in eBay. You can also use my eBay to track all your eBay activities. This is however, optional. You can also connect with other eBay users and can involve in the community discussion boards and chats offered by eBay.


A set of instructions to sell on eBay

Selling on eBay is also very much exciting it allows you to sell it according to the price set by you. EBay will showcase your item to their visitors all around the world and would help you get the best price for it. You can become an eBay seller by providing a valid credit/debit card and your bank account information. Moreover, if are reluctant to give this information, you can also become an "ID Verified" customer in eBay.
While selling an item on eBay, it is always useful if you set up an account with PayPal. You can choose to use PayPal to accept the credit card and electronic check of the buyer online itself. It is always better to start a PayPal account before you begin to list an item on PayPal. Registration with PayPal is simple and easy.
For selling your item on eBay, you need to find the "Fill out the Sell Your Item form". You create your eBay listing on Fill out the Sell Your Item form. You need to make some selections while filling out this form. You need to (1) Select a category (2) Write a title (3) Add pictures (4) Select item specifics (5) Write item description (6) Choose the selling format (7) Choose pricing and listing duration (8) Enter payment and shipping information and (9) Increase your item visibility.

While selling the item on eBay you also need to (1) Review and submit your listing - You can see a preview of your listing and summary details. You need to view it carefully. Here your listing starts

Afterwards when your listing ends, you need to (1) Communicate with your buyer.
If you choose to use eBay's Checkout service, eBay will notify you by email when your buyer completes checkout. If you did not choose to use checkout, you need to contact the buyer directly by email or phone. (2)Receive payment. You will receive payment in the manner you choose. If you chose PayPal, amount will be send to your paypal account. After that you need to (3) Ship the item to the buyer; and (4) Leave the buyer feedback


A set of instructions to set up an account on PayPal

etting up an account with PayPal is easier than anything. You need to first visit the PayPal site www.paypal.com to create an account with PayPal. You will find a button as shown below in the home page of the PayPal website.

INCLUDEPICTURE "https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/bnr/bnr_join_190x75.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET

You can click on this for creating account. In PayPal, you need to provide your personal information in the account creation form. Moreover, you also will be asked whether you want your personal account to be a premier account. This is also free. This would permit you to accept credit card payments from others and also other cash payments (mostly, direct debits from checking account which is permitted also in personal account). You can choose to make your account a premier account later also when you want to accept payments from credit cards. But it is always better to choose to make a premier account in the beginning itself.

Registration with PayPal is somewhat over with this form filling. Afterwards you need to go to you email to confirm the email sent by PayPal. You need to click the hyperlink given in the email for verifying it. This will result in the official registration of your PayPal account.

You can verify your PayPal account by adding your credit card number. This is the linking of your PayPal account with your linking account. This will lift the withdrawal limit and the sending limit of your PayPal account. You can now make payments to anybody as cash; as direct debits from the checking account. The confirmation email will give you further information on this sending procedure. It is quite simple.


The risks involved in buying an item on eBay

There are some risks involved in buying items on eBay. Buyers are often liable for fraud in eBay purchases. It can happen that the product is not delivered even after paying the required amount. Moreover, sometimes the delivered product may not have the required quality and the buyer is cheated in this transaction. There are numerous risks associated with payment also. eBay discourages the use of Western Union or MoneyGram for reducing the money transaction fraud.

Numerous cases were reported in ebay when the product is not delivered on correct time. There also can be various delay and problems in delivering the products. Sometimes product will not be delivered to the buyer on the correct time. As a result, buyer will not have any benefit from the transaction if he needs the product urgently. There has occurred several fraud issues in which buyer did not receive the product and could not contact the seller afterwards. Moreover it is quite risky to buy an item without checking it directly. It is always risky to trust the information and description provided by the seller. Sometimes when the product reaches the buyer it will not be of the required quality. We can never be assured on the product quality unless we personally examine it. So it always bit risky to buy from ebay.

EBay recommends PayPal for its transactions. It is always better to use PayPal for your eBay transactions. There are also chances that the seller may demand for some other kinds of transactions. Some fraud sellers may insist to send money through immediate money transfer and would never send the item to the buyer. It is better to be careful in such instant money demand transactions. It is better not to send money to sellers who insist on payment through this instant method.

Information leakage also has created various problems in ebay transactions. Lack of strong Client Side Security and other security has resulted into several fraud issues. For example, it has become very much difficult to escape from active content and other fraud websites like java and activeX code. The active content would try to damage the information. Some active contents can even enter the hard disk of the user and can steal the files. Information theft is also very common in ecommerce. For example, used id, password and even credit card and social security numbers are stolen and misused. Those who engage in internet purchase should thus ensure the security of the information that is stored as well as transferred.


The risks involved in selling an item on eBay

Selling is also not completely fraud free in eBay. There are chances that illegitimate buyers do bid on your items. Chargeback is also a problem for legitimate sellers. Sometimes fraud buyers do pay using stolen or other illegitimate credit card and this may result into a problem for the seller in the future. When the fraud using illegitimate credit card is found out, the transaction will be frozen and seller will face trouble in getting the payment.

Numerous testimonies of fraud transaction have come up about selling items on ebay. Several issues were reported on the using of fraud credit cards. The amount given to the seller will be frozen if the credit card company found out that the transaction was from a stolen or false credit card. The credit card company would ask explanation from the buyer in this case. However, the seller will not receive the payment unless the credit card fraud problem is properly cleared. So it is little risky to sell the items through ebay. Moreover, transaction from unauthorized names and Ids also will create future problem for seller. Moreover, money from unauthorized funds will also create tax related problems for the seller. So while selling items on ebay, seller must ensure that money he receives from the buyer.

Unauthorized and fraud data access has created problems while selling through e-commerce websites like ebay. There are various fraud provisions for accessing sensitive data like use id, password and credit card number. Cookies also would increase the chance of information theft. Cookies would store the necessary information like password and would result in the unauthorized use of the information. Cookies would be stored according to the settings of the browser and would store password and other sensitive information if kept on. Cookies would keep the history of the visited websites and personal information in the computer. Some sites are particular about keeping the cookies enabled for accessing some information. Some websites do not specifically mention their privacy policy also. Cookies would be dangerous as it would keep the information that is liable to be misused. Such data leakage would thus result in various problems in selling through e-commerce sites like ebay.


The role of feedback and history statistics on eBay

Feedback and history statistics are quite important on eBay. It will be useful for the future users to refer. Beginners can also go through the history and feedback to plan their dealings accordingly. Feedback and history statistics would help when somebody visits the site for buying and selling items. It would also help them in estimating the price and quality matters also. Feedback on a certain type of product will be useful for buyers who want to purchase the same kind of item. Moreover, beginners who visit the site will find the feedback and history statistics quite useful. Some people will not have any idea about the bidding amount and other transaction formalities. These feedback and history statistics would help such users in familiarizing themselves with the item quality, bidding amount and other transaction details.


The risks involved in maintaining a PayPal account

PayPal is generally considered as a secure mode of transaction methods. It is quite important to keep the PayPal password safe to avoid any misuse of your PayPal account. Maintaining the password confidential is the most important factor in maintaining PayPal account. Some may feel PayPal quite risk as everything is protected just by a single vulnerable password. There are lots of software and other fraud programs that can steal all passwords. Moreover, some sites use fake PayPal buttons in their webpage and make people enter their username and password there.
PayPal also have some horror stories. There are some stories of 'PayPal Froze My Account', 'Funds held for months', 'Bank Account Charged', 'PayPal password stolen', 'Instant Download Fraud', 'PayPal Phone Fraud', 'PayPal Employee Theft' and other. PayPal chargeback is also a big question mark. There are several testimonies that say PayPal held the payment for several months without any reason.
Maintaining the PayPal account and keeping the password out of fraud access is a big risk again for the PayPal account holder. Data is very vulnerable to leak at various points when it is getting transferred from the browser's server to the client's server. The network of the user's connection, the network of the server's connection, the server's ISP, the end-user's and the region access providers of the ISP are the various points where there are chances that the data may be illicitly accessed. Hackers will make use of various tricks like Eavesdropping, Traffic analysis, Crypto-analysis, Authentication attack and Skimming for accessing data. If someone can access the password through some fraud means, how risky it will be to maintain a PayPal account? Maintaining the account without fraud access itself has become a big challenge for account holders.


A comparison of security using EFT vs. PayPal

Most of the sellers use more than one payment method. Some methods provide more protection than others. So you must select a method of payment that is most safe and that you are comfortable with.

Comparing PayPal and EFT, PayPal has more advantages that EFT. PayPal is recommended in eBay transactions. There are lots of benefits in receiving and paying money though PayPal. PayPal allows immediate and convenient payment. Others cannot see your bank account, debit card or credit card details while sending or accepting money (Timesaver Books, 2003). This reduces the risk of unauthorized use of your checking account. Moreover, in PayPal payment is deposited directly into the seller's account. Moreover, PayPal covers up to ??500 through PayPal's "Buyer Protection Programme". Apart from that PayPal dealings are traceable and involve automatic payment tracking.

Electronic fund transfer is not recommended in eBay transactions. It is vulnerable to criminal misuse and it is quite difficult to identify and designate recipient. Moreover, it not offer verification and cancellation privileges. Most importantly, no recourse is given if the item is not delivered at the correct time as promised (even if you used your credit card to send the payment). These kinds of money transfer can be used to transfer money within relatives or friends. PayPal is more recommended that electronic fund transfer while doing online transactions related to buying and selling of goods.


The risks involved when accepting payments using PayPal

Accepting PayPal payments can sometimes be risky. Accepting PayPal payments is risky. You will never know whether your buyer has paid using a credit card. PayPal will not inform you whether he has paid through credit card or not. Moreover, sometimes payments will come from some unauthorized email id and PayPal will detect it only after some time. It can also happen in PayPal transaction that some people will pay through stolen and unauthorized credit cards and the subsequent problems will appear only after some days. It is always good to educate yourself with the fraud controlling measures provided by PayPal itself. There are lots of about fraud in PayPal money acceptance. While selling the items in high risk category like laptops and mobile phones, it is quite important to be careful in accepting PayPal payments.


Chargeback fraud in PayPal

Chargeback happens when buyer asks credit card Company to remove a charge from their credit card statement (Sofield, Nielsen, & Burchell, 2004). This can happen when a buyer's credit card number is stolen and used fraudulently and also when the buyer completes the payment and seller fails to send the item to the buyer (also when the item is not of required quality)

If there occurs any suspicious activity, PayPal would normally alert you either by email or by a representative calling you. They offer a typical 'chargeback protection'. PayPal will put chargeback such suspicious transaction.

Credit card companies generally place needs of buyers before the needs of merchants. Chargeback disputes are therefore quite difficult for sellers. Some chargeback occur long after the seller receives the payment and it will be quite difficult for him. There are few testimonies where chargeback has been placed on normal well going accounts. Chargeback fraud is a disadvantage of PayPal transaction.


Policy Recommendations and Conclusion

e-commerce transactions are very much vulnerable to fraud. As a result of the lack of security while making payments, internet payments should be carefully done to avoid fraud activities. In order to secure the dealings from correction, several measures need to be taken. First of all, all ecommerce websites should specify their privacy policy and should keep it. Proper security measures like firewalls should be installed to the system. Moreover, users must be aware of the security measures and the different ways through which fraud come. Both the merchant and customer are liable to risks in internet transactions.

Generally it is recommended that the user can use eBay for buying a selling an item. Wide range of product range and secure transaction can help the buyer or seller to use eBay for online selling and buying. Coming to the case of transaction methods, PayPal is recommended than any other mode of Payment. Payment has excellent fraud detection technique and has less fraud experiences. Payment is better than any other online transaction. eBay also recommends PayPal for their dealings.

Proper measure should be taken to protect the data from getting leaked. Information should be protected from getting leaked when it is transferred from the user's server to the receiver's server. Encryption techniques are used to maintain the privacy of the data when it is transferred through different phases. Encryption is a highly useful method as it will guarantee that only the sender and receiver would be able to access the information. Encryption would also ensure authentication by confirming the receiver that the message was from a specific sender. It would also assure the sender that the message reached none but the intended receiver. Encryption also makes sure that the message can never be altered while passing through different phases. The technique of encryption also confirms the involvement of both the parties in the dealing which can never be denied later. This technique is very crucial in e-commerce transactions as the dealings need to be properly stored for future reference in the case of any legal disputes. For example, sometimes parties (seller and buyer) would claim that they did not receive the order or money. Encryption would help to access the information in the cases of disputes like this. Digital signature, which would prove the identity of the person in electronic manner, is also useful in internet transactions. Moreover, authentication guarantees that the transferred message cannot be changed by any interventions during the different phases of the data transfer. Hash functions are highly useful in proving the file integrity.

Server side security is also crucial for the safe transfer of the data from the sender to the receiver. Three protocols SSL, S-HTPP and SET would implement the encryption technologies to ensure that the data has never been leaked while moving from the sender to the receiver. Secure Socket Layers (SSL) is the security protocol that gives security to the data when it traverses through the network. The protocol S-HTTP also protects the data when it passes through the internet. A combination of SSL and S-HTTP would offer secure connection and digital signatures for individual messages. The protocol called Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) would protect the fund transactions between the customer, merchants and bank systems.

Usage of firewalls would control the interaction between internal and external systems. Keeping firewalls can control the information theft to a good extent. Firewalls would implement application protocol relay functions. Firewalls would protect the resource by filtering the IP packets as per the source and destination address. Firewalls would also create log files and audit all communication activities. Keeping the firewalls installed is therefore a best option to control any fraud attempt to access sensitive information.

Communication channel security is another essential factor as data are liable to be accessed while passing through open networks. Security measures should be taken to protect the data when it travels through a network. It is not enough that we protect the data in the hard disk of the computer; we should also be sure about the security of the data transferred through the network. For example, user name, password, social security numbers and credit card numbers are liable to be accessed.

The mode of transactions also should be properly chosen in the e-commerce transactions. The best type of transaction mode should be chosen for each type of e-commerce dealings. There are numerous payment systems that would transfer the money from the sender to the receiver. Electronic payment system would send the money using electronic communication channels.

PayPal is the most popular internet transaction method. It would immediately transfer the amount to the sellers account. PayPal is recommended by many e-commerce companies like ebay. Customers can make transfers using their funds in PayPal account. All transactions in PayPal are secured with the help of encryption. The transaction fee of PayPal is 2% less than that of credit cards. PayPal is the best method for small transactions as it won't require credit card for small transactions.

Credit card transactions are also very popular and recommended in e-commerce transactions. One of the advantages of credit card payment is that it is traceable. All the purchases made with credit card are logged. Credit card transactions are quite risk free for customers. Online transactions are advantageous as they bring less transaction cost. Moreover, it is quite suitable for micro payments.

There are numerous types of digital cash that are used in Internet. Examples are Millicent, digicash and NetBill. Digital cash would lessen the transaction processing and thus the transaction cost. Electronic Wallets and yahoo Wallet are also transaction methods that can be used for e-commerce transactions. Smart Card is a transaction method that can be used for client authentication and key storage. Smart Card method is not recommended for e-commerce.

Escrow would guard online buyers and sellers from fraud to a good extent. Escrow would protect the sellers from credit card fraud and payment fraud. It would also help the buyers to receive merchandise even before paying for it. It improves the reliability of the transactions. Escrow would act as a third party and collects, holds and disburses as per the Buyer and Seller instructions. Escrow is recommended for the items purchased on auction sites, automobiles, domain names, computer equipments, jewelry, and other high value items. Escrow service is recommended when if you know and trust the party with whom you do the transaction. In escrow transactions buyer and seller would accept the terms, buyer would pay escrow, seller would ship the product, and buyer would accept the merchandize, and finally escrow would pay the seller. Escrow would act as a third party to the buyer and seller. Escrow services are recommended for high value transactions, mostly for transactions above $300. Freight tracking system is found to be very efficient for cargo goods transactions. Freight tracking is recommended for the selling and buying of cargo items. The system makes efficient, secure cargo movement which is reliable for both the seller and the buyer. The system would ensure the delivery of the product avoiding all possible problems.


Miscellaneous Recommendations

1) While planning to buy anything through internet, do good research and take decisions.
2) Confirm the quality of the product before purchasing.
3) Check the feedback and history statistics while purchasing from ebay.
4) Be always careful while paying for any item in the internet
5) Always use PayPal for small transactions (PayPal recommended for big transactions also).
6) Keep the PayPal password safe. It is better not to keep the password remembering option for PayPal password.
7) Changing the PayPal password often is good
8) Check the privacy policy of the websites before submitting any data.
9) Have all the security measures installed on the PC.
10) Familiarize yourself with the buying and selling and the recommended payment policies of the system
11) Better avoid dealings with the sellers who specifically demand immediate online transfer.
12) Always keep the antivirus updated in your PC
13) Ensure Client Side security, Channel communication security and Server side security of the website (online dealer) with which you are doing transaction.






References

Cohen, A. & Little, B. (2002) The Perfect Store: Inside eBay,
1ST edition

Conner, N. (2005). Ebay, the missing manual, O'Reilly Media.

Eric M. Jackson (2004) The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth, World Ahead Publishing.

Patrick O'Neil, Mitchell Levy & Stephen Ivaskevicius (2005) Happy about Website Payments with PayPal Answers to Over 40 of the Most Commonly Asked Questions - Page 5.

Lowy, D. (2003). The Truth About Ebay: How to Successfully Sell Part Time or Full Time on Ebay (Paperback), Backinprint.Com

Sofield, S., Nielsen, D., & Burchell D. (2004) PayPal Hacks,
O'Reilly

Karp, D. A. (2003). eBay Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools, O'Reilly.

Timesaver Books (2003), Paypal in 30 Pages or Less,Timesaver Books.



Website Sources


Retrieved October 7 2006, from http://pages.ebay.com.sg/help/pay/payment.html

Retrieved October 7 2006, from http://www.paypalwarning.com/

Retrieved October 7 2006, from http://www.paypalwarning.com/paypal_chargeback

Retrieved October 7 2006, from http://mattinglot.com/blog/2006/07/07/how-to-process-online-payments/

Retrieved October 7 2006, from http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/reference/article.php/3472891

Retrieved October 7 2006, from http://www.paypalsucks.com/

Retrieved October 7 2006, from https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/general/TSEdSuiteTourRisk-outside
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Posted by: Jeffrey J. Thomson

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