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MORE ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS
Ecommerce or electronic commerce refers
to buying and selling online. The most
preferred mode of payment of online
shoppers is the credit card. According
to official statistics more than 90% of
the customers pay using their credit
cards. However, you cannot neglect the
other 10% and therefore, you have to
provide other modes of payments if you
have to attract the remaining 10%. These
customers are not comfortable with
credit or debit card payments.
Given below are a few alternative modes
of payment.
-
Electronic Fund transfers
This option allows
the customer to transfer funds
electronically from his account to your
account. This process is very simple and
accurate. The room for error is close to
0. There is no fraud and no
chargeback’s. When the customer
authorises an online transfer, the funds
are deducted from the online account and
then added in to your online account.
The best method
under this category is “E – Check”.
This is a simple
mode of payment where the customer
writes a paper cheque and scans it. The
soft copy of the check, which is the e –
check, is sent to the merchant by phone,
fax or email. The soft copy is indorsed
or digitally signed. The signature is
encoded with the consumer’s private key.
When the merchant receives it, he may
again encode it with his private key and
send it to the bank for processing. The
reply from the bank is sent as an
encoded message.
Pros:
·
Credit Card worries are
eliminated.
·
A good option for people
who don’t have a credit card.
Cons:
·
A new technology that is
perceived by some as less secure and
safe that the other methods.
·
Most customers don’t have
the hardware or software to issue e –
check. The time that is required to make
such arrangements prevents impulse
buying.
·
Not available to
international consumers in most cases.
-
Telephone Billing Systems
This is a new
technology where the customer is charged
in his telephone bill for the purchases
that he made. Till today, this method is
used for only a few purposes like
purchasing soft products like time
measured services, charitable donations
or downloads.
Pros:
·
Credit card worries are
eliminated.
·
Soft merchandises are
safeguarded as there is no way to steal
it.
·
Customers who do not
possess credit cards can use it.
·
This method is accepted
all over the United States and some
places in Europe.
Cons:
·
A plug-in has to
downloaded and installed by the
customer.
·
Only available for soft
products.
·
Mac users cannot use this
method.
·
Will work only through
telephone modems and not through cable
modems.
-
One – Stop Shops
Due to its
popularity, there are several products
and services available for ecommerce.
You can now find a broker to get a
shopping cart application, designing
your web site, providing web storage,
internet merchant account and more. Some
big players in this business are
Vantage, ICAT and IBM. |
