A Curriculum Design for E-commerce Security

The low cost and wide availability of the Internet have revolutionized electronic commerce (e-commerce) and its applications. Security, then, has become one of the most important issues that must be resolved first to ensure its success. To protect an e-commerce system from existing threats, there must be e-commerce security experts who can help ensure its reliable deployment. This paper presents a curriculum design for e-commerce security in which the Delphi method and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method were used. The AHP method determines the priorities of the e-commerce security courses, and the results of the study provide useful guidelines in the design of the e-commerce security curriculum.
The low cost and wide availability of the Internet have sparked a revolution in electronic commerce (e-commerce) and its applications. Many organizations have begun exploiting the opportunities offered by Internet-based e-commerce, and many more are expected to follow. Exemplary applications include online shopping, telebanking and Internet banking, teleteaching and distance education, online gambling, and virtual casinos, as well as Pay-TV and video-on-demand services (Oppliger, 1999). While this offers convenience for both consumers and vendors, many consumers are concerned about security and their private information when purchasing products or services over the Internet (Wang, Cao, and Kambayashi, 2002). Recently, there have been attacks on popular websites that resulted in the possible theft of credit card numbers of several thousand customers (He and Wang, 2001). Indeed, security is a major factor in e-commerce services.
Recently, courses in e-commerce have been offered in many schools and departments. These courses can be classified as technical and non-technical courses. Non-technical courses frequently focus on the changes in the business and in the industry due to e-commerce, the development of e-commerce, marketing practices, the processes in marketing research, etc. In technical courses, many academic units provide the contexts to understand the technology, and its applications such as web page design and associated programming languages, linking of databases to the website, customer data collection, catalog development, etc. (Jenkins, 2001).
However, courses in e-commerce security are not enough despite the priority on security to ensure the success of e-commerce. Many schools and academic departments on e-commerce have only one or two courses that deal with e-commerce security. When considering the importance of security in e-commerce, there is a further need to train e-commerce security experts who can help ensure its reliable deployment.
To produce e-commerce security experts, e-commerce security education should be treated more significantly, and sound curricula in e-commerce security are required. In this paper, we suggest a curriculum design for e-commerce security that would be useful in training e-commerce security experts. An e-commerce security curriculum is designed in consideration of existing e-commerce threats and current information security curricula. To analyze the designed e-commerce security curriculum, the Delphi method and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method are applied. The AHP method determines the relative importance of e-commerce security courses (Nam and Kim, 2003; Saaty, 1995). By using the AHP method, we can determine the priorities in e-commerce security courses. To produce e-commerce security experts, these priorities provide useful guidelines in the selection of e-commerce security courses.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. section 2 analyzes e-commerce threats and current e-commerce curricula. In section 3, the e-commerce security curriculum is designed. section 4 introduces the methodology. section 5 shows the results of the Delphi and AHP methods. The conclusions are then discussed in section 6.
2. RELATED WORKS
2.1 E-commerce security
Without question, security is one of the most important issues that must be resolved to ensure the success of e-commerce. Researchers have studied how to protect e-commerce systems from threats. A number of papers have dealt with threats and related security issues in e-commerce applications (Oosthuizen, 1998; Wright, 2001).
Customer privacy is becoming the most common security issue in e-commerce (Udo, 2001). No customer wants to use a business that distributes sensitive customer data, such as credit card information, without his knowledge or permission. Encryption technologies are widely used to protect customers' privacy. Encryption algorithms and digital signatures support secure applications in E-mail and electronic payment schemes. Public key infrastructure (PKI) also plays an important role in secure e-commerce transactions (Gollmann, 2000).
Hacking and distribution of viruses are also serious threats to e-commerce. They mostly attack networks or e-commerce sites to render e-services unavailable. Businesses mainly use firewalls to protect their internal networks. Firewalls have now become the main points of defense in the business security architecture. Various complementary systems, such as Intrusion Detection System (IDS), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Information Retrieval System, etc., have also been applied (Marchany and Tront, 2002).

A Project Module of E-Commerce Planning

The development of a pedagogy that integrates scholastic knowledge and practical skills of e-commerce for business students is imperative. Students typically learn e-commerce planning through course projects. This note provides tips for designing and teaching an e-commerce planning project module for the e-commerce course.

Keywords: Electronic commerce, course project, business planning, clinical approach

1.INTRODUCTION

Ecommerce courses have been popular in business schools for more than seven years. E-commerce is the process of buying, selling, exchanging products, services, and information via computer networks (Turban and King 2003; Turban et al. 2004). Given the breadth of the subject, it is natural that there are a variety of approaches to teaching/learning e-commerce. Yet, they can be placed in two major categories: instructive and clinical.

In the instructive approach, students typically learn e-commerce concepts, a variety of new business models (e.g., revenue models and e-government models), and issues related to e-commerce (e.g., ethics issues and legal issues). Students get a general overview of e-commcrcc, perhaps practice e-commerce simulations, participate classroom case studies (Landon and Travers 2003; Schneider 2004), and/or learn the techniques of e-commerce implementation (Chopoorian and Wang 2004). However, in this approach it is not intended that students acquire first-hand experiences in e-commerce planning. When students learn e-commerce from lectures, they often remember little more than lists of buzzwords. On the other hand, in the clinical approach, students go out, find organizations, identify e-commerce opportunities for the organizations, determine e-commerce strategies for them, and initiate e-commerce business plans. Commonly, courses taught in the clinical approach are called project courses. The teaching philosophy of project courses is that people cannot learn without doing (Wang and Ariguzo 2004).

Given the restricted number of business elective courses in the AACSB curricula for business majors, it is ideal to have a single e-commerce course that integrates the two approaches. However, there are few textbooks that provide business students with guidelines for practical e-commerce projects. Teaching methods for e-commerce course projects are scarce in the IS education literature. This note describes design concepts for an c-commcrcc planning project module of an upper-level e-commerce course for undergraduate business majors and tips for teaching this module.

2. DESIGNING THE PROJECT MODULE

The objectives of the project module is to learn e-commerce planning, including strategy formulation, e-commerce implementation recommendations, and cost/benefit analysis, from a real case based on a local organization. Although students are expected to learn the broad foundation of e-commerce from the course, this project module is not aimed to technical Web application design, simple Web presence, or perceptive Web sites usability assessment.

Besides common difficult tasks in designing a project module, such as scheduling a feasible timetable, specifying project requirements for e-commerce projects is particularly challenging, given the variety of prospective topics of ecommerce planning. One set of requirements is unlikely to fit all categories of project themes. Based on our experiences of teaching this e-commerce project module in the past years, we have developed four sets of requirements for the four typical categories of e-commerce planning projects: catalog sales, B2B e-commerce, e-government, and virtual community. The primary themes and the general requirements for the four categories of e-commerce planning projects are summarized below.

2.1 Catalog Sales.

The project is to plan an online store for a firm to sale its products on the Internet. The project shall

1. Determine the catalog sales strategies for the firm, e.g., reach more customers and increase sales, lower transaction costs, and/or flexible work hours;

2. Develop and evaluate alternatives, e.g., build your own online store, apply for a Web host, or subscribe the eBay store or Yahoo Store;

3. Prepare cost/benefit comparison of the alternatives and recommendations;

4. Describe the steps to set up the online store, e.g., purchase domain name, purchase Web hosting, site implementation (hardware and software), security, payment options, and delivery arrangement;

5. Propose banner advertising/exchange; and

6. Prepare three-year prediction of cash flow.

2.2 B2B E-Commerce

The project is to plan a Web-based business network to improve the cooperation of the business partners. The project report must include

1. Current issues of the business network;

2. The B2B ?-commerce strategy, e.g., business alliance, lower transaction costs, improve the partner relationships, timely communication, share information, and speed cash flows;

3. The e-commerce model, e.g., the supply chain, purchasing and logistics (shown in workflow diagrams), fund transfer, and /or partner relationship management;

Developing Expertise in E-Commerce: A Content Analysis of Students' Knowledge of Online Auctions

This paper presents findings from a study investigating the knowledge students acquire from and apply to an online auction assignment. As part of an E-Business and E-Commerce module students were asked to buy and sell goods in an online marketspace and report on their experience for an assignment on the module. A content analysis of a sample of the students' assignments was conducted. The main finding of the study is that, given a framework of professional knowledge and competence, there are considerable imbalances in the knowledge that students acquire from and apply to the online auction assignment. The paper concludes that learning and teaching strategies that recognize and work with such imbalances are appropriate, in order that students' professional capacities in the domain of e-commerce are developed. Recommendations for future research and practice in e-commerce education are provided.

1. INTRODUCTION

One of the tasks facing university educators is how to effectively prepare their students for professional practice. As e-commerce becomes part of everyday business practice, teaching e-commerce concepts in a classroom setting alone risks opening up a gap between that classroom setting and the professional practice which the student will enter. Graduates may leave higher education equipped only with theoretical knowledge and with none of the other skills and capacities appropriate to professional practice. This paper describes an e-commerce assignment designed to develop students' expertise in e-commerce.

For an assignment on an E-Business and E-commerce module, students were required to participate in a real-world C2C e-commerce 'marketspace' e.g. eBay. Participation in the actual marketspace requires students to go beyond the acquisition and application of theoretical knowledge; and to develop their practical and experiential knowledge not only of C2C e-commerce but also of e-commerce in general. In doing so, an online auction site acts as a learning environment for students to develop capacities that contribute to becoming a practicing e-commerce professional.

The paper is organized as follows. The design of the e-commerce assignment is outlined in section two. The research design is presented in section three; this includes a description of the theoretical framework adopted for the study, the type of sampling, and the design of the coding frame. The results of the data analysis are presented in section four and the findings are discussed in section five. The paper concludes with recommendations for research and practice in e-commerce education.

2. E-COMMERCE ASSIGNMENT

Online consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce is a fast-growing business area. C2C e-commerce usually refers to the business model that focuses on providing a platform to allow an individual to trade or barter goods and services with another individual. Online auction, a form of C2C e-commerce, is a platform where individuals can trade both new and second-hand goods at a price agreed by buyers and sellers. Some auction sites such as eBay and Yahoo also offer 'e-shop' facilities to those who would like to make a living full-time from buying and selling goods online or who would like to trade part-time as a way of earning a second income.

The reasons for asking students to participate in an online auction were two-fold. First, such an exercise enabled students to participate in both a purchasing and a selling process; and having experience of buying and selling online is important in order to have a full understanding of e-commerce concepts. second, the exercise replaces a simulated environment, which is an alternative approach to developing a learning environment for e-commerce education (Ngai, 2004, McCubbrey et al, 1994), with a real-world e-commerce environment so that students can experience at first-hand the issues associated with practicing e-commerce in a 'live' business setting. In this assignment students were asked to buy and sell in a C2C marketspace of their choice. No restriction was placed on the particular auction site that should be used; and depending on the potential market and the availability of goods students could choose to buy and sell on the same or different platforms. Students were asked to submit two reports at the end of the exercise. In the first report students were asked to discuss their experience of participating in the online auction (1750-2000 words). In the second report students were asked to describe their learning experience of participating in the online auction. The findings presented in this paper are based on an analysis of the students' submissions for the second report.

3. RESEARCH DESIGN

Our research design was based on classical content analysis (Bauer and Gaskell, 2000). Information is provided here on the theoretical framework; sampling; and the coding frame.

3.1 Theoretical Framework

As indicated previously the rationale for asking students to participate in an online auction was to provide a learning environment to help students acquire the capacity to act as a practicing e-commerce professional. Acting as an effective e-commerce professional implies a capacity not only to apply theoretical concepts, but also a capacity to develop process skills e.g. interpersonal, deliberative, and decisionmaking skills as well as a capacity to reflect on and use an accumulating store of personal knowledge and experience. Definitions of the types of knowledge used by a practicing professional are provided here. Propositional knowledge: "discipline-based theories and concepts, derived from bodies of coherent systematic knowledge (Wissenschaft); generalizations and practical principles in the applied field of professional action; and specific propositions about particular cases, decisions and actions" (Eraut, 1994: 13). Process knowledge: "acquiring information; skilled behaviour; deliberative processes, e.g., planning and decision-making; giving information; and metaprocesses for directing and controlling one's own behaviour" (Eraut, 1994: 107). Personal knowledge: "All people acquire knowledge through experiences the purposes of which have little overt connection with learning, through social interaction and trying to get things down. Such knowledge covers people and situations encountered, communications received and events and activities experienced through participation or observation. While some of this knowledge is sufficiently processed to be classified as propositional knowledge or process knowledge, much will remain at the level of simple impressions. Nevertheless, impressions gained from experience contribute to professional action in ways that are still only partially understood" (Eraut, 1994: 107). In sum: a practicing professional, in any domain, is one capable not only of applying discipline-based theories and concepts, but also of developing and applying process knowledge, and of processing and systematizing their personal experience of professional practice.

Talkin' trash: One outfit's story of e-commerce

How 1-800-GOT-JUNK is using its intranet to clean up in the rubbish-removal business.

Imagine a corporate warehouse full of dilapidated office furniture, antiquated workstations and box after box of 70s era marketing collateral. Or, perhaps, your neighbor's garage - long-outgrown bikes, a rusty old barbecue grill, towering stacks of yellowed newspapers.

These images mieht scream more of "Sanford & Son" than modern-day e-business, and that's exactly what they represent to a tech-sawy company called 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

Launched as a summer business by a college student in the pre-lnternet days of 1989 Brian Scudamore had $700, a used pickup and gumption - 1-800-GOT-JUNK has used technology to evolve into North America's largest junk-removal company As of this month, 325 spiffy 1-800-GOT-JUNK trucks, from 148 franchise locations, hauled away corporate and household rubbish in 38 U.S. states and four Canadian provinces. In the U.S., the company serves 48 of the top 50 metropolitan areas by population, says Cameron Herold.who joined the operation in 2000 as COO. In fact, he says, 1-800-GOT-JUNK is the only junk-removal company in North America operating in more than three cities.

1-80GGOT-JUNK closed 2004 with $38.6 million in sales, more than double the $15.7 million in revenue it reported for 2003.The company expects to do $75 million in sales this year, Herold says, for a 95% growth."WeVe a dot-corn that turns trash into cash "he says.

Herold attributes the company's rapid development and quick growth to its early recognition that it could exploit Web technology to make its junkremoval operation more efficient. In 1997, with the goal of making life easier for its franchisees, 1-800-GOT-JUNK created an intranet, called JunkNet."We didn't want franchisees to have to worry about the administrative details that bog down business owners," Herold says.

For franchisees, as well as 1-800-GOT-JUNK employees, JunkNet serves as a contact manager, a job scheduler, a dispatch engine, a CRM tool and more."JunkNet today is our central backbone," Herold says, noting that a half-dozen in-house developers have fully customized JunkNet for the business.

Behind the scenes, the JunkNet infrastructure comprises Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0 Web servers, SQL Server 2000 Enterprise database servers and Windows Server 2003, says Roman Azbel, vice president of IT for 1-80OGOT-JUNK. Developers use Microsoft's .Net Framework 1.1, a recent changeover from the older, and less scalable and sophisticated Active Server Pages technology, he adds.

1-800-GOT-JUNK prides itself on taking technology to the next level. Using the Task function in Microsoft Outlook, for example, Azbel and his developers have managed to encapsulate each of the company's longterm strategic goals in one online project plan, Herold says. "We looked at Outlook, and looked at our business, and asked, 'How can we get rid of paper and know what everybody is working on, and link priorities?' Now we can look three years out, assigning due dates, to project plan every single aspect of the business," he says.

The 1-800-GOT-JUNK desk jockeys aren't the only ones with cool tools, Herold notes. Drivers can access JunkNet via PDAs or cell phones to retrieve client information such as where the junk is located and payment option selected. He says this eliminates the need for a customer to deal with the junk removal team at all while it is on-site.

Azbel describes the process: From 1800gotjunk.com, a customer books a job. From the public Web site, the order moves to the JunkNet database, which determines the route based on ZIP code of removal site and schedules the pickup. Using a Wireless Application Protocol-enabled device, a driver obtains client information. When arriving on site, the 1-800-GOT-JUNK team knows exactly where to go, what to remove, and how the customer should be billed.

That sure beats the old way of getting rid of outdated gear, says one repeat corporate customer. "In the past, we had to haul it ourselves in our own vehicles. The last time we did that, it took most of a day We made three trips to the recycling center," says the customer, an IT staffer at a utility company in Detroit who asked not to be named.

"We found 1-800-GOT-JUNK to be reasonably priced, fast, courteous, clean and very easy to deal with - our company pays [within 30 days of receiving an invoice], and not all companies accept that," she says.

Pricing is based on volume and the type of junk being removed. On average, a full truckload costs $430.

With endorsements such as this one, 1-800-GOT-JUNK might just succeed in its goal to increase its corporate business from 25% of sales today to 50% by 2006. Online booking is key to accomplishing that goal because it should help attract national accounts, Herald notes.

Today, only about 10% of jobs get booked online. Herald would like to see that figure at 25% by the end of 2006, and is working with Google on search engine optimization and keywords to help make that growth happen.

E-commerce represents a revolution bankers cannot ignore

The United States is in the midst of a multi-facetted revolution and banks are at the center of the upheaval. That's the warning that William Carden delivered April 28 in West Des Moines to bankers attending the Iowa Department of Banking's "Day with the Superintendent." Carden has his own marketing and strategic planning firm, and has been a professor of banking and business. He warned bankers they need to respond to the revolutions underway in technology and money.

Carden said the changes resulting from widespread use of the internet constitute the second of the two major technological revolutions to take place in the United States. The first addressed transportation. That revolution stopped in about 1970, when the United States essentially stopped pouring resources into efforts to move people and products faster and more economically. The current technological revolution is about moving information, Carden explained. It started with the invention of the printing press in 1473 and is exploding with the rapid world-wide adoption of the internet.

Carden described an information democracy that allows anyone with access to a computer the opportunity to study from the world's research libraries - a privilege that was available only to a small percentage of people 15 years ago. Bankers need to grasp the significance of the information revolution because information is currency; money is really nothing more than information, he postulated.
In a well-told history lesson, Carden explained how money evolved from commodities such as lumber and bricks to coins in the year 565 B.C. Other steps in the evolutionary process have been the adoption of paper money in the late 1400s, the abandonment of the gold standard in the United States in 1934, the introduction of the credit card in the 1950s, and the recognition of money as electronic blips today. "We have been deemphasizing the physical nature of money with each step," Carden said.

Most substantial financial transactions are electronic, Carden said. In 2002, he said there were 430 billion cash transactions, and 90 percent of those were for less than $10. "Cash is now the money of the ghetto," Carden said.

The volume of electronic transactions, Carden explained, is growing exponentially. This year, there will be $34 billion in consumer-to-consumer electronic transactions, up from only $1 billion in 1998. These are transactions that happen through e-Bay and any one of the hundreds of thousands of commerce-oriented blogs. The value of consumer-to-business electronic transactions will top half a trillion dollars this year, representing about 20 percent of payment flows, Carden said. In the business-to-business world, electronic transactions this year will value $3.8 trillion, representing almost one-third of those payment flows.

What do these trends mean for bankers? "It means electronic cards are going to be the business model of the future," Carden said. "It means your customers are interested in electronic bill pay and presentment. It means that if you are not offering internet banking, you better look at it pretty seriously. Europe is awash in smart cards and they are rapidly coming to the United States."

Carden said that success for any bank will depend on its speed, agility and willingness to experiment. He said bankers will have to learn to work with people they traditionally have not worked with. "The people building e-commerce technologies are different," he said.

Carden encouraged bankers to keep these facts in mind:

* Power has shifted to the customer.

* Geography is a secondary consideration. Anyone can enter your market from anywhere. We are in a global marketplace.

* E-commerce is a target-rich environment for radically reducing the costs of buying and selling goods and services.

* New technology means consumers expect their bank to be able to interact with them at multiple touch-points.

* You need to be "open" seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

* Speed and responsiveness are no longer a competitive advantage, but a competitive necessity.

* Banks need to be ready to customize products and services to individual customers.

* Customers like to do things by themselves; develop self-service delivery of products.

* Competitors are quick to imitate, so in order to be a leader, you have to be ready to raise the bar to the next level.

* Branding in the e-commerce world is even more important than branding in the world of traditional commerce.

Too many bankers are continuing to operate their institutions in a "1950s paradigm." Carden lamented. "My wish is that they would begin to operate in the paradigm of 2010 or 2015," he summarized.

Cyber sentinel: can e-commerce in Latin America be made safe? Argentina's Decidir.com believes its information protection and fraud screening services

ESTEBAN NOFAL HAS AN ambitious mission: He wants to make Latin America safe for e-commerce. That's no small goal. Latin America's emerging Internet industry has been saddled with the regrettable reputation for being the Wild West of the Web, in which merchants or consumers often wind up eating the cost of orders purchased with fake or stolen credit cards.

Nofal's 2-year-old company, Decidir.com, sells secure payment and identity verification services to online retailers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Decidir's service works like this: When customers complete a transaction on a retailer's Web page, the payment is routed by the company through a secure platform. Employees use that platform to verify buyers' identities. Companies can also check credit histories and ability to pay.

"We're taking the risk out of online transactions in Latin America," Nofal, 34, says. "E-commerce wasn't going to happen in Latin America until someone figured out how to do secure payments and identity verification."

Certainly, Decidir's service is one whose time has come. Online retail sales are expected to top US$580 million in 2000, according to an October study released by Boston Consulting Group and Visa International. "[T]he industry must persuade users to adopt some kind of security system and to trust the merchant and banking system enough to share credit card information over the Internet," the report says. It goes on to highlight a Decidir prototype--a "password system of personal questions that only the owner of a particular credit card can answer"--which is still under development.

Merchants currently pay Decidir.com between US$500 and US$700 in set-up fees, and between US 30 cents and US 90 cents per transaction. Among Decidir's clients are auction sites, the region's hottest e-commerce submarket, which was expected to generate US$192 million in 2000. One virtual auction house, DeRemate.com of Buenos Aires, outsources its online payments in Argentina to Decidir, which in turn deals directly with credit card issuers. Buyers' information is encrypted to reduce the chance of fraud, says DeRemate executive Jose Luis Bosch. "Computer users in Argentina fear fraud, and there's a myth of insecurity in e-commerce that's difficult to change," he says. "This system offers them security."

Privately held Decidir, based in Buenos Aires, has 200 employees and is growing fast. Revenue is expected to increase ten fold from US$400,000 in 1999 to a projected US$4 million in 2000. While the company is still losing money it expects to post profits by the end of 2001.

When the company launched in early 1999, its first goal was to become Latin America's largest provider of credit information to small-and medium-sized companies. While North Americans take for granted the ability to quickly and easily check customers credit, such information has been costly and difficult to find in Latin America. Typically, only large firms keep credit databases. Smaller merchants have been at the mercy of the marketplace, which lacks consumer and anti-fraud protection laws. So Decidir cobbled together databases from public records, building lists that include 70 million companies and individuals in Brazil and 58 million in Mexico.

Customers pay for the service either by subscribing for US$100 a month or by paying US$30 to US$70 per credit check. All of the information is provided online, and for many small- and medium-sized businesses, signing up with Decidir is their first Internet experience. "We want to bring credit awareness to the masses," Nofal says.

So far, investors like Decidir's model. The dotcom has raised US$21 million in two rounds of venture capital financing. Backers include North American firms Citicorp Venture Capital Latin America, GE Equity and SCP Private Equity Partners.

Nofal, who has a large stake in the company was behind the first round. Two venture funds he controls, Latin Internet Ventures Ltd. and CIMA Consulting Ltd., invested US$2.9 million. A native of Argentina and former Morgan Stanley salesman, Nofal was in the midst of launching his own asset management business when he decided to invest in Decidir.com. He took over as Decidir's chief executive last May Founder Esteban Brenman is chairman.

In its second round of financing in September, Decidir raised US$15 million. A quarter of that money came from Citicorp Venture Capital Latin America. Brian Kim, a director of the fund, likes the company in part because it addresses a problem unique to Latin America. "A lot of these companies try to take a US [businessi model and apply it to the region," Kim says. "This is really a home-grown company"

SCP Private Equity Partners of Wayne, Pennsylvania, found the ecommerce site's business plan promising enough to make it the only Latin American firm in its portfolio. SCP saw several Decidir strong points. It's a business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce company While the stock values of several high-profile B2B firms have plummeted recently on the NAS DAQ, venture capitalists still prefer these companies to those that sell goods and services directly to consumers.

International appeal: how to make your Website sing in any language - E-Commerce

For many people, the Internet has turned shopping into an international experience. With a click of your mouse you can order shoes from Milan, Italy; cosmetics from Paris; and African art straight from the motherland. But U.S. consumers are still holding on tightly to their purse strings, which is leading online merchants to open their virtual doors to international customers. But before you put out the bienvenue mat, there are a few things you should know about attracting and serving customers overseas.

For starters, you must be able to communicate in a language that potential patrons can understand. Consider adding a link to online language translation services, for little or no charge, to help international customers feel more at home. Try using national flag icons to illustrate the languages your site supports or try http:// babel.altavista.com, which lets you translate Web pages into Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian.

Currency translation is another important element to add to your site. Moshood, the African American clothing retailer, has a currency translation feature embedded into the design of its Website (www.afrikanspirit.com) that translates prices into the U.S. dollar, the Euro, and the Spanish peseta. You can also link to free currency translators such as XE.com (www.xe.com), which updates every minute and gives you a list of currencies from the Algerian Dinar to the Turkish Lira.
Once customers are able to calculate the price of a product in their currency, they'll want to know the cost of shipping the item from your office or warehouse to their home. Taxes and duties (called the value-added tax, or VAT) charged on international sales are often due upon receipt of the item. Make sure that your customers are aware of additional costs. To avoid this problem, Averlyn Archer, founder of the online art store Genisisartline.com, posts a disclaimer on her order confirmation form that alerts customers from the Caribbean, England, or Germany that their country of origin may charge additional customs or duties upon receipt of products.

If you have the financial resources, you might consider developing country-specific Websites that customers can link to from your home page. Country-specific sites translate all content into the predominant language of the countries you serve, while acknowledging cultural differences and international laws. For example, it's illegal to sell Nazi memorabilia in Germany, as large auction sites such as Yahoo! and eBay discovered early last year. And in the U.S., customers are familiar with the term ZIP Code, but in the United Kingdom, customers recognize the term Postal Code, which may not be written in the same format as U.S. addresses. Remember to adjust online data collection forms accordingly.

Lastly, make sure your site is appealing, quick to load, and easy to navigate. "We [in the U.S.] are spoiled with high-speed connections, but that's not the case with international Internet users," says James F. Foley, director of the International Trade Center at Bradley University and author of The Global Entrepreneur: Taking Your Business International (Dearborn Trade Publishing, $29.95). Make sure your home page loads quickly: Shipping information, language translation, and currency calculators should be visible and easily accessible. Give customers the option to skip lengthy Flash introductions before entering your site. After all, you want them to access your goods as quickly and effortlessly as possible.

Eight Ways To Make Your Site Foreign-Friendly

1. Be aware of cultural and language differences

2. Use language translation tools

3. Supply currency translation tools

4. Provide an easy way to calculate shipping costs

5. Optimize your site for low-speed connections

6. Address international tax and tariff issues

7. Make sure your site complies with international laws

8. Develop country-specific Websites

E-Commerce Growing Pains

Washington Post columnist Leslie Walker was online Thursday, June 30, at 1:30 p.m. ET to discuss the dream of striking it rich on eBay, the Internet's most heavily trafficked shopping site.

She spent three days last week attending eBay's annual user convention, where 11,600 people descended on the auctioneer's home town of San Jose to celebrate the 10th anniversary of eBay. Most attendees were small merchants trying to earn a living selling everything from Barbie dolls to used Hummers on eBay.

Walker talked to more than 30 high-volume eBay merchants about why they increasingly are testing other Web retail locations besides eBay. Many of these "power sellers" shared details about how their online sales operations are doing.

A transcript of today's discussion is below:
Read her Thursday column about the lifestyle and career ambitions of eBay sellers, and her weekend piece about the heated competition eBay is facing from other Web retailers.

Read Leslie's .com archive .

____________________

Leslie Walker: Hi everyone. We are getting ready to start. Please send us your thoughts, comments, hopes, frustrations and insights into eBay!

_______________________

Chicago: I have been selling children's clothes on eBay for three years and the recent fee hike really killed me. When is eBay going to learn not to bite the hand that fees?

Leslie Walker: Boy, that was a refrain I heard A LOT at the eBay convention. I knew the fee hikes galvanized many eBay sellers into looking at alternate sales outlets, but I had no idea how many.

More than half the dealers I interviewed told me they had reacted to the fee hikes by starting their own Web site, or by boosting their marketing for their own Web sites, or by trying rival sites like Overstock, Yahoo and Amazon

_______________________

Washington, D.C. : What are the most popular eBay rival auction sites right now?

Leslie Walker: None of eBay's rivals has anywhere near the number of buyers and sellers eBay has, but everyone is watching to see if the fee hikes eBay imposed will help its competitors gain traction.

Amazon.com's marketplace probably had the biggest buzz at the eBay convention, with sellers of newer and commodity merchandise (books, CDs and DVDs) flocking to list stuff there.

Amazon has a different model. Unlike eBay, where buyers and sellers have to complete transactions on their own, Amazon takes payment from buyers, shaves off a commission and forwards the money to the seller. Some high-volume dealers like the fact they don't pay up-front listing fees on Amazon, meaning less risk to them compared to eBay, where they have to pay even when stuff doesn't sell. The trade-off is Amazon's commission tends to run higher than eBay's.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Leslie: I stopped using eBay a few years ago because I really didn't like their search functionality. Has it improved at all since 2002?

Leslie Walker: Yes, it's greatly improved, with a lot more bells and whistles. You can run filters now by price, category and all kinds of variables. You can use "wild card" asterisks ** like you can on Google. Ebay CEO Meg Whitman told the convention there are actually as many searches being run on eBay as on Google in the United States, or were in recent quarter.

_______________________

San Francisco, CA: Ebay seems like a glorified garage sale. Was its conventino as goofy as eBAY?

Leslie Walker: There was some silliness at the convention, for sure, like when eBay flashed up some ridiculous items currently for sale and asked the audience to guess if each had sold and for how much. You had to laugh at the "mind reading machine" that supposedly sold for $710.

But for the most part, eBay appears to be growing up. The last two eBay user conventions I attended were much tackier than this one. Many more businesses displayed products to help eBay sellers on the exhibit floor this year. In years past, you had to navigate past distracting ferris wheels and treasure hunt extravaganzas to find substance at the convention.

_______________________

Alexandria, Va.: Why is eBay so unwilling to disclose how many gold and platinum level sellers they have?

Leslie Walker: This is a good question. I think eBay should disclose more about its seller profile than it does. It obviously knows a lot more than it's telling.

That said, it should be noted the "powerseller" program is purely voluntary. A lot more eBay sellers are eligible than actually sign up.

_______________________

Bakersfield, CA: Regarding fee hikes by eBay. It seems that many sellers pasted the fee hikes on to the consumer just like in any business. All the fee hikes did was drive sellers and bidders from the eBay site, if recent sales are an indication of what's to come on eBay, we are in trouble unless they do something! I say if you are going to raise the fees then adverstise to bring the bidders back with all the money that is being collected in fee hikes.

E-Commerce Growing Pains

Washington Post columnist Leslie Walker was online Thursday, June 30, at 1:30 p.m. ET to discuss the dream of striking it rich on eBay, the Internet's most heavily trafficked shopping site.
She spent three days last week attending eBay's annual user convention, where 11,600 people descended on the auctioneer's home town of San Jose to celebrate the 10th anniversary of eBay. Most attendees were small merchants trying to earn a living selling everything from Barbie dolls to used Hummers on eBay.
Walker talked to more than 30 high-volume eBay merchants about why they increasingly are testing other Web retail locations besides eBay. Many of these "power sellers" shared details about how their online sales operations are doing.
A transcript of today's discussion is below:
Read her Thursday column about the lifestyle and career ambitions of eBay sellers, and her weekend piece about the heated competition eBay is facing from other Web retailers.
Read Leslie's .com archive .
____________________
Leslie Walker: Hi everyone. We are getting ready to start. Please send us your thoughts, comments, hopes, frustrations and insights into eBay!
_______________________
Chicago: I have been selling children's clothes on eBay for three years and the recent fee hike really killed me. When is eBay going to learn not to bite the hand that fees?
Leslie Walker: Boy, that was a refrain I heard A LOT at the eBay convention. I knew the fee hikes galvanized many eBay sellers into looking at alternate sales outlets, but I had no idea how many.
More than half the dealers I interviewed told me they had reacted to the fee hikes by starting their own Web site, or by boosting their marketing for their own Web sites, or by trying rival sites like Overstock, Yahoo and Amazon
_______________________
Washington, D.C. : What are the most popular eBay rival auction sites right now?
Leslie Walker: None of eBay's rivals has anywhere near the number of buyers and sellers eBay has, but everyone is watching to see if the fee hikes eBay imposed will help its competitors gain traction.
Amazon.com's marketplace probably had the biggest buzz at the eBay convention, with sellers of newer and commodity merchandise (books, CDs and DVDs) flocking to list stuff there.
Amazon has a different model. Unlike eBay, where buyers and sellers have to complete transactions on their own, Amazon takes payment from buyers, shaves off a commission and forwards the money to the seller. Some high-volume dealers like the fact they don't pay up-front listing fees on Amazon, meaning less risk to them compared to eBay, where they have to pay even when stuff doesn't sell. The trade-off is Amazon's commission tends to run higher than eBay's.
_______________________
Washington, D.C.: Leslie: I stopped using eBay a few years ago because I really didn't like their search functionality. Has it improved at all since 2002?
Leslie Walker: Yes, it's greatly improved, with a lot more bells and whistles. You can run filters now by price, category and all kinds of variables. You can use "wild card" asterisks ** like you can on Google. Ebay CEO Meg Whitman told the convention there are actually as many searches being run on eBay as on Google in the United States, or were in recent quarter.
_______________________
San Francisco, CA: Ebay seems like a glorified garage sale. Was its conventino as goofy as eBAY?
Leslie Walker: There was some silliness at the convention, for sure, like when eBay flashed up some ridiculous items currently for sale and asked the audience to guess if each had sold and for how much. You had to laugh at the "mind reading machine" that supposedly sold for $710.
But for the most part, eBay appears to be growing up. The last two eBay user conventions I attended were much tackier than this one. Many more businesses displayed products to help eBay sellers on the exhibit floor this year. In years past, you had to navigate past distracting ferris wheels and treasure hunt extravaganzas to find substance at the convention.
_______________________
Alexandria, Va.: Why is eBay so unwilling to disclose how many gold and platinum level sellers they have?
Leslie Walker: This is a good question. I think eBay should disclose more about its seller profile than it does. It obviously knows a lot more than it's telling.
That said, it should be noted the "powerseller" program is purely voluntary. A lot more eBay sellers are eligible than actually sign up.
_______________________
Bakersfield, CA: Regarding fee hikes by eBay. It seems that many sellers pasted the fee hikes on to the consumer just like in any business. All the fee hikes did was drive sellers and bidders from the eBay site, if recent sales are an indication of what's to come on eBay, we are in trouble unless they do something! I say if you are going to raise the fees then adverstise to bring the bidders back with all the money that is being collected in fee hikes.
w

E-commerce evolution: the Internet and electronic data exchanges are steadily becoming valuable tools in the supply chain, but in a way that involves

You should be out of business by now. Or, at best, serving merely as a just-in-time local delivery service for lumber and building materials ordered online by former pro customers now dealing directly with manufacturers.
But it didn't turn out that way, did it? Most Internet-based commerce outlets that promised to cut costs out of a sloppy, cumbersome, and archaic LBM supply chain are now on the dot-com scrap heap, in bankruptcy court, or retooled for other industries while locally based, pro-oriented dealers thrive in remarkably steady market conditions. "We used to joke that builders and dealers were happy with faxes and cell phones," says John Crockett, president of ChanneLinx, a Greenville, S.C.-based supply chain e-commerce provider that recently emerged from bankruptcy after trying its luck in the LBM realm. "The [dealer-builder] model wasn't broken, so there was no need to fix it."
To most dealers, even those who understood the concept of an electronic highway that bypassed their station, the way things played out was no surprise. Not that the Internet or electronic data interchange (EDI) systems aren't becoming critical business tools for dealers, just not in the way it was presented at the turn of the century. "We thought the models made sense, but it wasn't something we and our builders could put together at the time," says Ellis Goebel, senior vice president of business development and investor relations for Building Materials Holding Corp. (BMHC) in San Francisco, the nation's fourth-largest dealer with more than $2 billion in 2004 revenue and 65 BMC West dealer locations in 10 states. "The technology was sitting out there, but it needed a willing buyer and seller."
As it turned out, that willingness existed one or two steps upstream as an increasing number of dealers have initiated EDI and similar systems with their suppliers. Meanwhile, more dealer Web sites offer pro customers secure online access to their private accounts (if not the ability to estimate and pay for a materials package), partner with hardline shopping services, and provide portals to relevant and detailed information about products and services to deliver 24/7 convenience if not to reap railcars of online revenue.
That emerging model is a far cry from the one predicted to render the local dealer link obsolete. "I don't see LBM dealers being threatened at all [by e-commerce]," says Sarah C. Bell, marketing director at Spruce Computer Systems, a Latham, N.Y.-based software company serving nearly 500 pro dealer customers. "They're leveraging technology to compete [in today's market]."
Linking Upstream
Before BMC West could think about linking with its customers with any sort of e-commerce connection, Goebel says, the company needed to address its own tech capabilities. "There are a few systems and other technology initiatives we're working through," he says, echoing other dealers that have recognized the same need for process development when incorporating e-commerce along the supply chain.
What became clear for many dealers as they considered their own mainframes was that connecting upstream was the first (and perhaps best) way to cut costs out of the supply channel. One-third of BMHC's invoices with its vendors are processed through EDI, for instance, and the company is working to enable an electronic payment system. EDI is now used by about half of large pro dealers and nearly 75 percent of small operations, according to a February 2004 report on the residential LBM supply chain by Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies.
And unlike past e-commerce models that shut them out, it's dealers--not necessarily vendors--that are forcing the transition. "We're driving that initiative ... to get to some level of electronic transmission [with vendors] that reduces paperwork and data entry errors," says Lary O'Connor, vice president of information systems for LumberJack Building Centers, a six-location dealer based in Algonac, Mich.
LumberJack is among several LBM yards (including TW Perry, the $120 million, Gaithersburg, Md.-based operation whose information technology initiative won a 2003 PROSALES Excellence Award) that license Spruce Computer's business management software. Spruce is one of only a handful of remaining vendors after significant industry consolidation that has left the company competing primarily with Aknaf Software and Activant Solutions (the latter, formerly CCITRIAD, acquired and supports Speedware, Enterprise, and Dataline products and is now used by members of the Do it Best network), and upstream-focused systems including Progressive Solutions.
Among other features, these systems enable dealers to gather data and share it electronically corporate-wide and with suppliers. "Dealers want help integrating multiple yards and lowering support costs" says Bell. "They see technology as a way to cut costs and help them get into new market segments."

Is e-commerce of IT application services (ASP) alive and well?

Given the great importance of outsourcing to the Information Technology (M profession, this paper is devoted to E-Commerce of IT application services between Application Service Providers (ASPs) and customer organizations. Instead of dealing with the more general "Is E-Commerce Dead? " question, we address the question of whether "E-Commerce for IT application services is (and will be) alive and well?" Reviewing the history of the ASP industry, shedding light on the factors inhibiting and driving ASPs, and discussing prospective customer profiles and business models leads to the conclusion that, much like E-- Commerce, ASPs are alive but not very well yet.
INTRODUCTION
Against growing doubts about the "new-economy", on one hand, and the continuing development of new programs focusing on E-Commerce in colleges and universities, on the other, this special issue of JITTA addresses the question "Is E-Commerce Dead?" E-Commerce is a general term referring to Over-the-Internet commerce of products and services between two sides such as B2B, B2C, or C2C. Our paper considers a subset of E-Commerce -- B2B E-Commerce of IT application services -- which is manifested when an Application Service Provider (ASP) hosts IT applications and makes them available for rent to customer organizations over the Internet.
Given the great role outsourcing has played in the IT arena, especially the increasing role of ASPs in recent years, as well as the optimism displayed by industry experts regarding the viability of the ASP market during 1998 till mid 2000, it is worthwhile to focus the question on whether "E-Commerce for IT application services is (and will be) alive and well?"
In addressing this question, we have found the academic literature dealing with ASPs still scarce, and therefore relied mainly on our own ASP research (Heart, Pliskin, Shechtman and Reichel, 2001; Heart and Pliskin, 2001) and on industry articles posted on the Internet.
The next three sections are devoted to the ASP industry, with the first one presenting the industry's past and present and the two following sections presenting factors inhibiting and driving ASPs. To gain more insight into future prospects for ASPs, the fifth section of the paper considers potential ASP customers focusing on whether customer organization size small, medium, or large, makes a difference with respect to customer readiness to embrace the ASP concept. The sixth Section considers the vertical and the horizontal ASP business models and the circumstances under which either one, or another model, might be a winner. Finally, the concluding section compares the more general E-Commerce arena to the somewhat "younger" ASP arena, suggesting that much like E-Commerce, ASPs are alive but not very well yet.
THE ASP INDUSTRY: PAST AND PRESENT STATE
The ASP model, pioneered in 1998, is the most recent manifestation of IT outsourcing. Customer organizations of ASPs refrain from investing in server hardware and software upfront, opting instead for a rental contract with an ASP. Users in customer organization of ASPs gain access over the Internet to applications and databases residing on the ASP's servers. Many industry experts have predicted that within a few years, users will not want to install applications locally. Instead, they will access the applications they need, on demand, from online providers who will charge them by the second for the precise value of the specific features and resources they choose to use (ASPnews, 2000).
Since by doing business with ASPs, organizations hope to have IT applications up and running more effectively and to overcome scarcity and high cost of skilled IT personnel, it was widely expected that the ASP concept would be most appealing to smaller companies. Since small or medium-size enterprises (SMEs) confront limited people and budget resources, as well as constant competitive threats, IT acquisition, implementation, and maintenance present a heavy burden on their budget and operational resources. It has been hoped that ASPs might relieve these burdens, letting SMEs access advanced technologies gradually at affordable prices.
Two main business models exist in the ASP industry, horizontal and vertical ASPs. Horizontal ASPs, similar to horizontal e-- markets, cater to a wide variety of organizations. Leading representatives of this business model are Corio, USInternetworking, IBM, and Oracle, recently joined by Microsoft with its Dot Net enterprise. Vertical ASPs cater to one industry, such as hospitality, automotive, chemistry, or energy, offering applications tailored to the specific needs of the industry. Examples of this business model are Silverbyte, for hospitality and Porters, for professional services (See the reference list for web site URLs). Another type of a vertical ASP is a vendor specializing in one type of application, such as GeoNet Services specializing in electronic messaging.
A few hundreds vendors are currently labeling their businesses as ASPs. Among the most prominent are Breakaway Solutions, Corio, USinternetworking (USi), EDS, and Oracle. At Oracle the belief is that

E-commerce pioneer to run Gap sites - Market Watch - Gap Inc. hires Edward Lenk to run its online division - Brief Article

SAN FRANCISCO - Gap Inc. announced it has entrusted its online division to entrepreneur Edward Lenk, who founded eToys Inc. Lenk's responsibilities include overseeing online sales for Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, as well as the retailer's customer call centers. Gap is counting on Lenk's experience as an e-tailer to assist the company in a continued climb out of a period of fiat sales that first began midyear 2000

E-Commerce Software facilitates on-line ordering

Offered in Starter, Manager, and Pro versions, server-based ShopSite(TM) v8.0 supports PayPal Website Payments Pro, which offers secure checkout for shoppers as well as direct way for vendors to accept credit cards. XML Order Download API, available Pro and Manager versions, enables third-party add-ons. Pro version incorporates features such as Rewards and Tell A Friend for customer retention and growth. Software also integrates with PSiGate payment gateway.
Popular software adds Rewards, Tell a Friend and PayPal Website Payments Pro.
August 2, 2005, Orem, Utah -- ShopSite, Inc., a leading provider of e-commerce shopping cart and catalog software for small to medium-sized businesses, announced today the release of ShopSite 8.0. ShopSite(TM) is an industry leading e-commerce software option for web hosting providers, for new or existing Internet merchants, and for Web designers.
"8.0 Pro adds features such as Rewards and Tell A Friend which merchants can use to increase customer retention and to obtain new customers," said CEO David Hills.
We have been an early user of the new Rewards Club feature at our freedusa.com store and have found that our online sales have increased, while our customers have saved money - a win-win for all" stated Julienne Viola, U.S. General Manager for Freed of London.
Support for the new PayPal Website Payments Pro has been added to ShopSite Starter, Manager, and Pro. Besides allowing a faster and more secure checkout for shoppers using PayPal, it also provides an easy way for merchants to directly accept credit cards in their shopping cart.
ShopSite has also integrated with the PSiGate payment gateway. This gateway supports both Canadian and US merchants.
ShopSite's XML Order Download API which previously was only available in ShopSite Pro has now been added to ShopSite Manager. This enables 3rd-party add-ons such as Order Manager from Stone Edge, Mail Order Manager (M.O.M.) from Dydacomp as well as ShopSite's Order Transfer module for QuickBooks[R] to now be available to ShopSite Manager merchants.
"Having the API in ShopSite Manager makes our newest version of M.O.M. available to thousands of merchants" said Robert Coon, President at Dydacomp
"Continuing to improve existing features, ShopSite 8.0 Pro has also added the following:
Merchants can now create gift certificates from within ShopSite.
Orders can be searched via criteria such as PayPal Pending status, shopper phone number, containing coupons, etc.
Verified by Visa[R] and MasterCard[R] SecureCode as well as Fraud Protection Services are now supported for the VeriSign payment gateway.
The complete list of new features can be viewed at this URL: http://www.shopsite.com/help/8.0/en-US/new-features.html
ShopSite is sold by hundreds of reseller partners, including hosting companies such as NTT/Verio, LexiConn, BizLand, SiteSell, pair Networks, YourHost.com, and BroadSpire. The thousands of merchant Web sites using ShopSite include the Getty Trust Foundation, Hometime, X10, Avia and many others.
About ShopSite
ShopSite, Inc., is a private company based in Orem, Utah and has provided electronic commerce software for the small to medium-sized business since 1996. The company's software is an online catalog and shopping cart system that is extremely powerful and easy to learn. With ShopSite software, merchants can manage their online stores entirely, regardless of their technical background-there's no HTML coding required.

E-commerce

A2D Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TGS-NOPEC, is the industry's well log data marketplace offering the world's largest online database, immediate delivery, conversion services, data management services and worldwide well log data sourcing.
Products:
LOG-LINE Plus![R] is a web-based search and access tool for A2D Technologies global collection of more than four million commercially available well logs. Users quickly locate and download data using either a text or map search method.
When performing text searches, users can specify a range of location and log attributes to narrow or broaden the scope of their search. Specific wells can be searched via API number, individually or by importing an existing list. The LOG-LINE Plus! map search is optimized for GIS browsing of an area to locate available well log data. Wells can be selected either individually or as a group. Both search methods yield a complete list of available logs from the candidate wells and, in most cases, logs are available for immediate download (licensed agreement required). Delivery estimates are available for advanced digitization and petro-physical processing.
LOG-LINE Plus! also works as part of a broader well log data management system. Participating companies are able to securely view their proprietary well log data assets seamlessly, along side commercially available data. Access from this single entry point significantly improves exploration productivity by eliminating time-consuming data procurement tasks. It also eliminates the cost of duplicate data purchases across an organization.
LOG-LINE Plus! is complemented by Silver-Wire[TM], a direct connection to A2D's well log database, from within 3rd party exploration software programs. Integrated data access keeps geologists focused on core tasks and prevents the need to exit the exploration workflow.

E-commerce Department Director Answers Questions about TWA.com - John Gunby, Trans World Airlines Inc., new website services - Brief Article - Intervi

As director of TWA's e-commerce, John Gunby has been closely involved in all aspects of redesigning and adding information to the new TWA.com. Here are some of his observations about the new website and how it is one more tangible reminder of TWA's philosophy that customer service is its number one priority.

Q: TWA has had a website for five years. What guided TWA's approach to its new site?

A: We have three objectives for our new site: ease of use, convenience and customer service. The new TWA.com now makes it easier to book a ticket in fewer clicks than the old site and provides the convenience of new features such as offering car rentals, hotel reservations and the ability to choose your seat from an interactive seat map.

Q: Why does the new TWA site include the ability to book hotel reservations, car rentals and tickets on other airlines?

A: We wanted our new site to be a one-stop shopping experience for our customers' travel needs. Instead of just selling TWA tickets, we wanted to give our customers the opportunity to add a car rental and hotel reservation, making it an easy, convenient way of booking a trip. We also realize that sometimes our customers need to fly a certain route not serviced by TWA, at a specific time that may be better served by another airline or at a lower price available by flying indirect. In these cases we now offer our customers the opportunity to book a seat on another airline at the same published price offered by booking with that airline directly. It's part of our focus on customer service.

Q: Is it easy to book tickets online? Are there any "tricks" to using TWA's new booking engine?

A: TWA's new booking engine makes purchasing tickets online a breeze. You can find the booking engine in two areas of the new TWA.com. Firstly, a quick search facility is prominently placed on the home page under "Search for a Flight" and is a simple and easy way to search and book flights Secondly, we have placed our more detailed booking engine in our reservations section found in the main navigation bar on the left of the home page. To use the booking engine, all you need to do is search for the flights that best suit you. Then if you decide to book, you will be asked for your user name and your password, which is exclusively yours. A booking is only complete when you have given your credit card details and have confirmed that this is the flight, car and hotel you wish to book.

Q: What are the advantages of booking online?

A: In a nutshell, booking online is easier and more convenient than any other method of purchasing tickets. You can book a flight in your own home or at the office in a matter of minutes. If you Want to change your travel plans, the same rules apply to purchasing your ticket online as making reservations on the telephone. Your confirmation and itinerary will be sent to you via e-mail and can be printed for your convenience. We even offer access to our exclusive special fares on TWA.com called Dot Com Deals [SM] that are available every Tuesday and the Dot Com Deals [SM] Plus that are available at other times. To ensure you don't miss out on the Dot Com Deals, we e-mail these to subscribers each week. All we need is your e-mail address.

Q: Has TWA planned anything special to introduce the new TWA.com to its customers?

A: On August 28 TWA.com will feature a broadcast using streaming video with TWA President and CEO Bill Compton speaking about the new TWA.com. For a three-month period, the site also has a tour of the booking process using flash animation, which has been produced by Yahoo! Broadcast. We are also celebrating our new website and our 75th anniversary with a contest giving away a free pair of round-trip tickets to any domestic TWA destination each day. All you have to do is go to TWA.com and guess which TWA destination is featured in the photo. We select a winner each day from all entries. No booking is necessary to enter and you can play once a day for 75 days.

Online uptick: the construction supply industry is hardly a burgeoning hub of e-commerce, but dealers and pros are starting to connect electronically

Like many custom home builders, Peter Reich in Shelter Island, N.Y., works long, hard hours. By the time he's done at the jobsite, managing his six-man crew and following up with customers, it's usually well past the end of the business day--which is why he likes being able to go online at night to write orders with his lumber supplier, Riverhead Building Supply of Riverhead, N.Y.

"I'm usually doing paperwork at 10 or 11 o'clock at night, when there's not going to be anybody at the other end of the phone line" says Reich, a partner at Reich/Ecklund Construction, which builds approximately three $1 million-plus homes a year. "So, if I'm doing a deck and I want some ACQ framing, stainless steel nails, and 1,000 feet of five-quarter ipe decking, I'll just do it online. Then, magically, it shows up the next day. It's great."

Of course, Riverhead's magic--and the fact that Reich is willing to use it--is still the exception, not the rule, in the construction supply business. While nearly 48 percent of respondents to the 2005 ProSales 100 Annual Survey of Leading Construction Suppliers plan to offer click-and-buy capabilities to their customers, only 14 percent do so now.

But breakouts like Riverhead continue to emerge. In April, $36.5 billion Lowe's Cos. of Mooresville, N.C., issued a press release touting its point-and-click online purchasing option for dimensional lumber. The firm declined to comment for this story on the uptake of that program, citing its "quiet period" before releasing quarterly earnings to Wall Street, but confirmed that delivery fees for lumber "vary from $45 to $150, depending on the market," according to Lowe's public relations spokesperson Jennifer Smith.

Shipping costs have been a sticking point for e-commerce in the construction supply business, especially among pros who are used to free delivery to the jobsite. Fort Wayne, Ind.--based Do it Best Corp. has tackled the issue with its Ship-to-Store program, which routes online orders, free of charge, to the closest member store where customers can pick them up. At 37-unit Do it Best member Lampert Yards, a $245 million operation based in St. Paul, Minn., pros can have those orders added to their daily truck. "If it is a pro contractor, we would call and ask them if they wanted it shipped to the jobsite. Then we'd add it to their next delivery," says Pam Leier, vice president of marketing at Lampert. The program has boosted Lampert's online orders, both pro and consumer, by 25 percent in the past year, according to Leier. "That's pretty typical in terms of volume increase among our members" says Debbie Wagner, e-commerce member services coordinator for Do it Best. "Members that participate in Ship-to-Store love it because it has generated more traffic to their sites."

Still, dealers who are using online purchase orders with pros admit it's only a small part of their business. At Riverhead, for instance, marketing director Mike Kochanasz says the $194 million, 10-unit firm is only tracking about 10 online orders a month. "It's still pretty miniscule," Kochanasz says. But order generation isn't necessarily why the company made the online leap. "It was really more to give customers information they were looking for after hours. They can prepare an estimate, put together an order, or access their account to check their balance without involving our personnel" Kochanasz says.

That is exactly what hardworking customers like Reich are looking for. "If I'm working on an estimate at night and I need a couple of numbers to finish it, it's right there," he says. "That's nice, because if you had to wait to get somebody on the phone in the morning, you'd be on the road and it wouldn't get done"

Willingness to Pay for Information Programs about E-Commerce: Results from a Convenience Sample of Rural Louisiana Businesses

The probability of a business paying various amounts of money for an e-commerce presence ultimately depends on demographic features, experiences with e-commerce from a buyer's and seller's perspective, technological expertise, and knowledge of e-commerce opportunities and limitations. Estimating functions to assign probabilities associated with the willingness to pay for an e-commerce presence will assist in forecasting regional likelihood of certain profiles paying various monetary amounts for an e-commerce presence. In addition, if services are provided at no cost by a third party, value to a society will be maximized by selecting profiles with the highest willingness to pay.

Key Words: e-commerce, internet, rural businesses, technology, willingness to pay

JEL Classifications: A14, C25, D21, O13, O14, O33, Q16

An ongoing U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Fund for Rural America, Rural Community Innovation project, called the Delta Ecommerce Connection (DECC), is creating diversified economic opportunities over a 4-year period for small agricultural and other rural businesses in the Lower Mississippi Delta by assisting in e-commerce business development. The project offers seminars featuring a set of three educational training modules that relate e-commerce to rural entrepreneurs in a practical fashion. In addition, technical support in website development, developing an Internet marketing strategy, electronic retailing services, and space on a secure server are provided to selected rural businesses for a period of 1 year. Businesses retaining websites after this time assume responsibility for maintaining and funding their site. During the DECC seminars, the cost structure of e-commerce has always been a topic of great interest for participants. Due to the lack of information and understanding about businesses' willingness to pay for e-commerce products in rural areas, a survey was developed to gauge the value participants placed on the new opportunity. Specific objectives were to determine what representative businesses from rural Louisiana would pay for a seminar offering information about e-commerce, and a bundle of goods, including technical assistance for building an e-commerce website, and tutoring in the technical skills used to develop and maintain their own website. Elasticities and marginal effects associated with respondent's willingness to pay were measured as well.

Background

Increased Internet use has drastically altered the way business is conducted. Current Internet use is 186 million users in the United States and 945 million worldwide. In the year 2007, projections for U.S. and worldwide Internet use are 230 million and 1,466 million people, respectively (eTForecasts.com). The United States once had almost 90% of worldwide users in the mid-1980s; however, the percentage of users has continued to drop through time, with approximately 20% of users in 2004. There are many forces adding to the growth of the Internet in other countries, as well as the United States, including web cellular phones, prepaid Internet access cards, broadband Internet connection, wireless Internet access, e-commerce for mobile devices (M-commerce), Internet cafes in developing countries, declining Internet service provider rates, bundled services, web appliances and interactive web TV, among others (eTForecasts.com).

E-commerce sales are approximately 1.9% of total retail sales (U.S. Department of Commerce), with the greatest revenue stemming from computer hardware, furniture, software, books, music, videos, office supplies, food/ beverages, and airlines tickets (Abate and Moser). According to the Nelsen-Net ratings, who conduct analysis and measurement on Internet audiences, the average American spends 80 minutes on-line at work and 26 minutes online at home daily, both spending approximately 1 minute per web page (NeilsenNetRatings.com). This is not much time for a business to convince a consumer to make a purchase, much less, allow them to conduct the transaction. E-commerce requires a different approach as compared with the traditional brick and mortar business with respect to sales.

E-commerce provides an excellent opportunity for many smaller businesses. Entry costs into the marketplace are lowered, allowing businesses to compete on an international forum (Dutta and Evrard; Poone and Swatman; Webb and Sayer). Many new electronic businesses have developed because of this potential (Motiwall and Khan). Successful businesses have several features in common. They respond to website features that most consumers prefer, such as stock availability, privacy, customer service, order-tracking capabilities, and providing detailed product information (Post et al.). However, three of every four online businesses fail in the first 2 years, indicating a need to develop and administer a strategic business model tailored to an e-commerce platform (Paper et al.)· In rural economies, this failure rate is even higher and it becomes necessary to determine what e-commerce products, educational information, and services are worth to these smaller companies (Small Business Administration [SBA]). Recent studies have explored consumer willingness to pay for Internet services, but not the sellers' willingness to pay for e-commerce services (Blefari-Melazzi et al.; Chellappa and Shivendu; Jiang; Lee et al.; Sultan; Suri et al.). There is a lack of information and understanding about what small businesses, particularly rural businesses, would be willing to pay for this opportunity to overcome geographic handicaps and compete with larger companies.

The EDA E-Commerce Revolution: The Time Is Now - Model Technology's services - Company Business and Marketing

I find it ironic that the electronic design automation (EDA) industry, which prides itself on being the technology engine that drives the worldwide electronics boom, remains on the lagging edge of technology when it comes to distributing products. On one hand, we enable the deep sub-micron revolution that fuels the global economy. On the other hand, however, our distribution strategies remain archaic.

The rest of the business world has moved rapidly toward more efficient distribution methods, most notably electronic commerce. Last year, consumers bought more than $7 billion worth of products online. Business-to-business sales were six times that much.

Today, we can purchase everything from books to automobiles online. But not EDA software tools. For some reason, our industry has been trapped in a distribution time warp, unable to free itself. But this January, Model Technology Inc., a subsidiary of Mentor Graphics Corporation, broke free of the time warp and began offering its line of ModelSim simulation products through its online store.

We decided to sell via E-commerce for three reasons. First, to make it more convenient for our existing customers to purchase our tools. Second, to make our products and underlying technology available to a wider range of electronic designers, not just those at the top level of the design spectrum. Finally, because we could. After firmly establishing the value of our products in the marketplace, Model Technology does not require an extensive sales cycle.

The Internet as a sales tool can no longer be ignored. It must be recognized as an important addition to the traditional distribution network. As the EDA industry matures, more products will lend themselves to a low cost distribution model. The time to exploit the benefits of online sales is now. A true multi-tiered distribution network must include a combination of traditional sales and relationship building, distributors and affiliates, telesales and online sales. In the case of Model Technology, selling online makes it possible for us to offer our simulation technology to the full range of ASIC and FPGA hardware description language designers, regardless of their design complexities or price sensitivities.

Typically, large EDA vendors devote their sales forces to selling only to the largest accounts, making it cost prohibitive to handle small orders profitably. The next level of customer is either ignored, or perhaps serviced by independent distributors. By adding online sales to our multi-tiered distribution network, Model Technology can take its sophisticated technology used in the most complex environments, and sell it to companies working in simpler design environments where only one seat is necessary, and at a price point that is extremely aggressive.

E-commerce helps EDA vendors reduce order cycle times and order processing costs. They can process more transactions faster and reduce errors. The online delivery method is fast, efficient, safe and available to all. That's why the time is now for EDA vendors to do themselves and their customers the favor of offering their products online.

Easy E-Commerce

Last year's holiday season saw a tremendous upswing in online shopping. Sure, most of it was on big sites like Amazon and those of popular retailers, but there's no reason your store can't get in on the action. We'll show you how you can claim your piece of the e-commerce pie without spending a fortune or being a programming whiz.

The one-stop services we review here will let you easily build and host an online store where customers can buy your products and interact with you directly. They'll feed you new leads and increase return visits. For those who just want to build a site and don't need to sell, we look at services like Tripod and Geocities in the sidebar "Just for Fun: Personal Site Builders."

Once it was enough to post what amounted to an online Yellow Pages ad. But today's tools make it easy for you to design a site, upload your catalog, and start taking orders. For just an afternoon or two of your time and $50 a month in hosting fees, you can open the doors to your virtual store.

In the past, you'd have to find a hosting provider, build your pages with software like Microsoft FrontPage or Macromedia's Dreamweaver mx, and then tie into an e-commerce engine like Miva or osCommerce. Now, hosting services with integrated site building and e-commerce let you do it all in one place.

To give you the lowdown on e-commerce hosting solutions suitable for a small business, we evaluated seven services priced at a maximum of $50 a month. You can spend even less, but that often means sacrificing features crucial to many e-commerce operations, such as automatic calculation of tax and shipping charges or the ability to accept credit cards. Of course, you can spend much more—and you may have to if you have a large catalog, need large amounts of disk space or bandwidth, or want more advanced marketing features.

Building your own e-commerce site isn't the only way to sell products over the Web; listing on an auction site like eBay or in an existing marketplace like Yahoo! Stores is a popular alternative, and it can offer the advantage of positioning you squarely in front of a large audience. The hosting solutions give you more control over your presence, though, and some services we tested offer the best of both worlds by linking products on your site to your auction listings and providing search engine placement and e-mail marketing managers. Other advanced features include integration with your existing accounting systems, such as QuickBooks.

For help in planning your site strategy, see the sidebar "12 Tips for a Successful Web Store." If it's time to launch—or simply reinvigorate—your small business's e-commerce efforts, our reviews in the following pages will show you which hosting services deliver the goods.

TELUS and CIBC to form canadian e-commerce digital trust services provider - Business - VeriSign Inc

TELUS and CIBC have entered into an agreement to establish a new, national e-commerce trust services provider that will serve as VeriSign, Inc.'s principal Canadian affiliate. VeriSign, provider of digital trust services, will provide both technology and capital to the new entity formed by TELUS and CIBC. This new entity will provide web site security to enable secure e-commerce; enterprise authentication, which leverages VeriSign's public key infrastructure (PKI) to issue and manage digital credentials for signing transactions; and online merchant payment services, which facilitate settlement of transactions between buyers and sellers.

This initiative forms an independent Canadian company that draws on the expertise of each partner to establish a trusted environment for wired and wireless transactions. TELUS and CIBC currently deliver PKI services in Canada as part of the VerisSign trust network, which uses common technology, operating practices and infrastructure to establish secure communications and transactions on the Internet. Under terms of the alliance, TELUS and CIBC will combine their PKI services to deliver a Canadian national trust infrastructure for secure online and wireless commerce.