-
Overcoming payment hurdles in e-business
Thoughts about E-commerce on September 28, 2011
If you’ve ever tried to search for online payment processing options in the UAE, odds are that you’ve probably hit a brick wall. The problem isn’t that there aren’t options out there, but rather that they’re shrouded in secrecy for reasons I’ll never understand.
Here’s a presentation I shared at The Internet Show, Abu Dhabi to help demystify online payment processing in the UAE. If you have a tip, need help tracking down a service provider or know of an insider secret you’d like to share, feel free to leave a comment.
-
The limited edition screw
Thoughts about E-commerce on April 21, 2007
A little over a week ago, Scientific American reported that Facebook had established a base of over 19 million registered users. It should come as no surprise then, that the team over at Facebook may be trying to nurture a potentially huge revenue stream from the simple one dollar gifts they introduced in February.
Of course, no one’s expecting the limited edition screw and toilet paper to go anywhere, but imagine buying an iPod for your best friend’s birthday and having it pop up on Facebook too? A year ago, I’d have sounded the privacy alarm if you told me that information was going to be public domain, but I guess that’s now a part of the growing pool of information which we’re willing to share.
-
Johnathan Doeworthy Junior goes online
Thoughts about E-commerce on April 6, 2007
Most people usually set a glass ceiling to what they’d purchase online. About 5 years ago that ceiling would have been my $75 domain name. Could I have purchased a $1500 air ticket online? Certainly. But I’d probably be more comfortable with the keys to the White House on a park bench in Baghdad.
Roll forward 5 years to last summer and I couldn’t figure a better way to purchase my air ticket than to log on to emirates.com. It’s a different story altogether that after 2 failed attempts and 3 days of emails that I eventually decided to go with the paper ticket (and no, it wasn’t my fault).
The thought it evokes is that with increasing security and confidence in online transactions, people are beginning to raise their glass ceiling higher each year. And that most certainly includes Johnathan Doeworthy Junior too. Unlike Johnathan Doeworthy Senior, who had his personal assistant pick out his new $5000 organiser, Johnathan Doeworthy Junior is web savvy and would probably want to make that decision himself.
Statistics from comScore reveal that not only has the number of online apparel buyers gone up 23% for sites such as Amazon.com in the last year, but the average order value also increased by 6%. An interesting aspect though, is that the same category lost 3% on its consumer loyalty score in the last year.
There’s a hint of a waning long term audience, but the opportunity for an exclusive high net worth retailer to step in, build customer loyalty through great experience and turn that score around is very real. A great little example I came across this morning on Three Minds is 20ltd‘s sale of one of only 20 eleven forty “Good versus Evil” Opus football tables in the world. Yes, Santa’s the goalkeeper and Jack the Ripper plays opposite Mother Teresa, but it’s the fact that it’s going for GBP 14,500 that interests me.