Knocking on the right doors in our hallway? Well, according to the The Star in TechCentral HERE, the percentage of credit card fraud cases has nose dived from 0.74% to 0.12%. When I saw the digits I was really thankful for the quick adoption of the EMV (EuroPay-MasterCard-Visa) chip.
This is definetely the silver lining Malaysian retailers would have been waiting eagerly to come if they were thinking of building an online store. Though not many might hop into the store quickly but the community is ever changing and with proven security such as the EMV, it’s a matter of time before people would frequent and make a purchase. Beat the jams, the stuffy smell wreaking crowds, and the hassle to wait for the counter lady to figure out the price of a product.
But of course, the credit card security isn’t the only encryption needed for safe shopping online. An online store owner shouldn’t be selfish and incorporate the much needed Secure Sockets Layer(SSL) when having payment options via credit card. However, times of online banking are changing as well. An example would be eBay Malaysia that allows transactions to be done via Maybank2u and others.
Now, I’ve been saying how much security of the shop is important to the customer and yet to mention how the customer themselves need to adopt better etiquette. Yes, shoppers need to be wary if their computers are invaded by spyware, trojans and other stealing immigrants. Also, shoppers need to be aware when shopping online to check if the online shop has implemented SSL into its payment system.
How do you know if it has SSL?
Look for the LOCK icon on your status bar.
Several things I’d like to see implemented in our local e-commerce shops:
- Receipt of purchased product to be sent to our email with any required policies.
- Notification when the product has been posted or shipped.
- Tracking of item though its by POSLaju.
- Prompt and high quality customer feedback with follow up rating service.
Any others you think should be implemented?
Danny,
EMV does not address the online fraud issue. Fraud has been so sucessfully curbed in Malaysia because the root of it is due to syndicated fraud or counterfeit cards.
All that it has possibly done is “move’ fraud from the retail shops to an online space. One thing we have to remember is that “fraud can be mitogated, but never eliminated”.
Cheers mate …
Thanks for the extra knowledge there. I can understand fraud can never be eliminated as like crackers always manage to crack professional softwares. But I guess with news of less fraud, it does help instill some confidence in the community. :)
Cheers.
Yeah, I am also hoping that e-commerce will finally jumpstart here. I tested and just lauched my e-commerce website (http://www.flowerz4u.biz) selling flowers and I am using PayPal as the payment provider in order to assure shoppers that their credit card numbers are safe when dealing with PayPal and I am not even collecting it. There is also an option for Maybank2u payment… Seems like response has been lukewarm, or maybe I didn’t do SEO very well….
Credit card fraud and even ATM fraud is to be blamed for this I guess, plus the ultra-cautious and conservative mindset. Well, you can’t blame people for being like this also… It;s their hard-earned money …
The biggest problem with PayPal to date is that you require other means of withdrawing the funds out later. Besides that, their rates aren’t exactly very attractive to many in comparison to 2CheckOut or WorldPay.
I think it’s e-commerce is happening but only the more IT-savvy are taking notice of its potential. But the problem aside a universal and wholly confidential payment solution, is the knowledge in even IT-savvy users of the requirements in building an effective e-commerce shop.
In Malaysia, many today still believe to cut cost and try to earn more. This is one of the reasons which hinder their e-commerce growth. The thinking might work in Asia or Malaysia culture but definitely not overseas.
That’s one of the setbacks of not e-commerce but the whole Internet business mindset here.