Protecting Yourself with e-Commerce and Transactions

Lessons in Shopping Safely

Consider this dilemma:

Situation: You've thrown your right shoulder out after a raucous game of volleyball last Tuesday. Unfortunately, you've put off food shopping for a while, and all you have in the cupboards for dinner is a half jar of mustard and some stale saltine crackers. As a car-less commuter in the city of Boston, you are unsure how you will be able to transfer your groceries from the checkout at Star Market, through public transportation, to your pantry without causing further injury.

Solution:
Shop over the Internet!

Whether you've injured your shoulder in competitive sports, or you're trying to find a rare collectible Incredible Hulk steel lunchbox, the Internet may be the perfect solution to meet your purchasing needs. Convenience is the name of the game with e-commerce and Internet shopping. Many times, you can get immediate approval for your credit card transaction, and items may ship immediately after ordering.

However, as with many exchanges of information on the Internet, we must use caution to protect ourselves and our private information (see Intro to the Internet lesson on webforms). This lesson in e-commerce will present some strategies for safely purchasing a variety of products over the Internet.

When is shopping over the Internet cool?

Shopping over the Internet is more than just a lazy person's way of getting their weekly groceries. The Internet brings us into contact with thousands of stores and small vendors from around the world with just a few clicks of the finger. Here are some reasons why we may choose to shop over the Internet instead of our traditional brick-and-mortar stores:

• We are unable (mobility issues,disability issues, lack of transportation, inclement weather) to get to the store.

• The product we are looking for is not available in local stores.

• An online store is having a sale/special.

• We need to send something far away with speed.

• Find a bargain with used goods for discount prices.

• Browse and utilize the protections of vendors' sales policies.

• Orders to a corporate account for business purposes.

• If we purchase from an out of state vendor, we may not need to pay sales tax (currently, may change).

• Merchandise research: Compare online prices before hitting the brick-and-mortar stores.

• Many brick-and-mortars "honor competition prices." Print out a good online deal and bring it to the store.

When is shopping over the Internet not so cool?

As with many things with life: when there are advantages, there are usually accompanying disadvantages. Any means of transmitting private information (i.e.. credit cards, name, social security number, address) presents risks for interception by a third party. The Internet may make you vulnerable for having sensitive information stolen by hackers.

hackers: Internet criminals who may illegally break into a website's security to modify or steal information.

Many people characterize the Internet as the only medium in which criminals can take our information. They are only partially correct. When we shop over the Internet, we are taking a risk. However, as long as we are careful and use some protective strategies, shopping over the Internet is no riskier than ordering something by mail, over the phone, or using a credit card in a restaurant.

So, before jumping on the Internet and purchasing an authentic Elvis Presley autographed toothbrush from an auction website, read through this lesson and utilize the strategies discussed.

Strategies for safe buying

Trust Your E-Vendor!
The rule of thumb when buying anything is that you trust your vendor. Would we buy filet mignon steaks at $17 per pound from a butcher we didn't trust? Probably not. If they gave us bad steaks, we'd possibly be at both a financial and a health loss. Similarly, don't buy Braveheart on DVD from an Internet Vendor you don't trust. The online vendor must earn our trust.

1: Earning our trust with Vendor Policies:

Good online vendors will have an easily accessible page describing policies and customer rights for purchases. Many merchants provide no-risk guarantee for anything purchased online. Others may have only partial refunds. Some may require you to pay for return postage. Others may reimburse you for postage. Select vendors may even allow you to return products ordered online to the traditional brick-and-mortar stores for convenience (ToysRUs.com may allow you to return your items to the actual stores, saving you postage and time).

Policies may also include information regarding data sharing. Vendors may give your contact information to other vendors for advertising. It is unethical to perform this type of sharing without customer consent or knowledge.

Every vendor has developed their own unique set of policies. It's good to familiarize yourself with these policies by reading them, or printing them and out keeping them until you receive the products and are satisfied. If a vendor does not have their policies publicized, it may be a good idea to email them and inquire about their policies. If they don't get back to you, assume they are not a trustworthy vendor.

2: Earning our trust with Secure Pages:

Many exchanges of information over the Internet may be seen by third parties. This means that hackers may be able to catch a transmission while enroute from your computer to it's destination and read the information provided. In most casual contact cases, this is highly unlikely: why would a hacker want to read the email that I am sending to my brother commenting on his new shoes. In a situation where sensitive information like credit cards or account numbers are being transferred, a computer hacker may benefit from intercepting.

This is unacceptable. Luckily, we have the protection of secure servers and encryption. Encryption takes your data and information and scrambles is so only the person receiving the information can read it. Secure webservers are special server computers which block hackers from seeing the information. This offers double protection. Even if the hackers were able to break into the secure server, the info would be scrambled into an unreadable code.

How do we know if we are on a secure webpage?
When we are on a secure website/webpage hosted on a secure webserver, we will be able to tell because:

• The Security Status on Netscape's status bar depicts a locked padlock

• The Security Button in the button toolbar depicts a locked padlock

• When the page was opened, a popup menu warned that you were entering a secure website depends on browser preferences

How do you test if a page is secure or encrypted if you are unsure?
If you are unsure if a particular web page is secure or not, clicking on the Security Button when a the order page is loaded, you can find out the encryption information of a particular website.

3: Earning our trust with a fully functioning website:

Even the best website developers make mistakes with broken hyperlinks, missing images, and design faults which cause error messages to appear on your computer.

While we won't use this personally against the designers if we're surfing around, we should be wary when trusting their websites with our private financial and personal information. If they can't take the time to double check a hyperlink, or correctly placing an image on a page, we should not trust them with our sensitive financial information.

If the site isn't worth your trust . . .

Find it elsewhere
Continue searching for your item elsewhere on the Internet. Chances are, you may be able to find similar products on the Internet at a better website for a comparable cost. Even if there is some price difference, it's better to pay a little more and feel secure about your transaction.

Research your options!
What if you found the only webpage on the Internet which sells a classic Incredible Hulk steel lunchbox, and you cannot find another vendor with all of your searching attempts. Try looking on the website for e-commerce alternatives, like a 1-800 phone order number or mail order form.

If no alternatives are published
If there are no published alternatives, you should email the website administrator of the untrustworthy vendor and be honest about your untrusting of their site. Give reasons in the email why you are not comfortable utilizing their online purchasing mechanisms. If they are a good vendor, they will respect your decisions, and accommodate your request for an alternative in fear that they may lose a potential customer. They may also work to make their website more trustworthy for future customers.

Shopping Resources

Internet Shopping 24-7; http://www.InternetShopping247.com/
Dr. Bruce Weinberg, Boston University Graduate School of Management
This brave soul dedicated himself to a year of not stepping foot into any brick-and-mortar stores, doing all his shopping online (even through the holiday season). As a marketing (and now e-marketing) professional, his Internet Shopping Diary, research reports and Brucie Awards are informative and entertaining. Definitely a must see!

Pricegrabber.com; http://www.pricegrabber.com/
A website dedicated to comparison shopping. User-posted reviews of online vendors and stores are very valuable. This site was recommended by a student, Mark L.

Commerce examples

I tried to find some untrustworthy vendor examples, but the truth of the matter is that these untrustworthy vendors are only available for a few days before picking up and moving on. Here are a couple of vendors with which I have had or heard about positive experiences:

Peapod.com; http://www.peapod.com/
An entire supermarket online! You can order your groceries online and have them delivered to your kitchen.

Amazon.com; http://amazon.com/
An large online vendor which offers an extensive library of common as well as hard to find books, CD's, electronics, and many other items.

Dell Computers Online; http://dell.com/
Choose from common computer packages or customize a computer with the hardware you want, software you want, and peripherals you request with a series of webforms. The prices adjust automatically (and webforms are infinitely more patient than pushy salespersons) so this is great for someone working around a budget. My Dell home computer is still pumpin' since 1999.