The Role of a Trusted Third Party in Enhancing Electronic Commerce

There is however a downside to e-commerce. People do not feel completely confident about buying online as of yet. When you make a purchase on the Internet you must give your credit card or other important information like social security numbers and e-mail addresses. Customers are also weary about giving away this kind of information because some companies use this information to find information on their customers and even sell it to other companies. The Internet is also a new medium that does not yet have many laws governing it, which can also lead to some misgivings by consumers.

According to MarketLine, the world online retail market expanded by almost 18% in 2010 and is predicted to reach close to $435 billion in sales. The market is expected to reach a 90% growth by 2015 and exceed $827 billion in sales. Listed in an article “Ecommerce Growth Statistics”, the average amount spent by each consumer is expected to rise from $1,207 per year to $1,738 per person by 2016. That is a significant increase. That shows that people prefer to shop online than going to the actual store in today’s society. Shoppers will spend on an average of $327 billion online shopping in 2016, which is about 45% from $226 billion in 2012. It is very evident that consumers will drive ecommerce into the future; especially e-retail. In just a few years, purchases online will be more profitable than ever, with others products and services available to purchase such as mobile and social allowing consumers to shop to their convenience. For retailers and

How many people shop online? Many people have to fight through traffic to go to a store looking for something that may or may not be in the store when they get there? Shopping online can help them out, Not only does this make people’s lives more convenient, it also can help the economy in ways most people don’t think about. The internet is shaping the world today and people have the ability to do everything on phones and computers. Shopping online is a growing enterprise and it can change the future and how it can make people’s lives easier by shopping online.

When online commerce first emerged, many consumers were wary of supplying their credit cards and giving their personal information to online stores. This led to the development of websites such as Paypal, which restricts the access a retailer has to one’s credit card number (Einstein). The threat of fraud has always been a worry for online consumers, but consumers face the same threats when shopping in a brick and mortar store (Chadwick).

Many people are moving from physical stores to purchasing merchandise and services on the Internet. Today,

PayPal allows the customer to purchase products with their bank account or credit cards and all they need to do is setup a free account. Identity theft has become very popular both online and in store. The customer needs to check their financial records frequently and to be sure not to give out personal information unless they have reason to trust them. Hacking has become so popular, and consumers need to be aware of ways to protect themselves such as using a prepaid credit card while making online purchases. The customer should only put the amount of money they wish to spend on the prepaid card so if they are one of the customer’s who are hacked, they won’t lose anything. Stores often time have a final sale on some items or a no return policy. Customers need to be aware and ask questions if unsure. Online customers run the risk of orders not arriving, not arriving on time or packages being lost. Stores also offer competitor price matching tools to track prices and offer discounts if products are defective or opened.

Nowadays organizations online need to ensure their client's information. If not individual data along with credit card numbers can fall into the wrong hands and we know what will happen at that point. This is one of the issues with online retailers but another is when the retailers sell their client's information. If this is done, then the client will have an issue with who gets their personal information and can be annoyed by the organizations that get their data. Generally, third party organizations are the ones purchasing this data. This can be a scary issue because many individuals are purchasing item online and this increases the risk of their data being sold. The data can go to third parties or into the wrong hands and this is

many customers are still very afraid to purchase online because of the security issues that 's why it 's very good to have more than one payment method, payment methods include E-cheques, credit cards, Gift cards, and the best one from my point of view because it 's very known for safe online shopping is PayPal.

Statistics from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) show that credit card fraud has reached the $1 billion mark and is growing. By the end of 2007, it is expected to reach the $3 billion mark in the US alone ([4] ACFE, 2007, p. 1.104). The availability of shopping over the internet has raised new concerns. Internet shopping continues to grow and there has been a 22 percent increase in spending in 2005 as compared to spending in 2004 ([4] ACFE, 2007, p. 1.104). Total internet spending has reached $143.2 billion in 2005 and surveys have shown that about 90 percent of all internet purchases are paid online with a credit card. Fraud occurs on approximately 5 percent of all internet purchases. What makes the internet so susceptible to fraud is the lack of face-to-face interaction with the fraudster, which allows for more anonymity and makes prevention and detection more difficult. During 2006, there were 207,492 complaints filed online with the Internet Crime Complaint Center - [18] IC3 (2006, p. 3). During 2006, internet auction

Given the lack of ability to inspect merchandise before purchase, consumers are at higher risk of fraud than face-to-face transactions. Merchants also risk fraudulent purchases using stolen credit cards or fraudulent repudiation of the online purchase. However, merchants face less risk from physical theft by using a warehouse instead of a retail storefront. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption has generally solved the problem of credit card numbers being intercepted in transit between the consumer and the merchant. However, one must still trust the merchant and employees not to use the credit card information subsequently for their own purchases, and not to pass the information to others. Also, hackers might break into a merchant's web site and steal names, addresses and credit card numbers, although the Payment Card

More and more people have experienced shopping online and there are a increasing number of people who prefer E-Purchasing.

You have more choices than ever when it comes to buying stuff. On top of malls, mom-and-pops, big boxes, and your friendly neighbourhood store, you have entire shopping emporiums on the Internet.

Fraud prevention is the key element of conducting business, as when not controlled, fraud exposes the business to potential law suit, business loss, or its’ extinction all together. An online payment organisation, such as ours, needs to make maximum effort to reduce the risk of fraud, as its’ very existence depends on the level of trust that customers put in it.

Online stores are the prime targets for cyber crimes. This is not new as the e-commerce websites are more lucrative for the cyber criminals. This is because e-commerce website process the customer’s money which is itself lucrative for the cyber criminals and secondly the transactions contain sensitive data of the customers that are directly associated with their credit cards, allowing various scams and frauds easier to make.

Shopping online is where you can purchase products or services online through devices, such as laptops, computers, tablets or smartphones. Online shopping has recently grown in popularity, mainly because it's convenient, easy and usually costs far less than shopping in a store. It also saves you the trouble of searching several stores for a particular product and waiting in long queues. However, online shopping has its drawbacks as you cannot touch and feel the item before buying it, the website may not be trustworthy, you could risk losing your money, could be a delay in shipping and shipping charges may make products more expensive (BusinessDictionary, 2017).