A mouse for hire

Online shopping is by far one of the hottest things today. With the mere click of mouse, you can have the world at your fingertips. While shoppers in Trinidad and Tobago may still be apprehensive over the whole thing,  a number of local businesses have expanded their facilities to include an online network, in the hopes of increasing their bottom line. However, security concerns have prevented the online market from reaching its full potential, according to one expert. Aldon Moore, E-business Manager at Sacha Cosmetics, whose online shopping facility has been operational for the past five years, explained that the public was generally skeptical when it came to Internet shopping, the result of high incidences of credit card fraud in recent years. This tied in with the fact that the percentage of local population with the buying power for online shopping — those who have credit cards — was currently very small, only about 30 percent. There were also very few facilities locally to enable secure online shopping in terms of payment processing. In fact, he said, there was currently only one bank which offered payment processing facilities to allow e-commerce companies to set up online facilities.

David Phillips, owner of Metamorphosis, Evolution of Technology and Design, explained that payment processing allowed business people conducting e-commerce to have monies paid by customers deposited into their accounts via an acquiring company. This is done through a merchant account, which is generally set up by a local financial company. The desired result is that funds are transferred from the customer’s card account, held at the Issuing Bank, to the seller’s account, which is held by the Acquiring bank. The main problem is that the seller cannot use any bank. It must be an Internet Merchant Account. In an on-line credit card transaction, the customer enters the credit details onto a secure on-line form, which is part of the shopping cart system provided by the Web-Store Service.

Fraud avoidance comes next, with the credit card number being checked, in addition to an address verification. These details, once verified, are then forwarded from the transaction-processing system on the Web-Store site, to the Credit Card Association, whether it be Visa or MasterCard via a Payment Processing Network. The transaction is then either authorised or declined, depending on the customer’s credit limit. If it is authorised, then funds are reserved to cover the transaction. However, Phillips said, the Internet was basically controlled by the US system and there were very few facilities locally offering this support. His company, he continued, was set up last year in an attempt to make e-commerce more attractive to local businesses. “We want to open up the market and make it more attractive,” he noted. “People will feel a lot safer if they know that the money is being deposited into their accounts.” “We understand the fears, but basically what happens in the electronic realm can happen in the physical realm. You can add too much security making it difficult to get in or out,” Phillips added. People tend to stay far away from e-business, but it is no different from being in the normal physical setting, he added. Internet shopping holds numerous benefits for willing participants. There are opportunities to save time and money, greater choice, the convenience of shopping when you like and having the items delivered right to your door, as well as the ability to find and compare information, products and prices.

It is projected that electronic commerce will grow from the US $3 billion figure of 1997 to US $1 trillion by the year 2010. Research has shown that credit card fraud affects thousands of people on a weekly basis, with the online retailer suffering the most. Last year, the brother/sister team of Marc and Savi Narine set up an online shopping website, Premiumbrands.us, which allows the TT community to acquire brand name clothing from renowned designers, such as Versace and Armani, at affordable prices. The clothing is ordered online and then delivered to the customer’s house within 72 hours. However, security concerns among customers prompted the Narines to adopt a cash-payment facility, whereby customers can opt to pay cash for the items rather than using their credit cards. Savi Narine, Regional Manager for Premium Brands said, “I don’t think that Internet shopping is a big thing in TT right now. A lot of people I speak with are reserved in terms of online shopping, basically because of the credit card issues.”
“Personally, I bought some stuff online from India and it was horrible,” she continued. “People tend to be wary in cases like this which is why we are trying to open up people’s minds.”

“People are also now beginning to realise the quality of stuff out there and there are some who are really interested and would go ahead and close their eyes and do it, but then there are those who are very cautious.” To provide a safety net for its customers, Premium Brands aligned itself to Authorise.net, a credit card authorisation company, which is used by many businesses to process their transactions over the Internet. “People need to be more aware of what is being done with their credit cards,” Narine maintained. On the company’s website, there is a page explaining how the transaction is done, “so hopefully people will be a little more open to credit cards.” At Sacha Cosmetics, the online facility is built to target the international market. Moore explained that Sacha did not cater for the local public, but rather aimed at the niche market in the US, as well as other international markets as far as Norway and Australia.

The products, he said, are manufactured at TT prices and sold at international retail prices. The online facility currently records more than 40,000 subscribers to an online publication entitled, “Makeup Secrets Revealed.” Sacha also offers a downloadable e-book which is free to subscribers. To date, the site has recorded approximately 15,000 downloads. “We use this publication to keep in constant communication with our customers,” Moore noted, “and to inform them of the latest trends with Sacha and what they can expect in the future.” He said that last year the site received a total of 885,000 visitors and presently stood at number four in a Google search for the word cosmetics, from 6,640,000 other sites. “We hope to get up to the number one position by the sixth or seventh month of this year. However, technology changes so fast that you have to be updated with all the aspects of what the various search engines are looking for.”

For companies thinking about setting up an online shopping facility, Moore stressed the importance of proper consulting. It was also important, he maintained, to do the necessary research and assign a dedicated team for the promotion of the site. “Marketing is also very important and  complicated,” he said, noting that it is important for the site to be up-to-date. An Internet year, he said, basically lasts three months and things change pretty fast. For Sacha that means the site has actually been in existence for 15 years. “The bottom line is dollars,” he said. “You intend to sell a product for money.”