E-Cheques and Online Commerce
Many people are unsure about doing business online, due to the
various news reports that they have seen about hackers and
identity theft. In most cases, however, there is nothing to fear
from buying and selling products online because of the
cutting-edge security features that most online retailers and
auction websites employ to keep your financial information safe
and secure.
Should you still find yourself a bit hesitant to use the
internet for your shopping needs, this article is designed to
let you know about some of the features of e-commerce and how it
can help you in your daily life.
Online Security Given that the news media tends to focus only on
the negative stories that it receives, it may seem like the
internet is an insecure venue for purchases and payments. The
truth, however, is that millions of transactions occur over the
internet every day and that most instances of the theft of
either identity or financial information happen offline or
because of e-mail scams. Financial and personal information that
is transmitted to an online store is encrypted using advanced
security programming, only being decoded by the same program
once it reaches the retailer that it was sent to. It would be
practically impossible for any information that is sent via an
encrypted communication to be either intercepted or decoded by
any third party.
Improved Selection
Online stores aren't limited to the shelf space available or the
number of products that they can keep in stock in the back room.
Many online retailers will have several different warehouses in
various locations, each stocked with a much larger inventory
than would be possible to keep on stock in a standard retail
store.
This means that you'll be able to find items online that you
would have to search hard to find in a physical store... and
there would be no guarantee that it would be in stock if you did
find a store that carried it. With online retailers, should a
particular item be out of stock then there's a good chance that
they'll be able to restock it within a few days and then ship it
on its way to you.
Ease of Ordering
One advantage of using the internet to shop is that the ordering
process is greatly improved over any catalogue system. Instead
of having to fill out order forms and attach a separate payment,
most online retailers allow you to simply click on the items
that you wish to purchase and then process your payment online
via a secure shopping cart. This can not only speed up your
ability to order the things that you want, but the retailer
receives your order faster and is able to process it faster as
well.
In many cases, a shipping manifest is created for the retailer
to improve the packaging and shipping process so that they can
get the items that you've ordered on their way to you that much
faster.
E-Cheques and Online Payments
Online payments can greatly speed up the process of getting your
order from the seller to you. E-cheques process your cheque
payment electronically (in much the same manner that modern
cheque-reading equipment does), and credit card processing can
authorize your purchase in a matter of moments.
Additionally, online payment companies such as PayPal and
Amazon.com Payments allow you to use them as an intermediary for
the sending and receiving of payments should you not wish to
transfer the funds directly from your accounts.
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