Computer crimes or computer security breaches cost American companies a whopping $150 millions in lost revenues every year. This includes theft of information, sabotage of data or networks, system penetration by outsiders, abuse of internet access, spoofing, viruses, financial fraud, active wiretapping, unauthorized insider access and theft of laptops, etc. These hackers could be amateurs simply motivated by challenge to crack a system, professional outsiders hacking to gain company information illicitly or an employee hacker. Despite firewalls, computer security is inadequate against hackers.

Why Hacking Insurance is Necessary:

Due to increased hacking activity and flawed security, companies incur high financial and network damages. It becomes very important to take insurance policy specifically covering damages against hackers or protecting e-commerce business.

Drawbacks of Existing Insurance Plans:

Traditional insurance policies are inadequate against most aspects of crime damages due to computers. Their coverage is based on physical assets, not information assets. They rarely can define cyber risk coverage and even if they do, the breach in security is excluded. Intellectual property infringement, content and advertising offences over the Internet, employee dishonesty and computer fraud are all ‘Greek’ terms for traditional insurance companies. They do not recognize business monetary loss, reduction or shut down due to computer crimes by hackers.

Advantages of Hacking Insurance:

Most insurance companies have come to terms to recognize the impact of technology on business in present circumstances. They have become more sensitive to online or e-commerce businesses risks and cover them adequately.

Since 2000, a few companies like Lloyd’s of London, Zurich Insurance Group and Chubb Insurance Group are beginning to cover the computer security breaches. American International Group’s NetAdvantage Program addresses a host of e-commerce crimes like cyber extortion, content defamation, copyright and trademark infringement, viruses, theft, destruction or alteration of data. They offer rewards for apprehending hackers and reimburse for post hacking crisis management. Many specialty insurers have come to the forefront to offer e-commerce protection packages. INSUREtrust.com, Hamilton, Ace Ltd’s information technology products, Okemos, Website Insurance& Security Program are some of the recent entrants in this field.

The chief advantages are that some criminal behind the keyboard cannot destroy your business. Information gives companies a competitive edge in global economy. It can be disastrous for the company, if the information is destroyed or stolen or virus infected or divulged to competitors. Many insurers have started offering insurance products to protect company from network breaches or virus attacks.

Chubb Corporation’s ‘cyber-security’ policy provides comprehensive coverage against e-theft, fraudulent e-communication, e-vandalism, e-threat and impairment of e-services. Many cyber insurers are addressing the tough issues like asymmetric information, adverse selection and moral hazards and other risk domains to provide more comprehensive solutions and coverage.

Cyber insurance is a potent weapon for improving Internet security. Cyber insurance products, now being offered by insurance firms, address the needs of e-businesses today.

When you’re selling products online, you are selling pictures before the product. In e-commerce only the image serves the medium of communication with your customers and it has to convey all about the product.

When there are numerous advantages of online shopping, one of the biggest shortcomings is that a customer can’t have the complete product experience. They can’t hold the product in their hands and get the real look and feel which every customer would like to have before making a purchase decision. They can only see the product through photos. Your e-commerce product photography will often decide the fate of your sale conversions.

Good e-commerce product photography is about capturing all possible details.

Here are few tips to make your e-commerce product photography better:

1. Background: A clean, white seamless background is recommended for most products. Use same background for your products to maintain the required consistency among images.

2. Equipment: Tools are the basic need for anything. Get a good camera, sturdy tripod, quality lights and other basic necessities commonly required for photography.

3. Context: Sometimes it’s quite useful to evaluate a product with respect to its surroundings, especially where size matters. A bed sheet is always shown stretched on a bed for the purpose of showing its actual size.

4. Props: Whether props should be used or not? It depends on the product. Sometimes using props is very much suggested but at times it can prove killer for the product. When clothes look best on a model or mannequin, it can shift the focus away when used with jewelry.

5. Preparing: How you prepare the product really matters. Keep the product neat and clean and in presentable form. Make sure everything is perfect.

6. Many Angles: Show your product with multiple angles so that customers can see all the details of your product. Images are the only way to communicate with the customers in e-commerce, so don’t leave the customer disappointed with very limited number of images. Show at least 6-7 images per product. Give a close-up view to capture minute and complex details.

7. Emotion: Emotions can be hard to express or communicate with a simple product image. Try to take shots that can emote. You can link your product with family values or something like this. The product is there but connected with emotions.

8. Consistency: It is very critical aspect in e-commerce product photography. Any professional e-commerce site must have consistency across all photos. All products should be photographed on the same backgrounds or with subtle changes. Consistency gives more smooth and professional look to your e-commerce website.

9. Size: Always present appropriate size images. Small pictures are not very effective with sales point of view. Keep high resolution large size photos for better sales conversion.

10. Video: If an image is a trailer of a movie, a video is like a whole movie. So extend your limits and offer a video of your product. Video will do wonders in case you are selling complicated products with moving parts or pieces.

E-commerce trends 2011 have changed dramatically since last year. Since the technology is constantly changing, the trends are also changing. While the internet is still the focus for advertising, the tools that should be used in the coming year are different than what they were last year.

The first major change has been the use of Twitter. While it was just becoming a useful tool in the past, this year will see it as a must have for online marketers. E-commerce website will be able to use it as a major part of their advertising campaign.

Using the social media has never been as useful as it is this year. By integrating some useful software, it is now helpful to save time and also to use many social networks at one time. Social media is quickly playing a much larger role in the overall strategy of most online marketer campaigns.

The best part of using these networks is the price. They are cheap to use and maintain. With the consumer market at an all time low, this appeals to most companies. You can still sell like crazy while spending a small amount on advertising. Reaching your web shop consumer has never been faster or cheaper.

One thing to note is that this year online consumers will be almost solely focused on price. By using social networks to advertise cheap process you will be able to sell more and also make more. In this weak economy, you need to reach out to the one thing that everyone is focused on their pocket book. Let them know that you have rock bottom prices and are willing to meet competitor's prices.

Your particular e-commerce niche should also use videos to reach the public. Using sites such as YouTube is a great way to get to your target audience. Using this technology is not only easy but it works. It actually works well. You will be able to keep track of who is watching your videos and giving them a chance to comment on our videos. This is an invaluable feedback that can only help your e-commerce business.

While SEO is still a valuable resource, technical SEO is quickly replacing it. Changing to three word queries instead of one or two is now becoming the standard in SEO optimizing. It can be useful for many new websites as well as older ones.

Reinvigorating your email marketing can also be helpful. Just sending out the normal email just does not cut it anymore. You need to personalize emails of your web shop. The consumer is just demanding more this year. Some eye catching graphics can quickly help any email campaign.

By using more social media marketing and online marketing personalization, you will be surprised at how much it can affect your business. E-commerce trends 2011 actually help making more money easier. Using the latest online tools help to reach potential customers of your web shop easier and allows for them to develop a better relationship with your company. Make more money in 2011 just by using a few simple online tools.

E-Commerce is quickly developing as a popular venue of business all across the globe. It permits your customers to shop when and where it is most convenient for themselves, and it also lets you, as a business, reach out to an even broader array of potential customers than you’re normally able to reach.

Templatic has come up with an e-Commerce theme to help users transform their WordPress website into aesthetically appealing, user friendly stores. The theme comes with customizable menus, guides and tutorials, and five color schemes to fit your needs as a seller and your clients’ needs a buyers.

The front end of your web shop can include an array of photographs and close-ups of the products which you are selling, as well as a blog, an easy checkout page, and a section for members to log in. You can edit your posts and update your products, manage payments, shipping, coupons, and theme options easily at the back end of your store. You can even choose among multiple cart options to present to customers. You will be able to pick the classic shopping cart that is usually in place for tangible products, a digital store for items like digital services and e-books or a catalog mode meant for the sole reason of exhibiting merchandise without selling it online. You can also choose form different methods of accepting payment, including bank transfers and Paypal.

It will cost $65 to launch the e-Commerce theme for one WordPress site, for an unlimited amount of time. $99.00 is the price for the multi-site lifetime license. And you can buy a yearly subscription to the Premium Theme Club Full Access if you run a number of types of websites. This subscription initially costs $279 for one year, but drops to $179 for every year after the first, and allows subscribers to utilize any theme they’d like on any website they choose.

Safety, Convenience and Customer Service Combine for Customer Satisfaction

E-Commerce is coming of age with millions of new customers from internet sales for a wide variety of products. Advances in web site design, payment mechanisms and delivery systems have met the increased demand for online ordering.

With the advent of on-line ordering firms like Amazon and E-Bay, what started out as a small business has morphed into a multi-billion dollar industry. The key to success in the field of E Commerce is the offering of high quality products coupled with state of the art technology to ensure ease of ordering , convenience of delivery and secure payment mechanisms.

The bottled water industry is an ideal beneficiary of e-commerce technology because of the large number of customers served and the frequency of transactions and purchases.

E-commerce Defined

E-commerce is similar to other forms of commerce except that it involves the buying and selling of goods over the Internet. E-commerce sites range from a simple web page highlighting a single item to dynamic fully developed on-line catalogs featuring thousands of products. The common theme and benefit in e-commerce sites is instant purchase, instant payment (if desired) and instant gratification in terms of fast, accurate delivery, for the customer.

Over the years, the e-commerce web has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry yearly, with significant growth projected over the next 5 years. A defining characteristic is that all e-commerce web sites accept a type of online payment, whether through a third party or directly with a merchant account..

E-commerce: The Wave of the Future

The internet is changing world view of shoppers. Instant gratification is a reality Utilizing e-commerce allows customers the ability to quickly take delivery of the goods they require and desire. In addition, the Internet is perhaps the best sales tool ever invented as it allows customers to browse endlessly in privacy. They can return and order again and again without ever leaving their home.

Most experts agree that it is only a matter of time before all sales-oriented companies will have some sort of e-commerce presence in order to remain competitive and the development of software and tools to improve the productivity of e-commerce sites remains strong. As more and better technology is developed, e-commerce will greatly expand.

Secure Payment and SSL(Secure Socket Layer): The Heart of the System

SSL(Secure Socket Layer) has been the de facto standard and heart of the system for e-commerce transaction security, and it’s likely to remain so well into the future.

SSL is based on encryption. SSL encrypts data, like credit cards numbers (as well other personally identifiable information), which prevents unauthorized use. An SSL protected page is identified when the address begins with “https” and there is a padlock icon at the bottom of the page.

SSL Certificates

The SSL certificate resides on a secure server and is used to encrypt the data and to identify the Web site. The SSL certificate also helps to prove the site belongs to who it says it belongs to and contains information about the certificate holder, the domain that the certificate was issued to, the name of the Certificate Authority who issued the certificate, the root and the country it was issued in.

In general, e-commerce users are urged to avoid sites that fail to use and display proof of SSL Certificates.

The Bottled Water Industry and E-commerce

The bottled water business is actually two lines of business: Local delivery water and private labeled water and each is an important subset of the total business.

Local delivery water is defined geographically and usually comprises rental or sales of coolers and delivery of 5-gallon and small package (12, 16.5 and 20 oz.) bottles to customers located within a limited distance from the water source. This business includes a customer base of consumers and businesses in the defined geographic area who take periodic delivery of water. The key to success in this line of business is the production and efficient delivery of the highest quality pure water.

Private label bottled water involves the development and production of high quality custom labels with a clear branding message. This line of business is national in scope and includes a strong element of branding and advertising. The key to success in this line of business is the design and production of a label of the highest quality with a clear branding message.

Each line of business has different requirements for e-commerce. For the local delivery business, establishing and meeting delivery schedules is critical with the most advanced sites offering delivery programs that offer the customer choice of delivery schedules and the ability to modify deliveries as conditions warrant.

For the private labeled line of business design flexibility in the form of interactive tools for the development, proofing and production of labels is critical. Another critical aspect of the private labeled line of business is fast and cost effective delivery through national carriers with low negotiated volume freight rates..

A Culture of Customer Service

The best e-commerce site will not produce results without support of an effective customer service organization. E-commerce tools and capabilities must be complemented by a customer service culture that includes rapid customer feed back, human (as opposed to voice mail and e-mail) interaction and clear communication. It is presently impossible to totally remove the human element from e-commerce and the human element is a critical part of the customer satisfaction process..

Best and Powerful Features

There are many varieties of e-commerce sites ranging from the simplest static site that offers very limited features to full featured dynamic sites based upon the latest database technology and access. No matter what the level of technology however, the site should combine ease of use with the most powerful features available. An effective bottled water e-commerce site should include the following minimum features.

General Features

o Multiple-Recipient Ordering (allows multiple user shipments in a single transaction)

o No Shopping Cart “Shoving” (gives the user maximum flexibility before check-out)

o Login Systems for Wholesale and Retail Customers (with remembered billing and recipient party data)

o Code Maturity (provides for reliability and stability of the site)

o Future Arrival Date Provisions (mandatory for scheduling deliveries and shipments)

o Order History and Fast Loading of Orders

o Automatic Shipping for Retail and Wholesale Accounts

Private Label Features

o Interactive and Customer Friendly Label Configurator (allows for user development of labels and artwork)

o Proofing Capability (allows the user to repeatedly review label design before purchase)

o Multi Layered Design ( allows for choice of color, shading and label features)

E-commerce lends itself to rapid fulfillment of orders and increased customer satisfaction when the site utilizes powerful state of the art tools and features coupled with a culture of customer satisfaction. On a user friendly powerful site, water orders for both local delivery and private labeled business are safe, convenient and fast. E-commerce vendors that maintain a culture of customer service will guarantee customer satisfaction.

If you run an online selling business, you may already know that are few things more important to your business transactions than effective e-commerce web development. But for those just starting out, it can be important for them to know how it could benefit their business.

As you may already know, web development is the writing and coding process that goes into the building and customisation of websites. This process is what ultimately will turn your business vision into an online reality, but it is not the same as e-commerce development.

e-commerce development involves this same process, but one that utilises online commercial transactions. Because of this, it requires a larger degree of technical knowledge and ability to pull off – which is why marketing companies who offer this service are so sought-after.

If you’re thinking of building a company site with the aim of selling products online, you may have considered hiring someone to help you to realise your vision. But before you do so, you may want to spend some time researching your options.

It’s important to distinguish between web and e-commerce development, as the latter requires a range of specialised techniques. Because of this, it’s a good idea to specify your needs when looking for a company or person to help you build your selling website.

You will want to consider online payment optimisation, security encryption and shopping cart coding to help you get the best possible results from your new web page. If none of this means anything to you, it’s probably a good idea to call in the experts to help you with your coding.

But there are things to consider. Not only will you need to make sure that the company or individual you hire is fully qualified to build your site, you’ll also want to make sure you’re getting the best possible service for your money.

It’s a good idea to spend some time researching your options before you make a decision about who to hire. This will not only involve comparing a few different quotes, but also taking the time to familiarise yourself with the credentials of your e-commerce developer.

If you’re thinking of hiring an internet marketing company, such as, you will be able to look on their website for customer testimonials, and to view their portfolio of clients.

Look out for companies who use their websites to showcase their previous design projects as this way you’ll get a feel for the kind of approach they take.

You may also want to consider other services if you’re trying to build your web presence – social media management, search engine optimisation or e-mail marketing, for example. These can help increase your online visibility and drive traffic to your site, so are worth investing in further.

Internet marketing companies will be able to offer a vast choice of services, so it’s a good idea to sit down with one of their experts and discuss the unique requirements of your business – as well as sharing your vision with them.

Lastly, it’s important to remember that this kind of development is an acquired skill, and isn’t necessarily something you’re going to get on the cheap. It is, however, a worthy investment of both your time and money as it will ultimately drive your business forward and help increase your profit.

There are of course more affordable options out there, but you will want to make sure you won’t be compromising on quality – your website is really not something you want to skimp on. Spend some time comparing prices online, or ask other people in the business to recommend a skilled developer.

eCommerce or electronic commerce is a popular format to run and grow a business in the information technology age. Because of its technical integration with deep business practices, eCommerce has emerged as a significant source of increased revenues and reduced cost. The integration of internet technology and database management systems, enable companies to operate their business in a more organized way.

eCommerce curbs costs that are underutilized or extra costed to your balance sheet at the end of the financial year. The concept of e-store reduces business transaction cost in the following ways:

Efficient Process: Electronic selling nearly minimizes the requirements of the order processing such as papers for invoice generation, billing errors and manual tracking of sold items at a retail outlet. Electronic selling is a more efficient system, which saves a company's time, money and manpower efforts. This translates into hassle free services without bearing much manpower cost, required at the time of check out from a physical outlet. In addition to that, least inaccuracies and minimum transaction errors enable eCommerce staff to enjoy the focus on more profit-generating activities.

Obolete Brick & Mortar: e-stores curb the cost of physical outlet establishment and later on its maintenance cost. E-store's counter – a retail store's total alert is further divided into numerous expenses such as the maintenance of the ambience of the outlet, electricity bills, employed workforce's salies, telephone bills, equipment and machines to keep the records and inventory, security systems and lease. However, the income generated from an e-store has a fewer elements to spend on, between the process of obtaining an order and delivering it to the customers.

Optimized Inventory Management: Managing inventory is an expensive asset. Whether selling automobiles or apparels, one has to spend a good amount of money on their showcasing, storage, packaging & other stock keeping requirements. All these extra costs deploy profit margins clearly. Whereas, an e-store does not require physical space to display and store items; However, the element of packaging cost is applicable to an e-store format also, but it does not act as an extra cost, because the packaging is required for the sold items and not for unsold items.

Reduced Payment Process Cost: A physical retail outlet requires personnel, telephones, computers and payment machines to complete the payment process; whereas, for e-stores, companies only require a good payment gateway to host their transactions successfully, and in a secure environment.

If you want your sales to be flat year over year, you can perhaps take the risk of sticking to the same marketing and advertising strategy as last year. It might work for your business this year too. However, if you are trying to expand and grow your business, your marketing and advertising strategies need to be redrafted nearly every year due to the volatile nature of the business, and the macro factors influencing the environment. So, here we are providing you with a checklist, which includes some of the most important tips an E-Commerce marketer should definitely try in the final quarter of this year.

Have an Effective Content Marketing Strategy

Content marketing is definitely the most popular marketing trend of 2015 for numerous reasons such as:

Creating useful, informative and engaging content helps and entertains readers/potential customers and influences them to become loyal customers. A win-win situation for customers and sellers alike!

When a video, article or similar marketing content circulates and becomes popular among prospective customers, it drives a considerable amount of traffic, which in turn leads to more sales Marketers in 2015 face the challenge of developing a marketing strategy that can generate effective content, which in turn, drives traffic as well as sales.

In order to achieve this,

Scrutinize earlier content marketing efforts so as to identify which posts, articles, etc., brought in traffic or increased conversion rates.

Analyze previous marketing strategies to figure out why few content pieces worked and were more successful. It can also help in identifying popular search terms or trends.

Based on your analysis try experimenting with similar content to know if it also becomes successful.

Understand what worked and adjust the content after reviewing the outcome of new marketing strategy.

Have A Thoughtfully Designed Email Marketing Campaign

Automating email campaigns can help in nurturing customer relationship and also will leave more time for doing so. As soon as a customer registers for online stores newsletter, an automated email campaign can start a welcome series confirming the subscription and assuring the customer that subscribing to the store’s newsletter was a great choice. Likewise, if an existing customer leaves the shopping cart without making the purchase, an automated email can encourage the customer to return. Since, the email campaign is automated marketing people are not required to perform tedious and time consuming task of manually identifying customers and their requirements.

Have a Diversified Social Media Campaign

Undoubtedly Facebook is the leading and most important social media platform for a majority of E-Commerce stores vying for customer’s attention. It definitely takes centre stage in all social marketing campaigns. However, as important as Facebook might be, E-Commerce marketers should not use Facebook as the sole social media site to engage customers. There are other social media sites available that can have a positive influence on customer engagement and also sales, such as, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

Have a Personalization Strategy

Personalization in the E-Commerce context can mean many different things, it can be as simple as personalized recommendations about the product or it may mean a description about a type of marketing segmentation.

As part of your 2015 E-Commerce marketing checklist, devise and implement a personalization strategy, no matter how you define personalization. Give a personal touch to your online store; it will help you get closer to your customers, and to earn their loyalty.

Have Your Own Product Videos

According to recent findings it was revealed that E-Commerce marketers who use videos for marketing enjoy better sales for products promoted with videos. Also, creating videos is becoming easier for marketers, since getting access to Adobe creative suite is available to marketers. This provides them with easy access to all the audio and video editing tools. If all this sounds complicated, one can always hire an expert who can make engaging product videos.

First moment of truth or FMOT refers to the idea that consumers make their purchasing decision within three to seven seconds of encountering a product. Within these few seconds the product needs to WOW the consumer. It has to appeal to their senses, values and emotions.This role was earlier fulfilled by the product packaging. With the dawn of e-commerce, the definition of FMOT needs to be redefined for a new generation of buyers. E-commerce packaging now plays the crucial role of being the FMOT – but not for the product, this time it’s for e-commerce platform.

E-commerce Packaging and Returning Customers

When it comes to e-commerce, the customer already has all the product information that they need. Additionally they also have multiple avenues from where to purchase the product. Amazon, eBay, Flipkart, Snapdeal are just some of the platforms to name a few. For these platforms customers, the obvious FMOT is the user experience on the websites / apps. But the elusive-obvious FMOT, and more important, is the e-commerce packaging at the time of delivery.

A products packaging at the time of shipping can drastically change by the time of delivery. Not only does the e-commerce packaging have to be durable, tamper proof and capable of handling the rigours of logistics. But also be able to convey the platforms brand image and values to the customer. For first time customers of an e-commerce platform, the method of packaging at the time of delivery is the first moment of truth. It can make the difference between it being their first & last purchase or converting them into a loyal customer who will return for more.

Is your E-commerce Packaging sending the right message?

E-commerce platforms need to realise the value of good branding and resolve to develop a company image that resonates with their offering and their customers values. In the end, Online shopping is simply an extension of retail shopping. Why do some customers prefer coffee from Starbucks and others prefer coffee from niche cafe’s? Because each has their own brand promise and evoke emotions that resonate with different customers differently. In quite the same way, online shopping platforms need to understand this and create a brand image that not only appeals to customers, but also differentiates them from their competitors.

E-commerce Packaging is the perfect first step to take when branding an e-commerce company. It is tangible and a very effective FTOM influencer. Customers who receive their products in a way that is branded, secure and un-damaged, instinctively feel a greater bond with the e-commerce company and are increasingly more likely to purchase from their again.

Though the internet in some form or the other existed for a long time, the popularity of the worldwide web in the 1990’s changed the face of the information technology forever and in a positive way. Literally a whole universe of information opened up for not only the net savvy but also anyone who had some basic knowledge of computers and who ventured into this expansive universe of the net. Internet is indeed referred to as the information highway. The current day internet has not only reached a mammoth size, but also is ever evolving and expanding. It is such a fascinating tool which has no boundaries and no limits. The saying that the sky is the upper limit can’t be more applicable to this field.

The internet or the’ world wide web’ not only is a perfect medium for communication between people across the globe but also is fast becoming a preferred medium of business transactions. E-Commerce is thus the tool to which big business giants of the globe are resorting to conduct their business. This does not mean that the smaller businesses are at a disadvantage. They too make full utility of it. It is not difficult to imagine the potential of the web to identify the vast market potential available. With the real time deals and the secure means to make the related financial transactions the internet is luring more and more people to it. It is quite natural that with such a vast potential and monetary involvement, the internet and especially the e-commerce faces challenges from the hackers and like who keep on attacking it. Thus emerge real security issues which need constant vigil to make the e-commerce safe.

The spectrum of e-commerce is as diversified as the net itself. People can buy anything ranging from a needle to a jumbo airliner through the internet. Finding and then possessing a much loved and desired book is as simple as a click on the net. Making hotel reservations for flights and Hotels worldwide is now a reality. Even participating in an auction is not something out of the scope of e-commerce. An ever increasing population makes use of these facilities from the comfort of their homes. Like any field which is changing its face rapidly, it is also ever evolving. The enormity of the web and the innumerable web sites available make it difficult to attract customers to specific sites. The businesses therefore have to constantly search methods to attract the potential clients towards their web sites, long before they make a real purchase. It is not only the buying activity of the customers on the worldwide web which contributes to the e-commerce but also the net is a source of lively hood to the ones involved with it.

Thus the internet is not only a medium of communication between people of the globe but also is a potent engine of business activity through e-commerce. By observing the current trends, it can safely be assumed that the coming days are surely going to witness an ever increasing adherence to e-commerce by an ever growing population worldwide.