In the coming weeks, Building Keystones will focus on the state of online video gaming, optimizing pay-per-click campaigns, and providing tips for getting the most out of your business intelligence. Subscribe now to the Building Keystones email list to receive a notification of every new post.
In this Blogger’s Digest, we direct your attention to U.S. retail e-commerce spending for the second quarter, cloud-based Salesforce integration, changes to Google Analytics, how load times affect conversion rates, and different options for foreign online payment methods.
Internet Retailer – E-commerce Spending Jumps 14% in Q2: This analysis of our industry’s market performance, based on a report from comScore , shows U.S. retail e-commerce consumer spending grew nearly 14 percent compared to the second quarter of last year, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of growth for e-commerce retailers, with small to medium sized retailers recovering market share previously lost to the Top 25 online retailers.
Source: comScore.com
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under Dreamforce '11, ecommerce spending Q2, global payment methods, Google Analytics, page load times, Salesforce integration
If you were a global merchant 300 years ago, you were probably using a wooden ship as your delivery method, and there was always a danger of lurking pirates ready to steal your goods. With the emergence of e-commerce, we are no longer entirely dependent on ships and boats in global trade, but the danger of piracy, in the form of unauthorized use or access to digital content, is still prevalent.
Last week, we discussed the vulnerability of e-commerce sites to hackers and the benefit of complying with external security standards, like PCI-DSS and SAS-70. This week, we focus on protecting digital content from unauthorized access or copying.
Like the common cold, there is no cure for hackers, and digital e-commerce companies need to have preventive measures in place to protect their revenue stream. We begin by analyzing different types of digital content and understanding that each type of digital content has it own challenges in keeping it’s copyright protected.
SaaS, for example, is relatively easy to prevent unauthorized access to, because SaaS keeps the provider in control of the digital content, while users pay for access to a product or service. Nevertheless, a wily hacker can steal access to the service or the content (e.g., if you offer video courses or flash-based applications through a web portal, a hacker can screen record the content). Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under Copyright protection, Dieter HÓ“rle, digital e-commerce, license model, Mirage Systems
Identity theft and fraud attempts are global problems. Since 2005, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse estimates that more than 500 million records containing sensitive data have been breached. To combat this threat, the big five credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and JCB) partnered in 2006 to create the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
For those conducting business online, complying with these standards is crucial to protecting your organization and your customers.
Read the rest of this entry »
Filed under data security standards, PCI, SAS 70, US-EU Safe Harbor
