SEARCH

Our Blog

see what we can rant about, read our blog and please rant back, the more you say, the more love you spread

think good thoughts !

Tags >> mobile apps
Jun 16
2011

On-line Credit Card Fraud


POSTED BY duncan in Virtual Teams , social networking , SEO , Search , Satinei sense , Mobile search , mobile apps , magento , Ecommerce

The Question

I am an E-commerce consultant and I also own and operate an on-line business. Recently, a handful of new customers have been placing a string of orders and their transactions were authorized with CVV and 3-D Secure matches. It was by pure coincidence that I was able to spot that multiple orders were being shipped to the same address but to customers with different names. I was puzzled. Why so many orders to different customers from the same address?

The Investigation

I called my Payment Gateway Support Team to discuss it. What we started to notice was that each order was placed with a different credit card. These customers were attempting to use up to 20 different credit cards each! All issued by off shore banks. Upon closer inspection, even though they correctly provided the card number, CVV and 3-D Secure information, they were unable to correctly match the address or postal code with the card.

The Problem

My Payment Gateway and I agree that these are fraudulent transactions. But, what can be done to stop them? The problem is, as I understand it, the credit card holder has to report abuse before a fraud investigation can begin. In the interim, these fraudsters will process as many charges as they can until the card stops working. Those that will get stuck with the bill can range from the card owner (not noticing the fraudulent transactions), the card issuer or the merchant. As for my business, we've blacklisted their addresses. I feel I have been fortunate. If you're a merchant doing heavy volumes of business, are your systems already set-up to intercept this?


Aug 25
2010

Mobile Retailing


POSTED BY admin in Mobile search , mobile apps , Ecommerce

Retail and brand businesses surveyed by Adobe Systems are overwhelmingly looking to deploy mobile websites as their mobile strategy, rather than downloadable apps, by a factor or 10 to one. The first annual Adobe Scene 7 Mobile Commerce Survey out this week finds that 80% of businesses surveyed are planning or having already deployed a mobile website. Just 8% cited a downloadable application-only mobile commerce strategy as their way ahead.
The survey uncovered four key areas of focus for businesses’ mobile strategies: promotions, commerce, product information and branding. 75% of respondents named promotions as the core of their mobile strategy, validating the mobile channel as an important method to drive traffic and support multi-channel commerce.
The survey also found that more than 55% of respondents cited full-screen image zoom and videos as indispensable viewing features for driving conversion, while an additional 96% asserted the most effective visual merchandising features were catalogues and brochures, alternative images, and zoom and pan features.
The survey also found that, while only 18% of respondents currently use rich visual merchandising features for mobile commerce, up to 81% said they had plans to deploy these features, implying richer mobile experiences will be created and offered over the next 12 months.
“Multi-channel shoppers tend to purchase more; therefore, companies must effectively engage customers by delivering consistent, rich experiences across all channels – including mobile – to maintain and fuel current double-digit e-commerce industry growth rates,” said Sheila Dahlgren, senior director of product marketing at Adobe. “The survey results demonstrate the opportunities that exist for companies to fully leverage rich visualization features to improve their emerging mobile presences and drive cross-channel sales.”

Apr 07
2010

Mobile app downloads to more than double


POSTED BY admin in mobile apps

Mobile app downloads will hit 6bn this year, more than double the 2.4bn that were downloaded in 2009, according to ABI Research. The market is being driven by increasing smartphone take-up alongside a growing number of mobile app stores, which are heightening competition in the space and stimulating demand. However, ABI claims both app downloads and revenues from app sales will decline by 2012 as more developers offer their apps for free or on an ad-supported basis in order to stay popular