ETD: 771 The Red Hats are coming!; The Check's No Longer in
the Mail; Outsourcing: Is it really a good thing?
E-Tailer's Digest
etd_post at gapent.com
Thu Mar 25 12:48:30 GMT 2004
E-Tailer's Digest --- Everything for the Retailer
Issue #0771 March 25, 2004
George Matyjewicz, Moderator mailto:georgem at gapent.com
Published by: GAP Enterprises, Ltd. http://www.etailersdigest.com
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CONTENTS
[1] Greetings
[2] The Red Hats are coming!
[3] The Check's No Longer in the Mail
[4] Outsourcing: Is it really a good thing?
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[1] Greetings.
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Hi All:
Thanks for the kudos on the last issue. It seems like it touched many people.
Today we have some comments on online bill paying. Some of us have issues
with that service. What do you think?
If you are a ladies apparel retailer and you aren't selling red hats and
purple dresses, you may be missing out. And it's not merely the latest
fashion thing. It's a global phenomena. The Red Hats are coming!
If you are considering outsourcing, you may want to think twice. While it
may be great and save you money in the short term, you may suffer in the
long term. Especially with intellectual property.
Tell us about your business which will remain for posterity at
our "Members: Who Are You?" site.
http://etailersdigest.com/resources/members/index.htm And we have a form
there for you to tell us about you. As I said when I first proposed this
idea, we have "known" each other for a long time, yet we often don't know
anything about each other. So, tell us who you are and what you do.
Now, let's get to everything for the retailer.
Sincerely
George Matyjewicz, PhD
Chief Global Strategist, GAP Enterprises, Ltd.
mailto:georgem at gapent.com
http://www.etailersdigest.com
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[2] The Red Hats are coming!
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Have you seen those ladies with the red hats? I bet you think it is a new
fashion statement, with new colors from designers, much like pink for this
year? Not true. In fact, if you are a ladies apparel store, and if you
haven't been reading the news, you could lose out on a hot sales item.
Seems some ladies were inspired by Jenny Joseph's poem "Warning," in which
she writes, "When I'm an old woman, I shall wear purple, with a red hat,
which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me." Today there are Red Hat Society
chapters all over the world.
In the latest issue of Gifts & Dec Online, Quinn Halford and Matthew Kalash
reports that there are two "red hat" organizations committed to women
having fun after age 50. But the comedy of the situation has lately turned
dark, with a brewing turf war between the two groups. The Red Hat Ladies
and the Red Hat Society both lay claim to being inspired by Jenny Joseph's
poem "Warning," in which she writes, "When I'm an old woman, I shall wear
purple, with a red hat." Now, the Red Hat Society (RHS) is making a
proprietary claim to merchandise bearing a "red hat," and is notifying
manufacturers, vendors, and retailers that they must obtain an RHS license
before using the image. Last December, artist Linda Grayson, who launched a
"Red Hat and High Heeled" collection, received a letter on RHS stationery
demanding $50,000 for damaging the Society and its claim to the "red hat"
mark, and the Red Hat Ladies also received a "cease and desist letter." But
the Red Hat Ladies (RHL) claim that they are the original red hat
organization, and that the RHS does not have "ownership of the trademark
'Red Hat' for apparel, jewelry, and gift merchandise." Stay tuned, there
will be much more to come.
Ladies, let's play nice now and have fun.
George
http://www.redhatsociety.com
www.giftanddec.com.
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[3] The Check's No Longer in the Mail
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>AOL has introduced a new bill payment service, free for AOL users. It
>seems 25% of all households now pay bills on-line. I can't understand
>why everybody doesn't pay their bills on-line. Do you?
Sure do, George! The fastest-growing category of complaints to the FBI over
the last year and a half (at least) has been identity theft - and one of
the major ways that identity theft becomes possible for criminals is theft
of financial information passed online. (There's also a relatively new,
very nasty way for hackers to grab your financial information FROM YOUR OWN
KEYBOARD (called "key logging") - at the very moment that you're entering
it into a supposedly-secure https web form - but that can be the subject of
another posting, if you like.) And I have *hundreds* of files on my hard
drive (news reports, from absolutely reputable news organizations)
describing a great variety of thefts and other fraudulent activities which
have occurred online, over the past few years. It's a JUNGLE out there,
make no mistake about it - and burying your head in the sand and ignoring
the facts is probably not the best way of handling the situation.
The point is, the dirty little secret of E-commerce is that if you pay your
bills (or make any purchases, for that matter) online, THE ONLY REASON YOUR
FINANCIAL INFORMATION HASN'T BEEN STOLEN - AND USED AGAINST YOU - IS SIMPLY
THAT THE HACKERS HAVEN'T GOTTEN AROUND TO YOU YET! I've even seen a report
(from one of the online news networks) that there are more than 100,000
residents of the old Soviet Union who are gainfully employed on a daily
basis, trying to hack in to E-commerce sites - and succeeding more often
than you would believe ...
>One in four American households pays bills on-line each month. Adoption
>of Internet bill payments rose 26 percent last year and 19 percent the
>year before, according to TowerGroup.
And this is another thing that bothers me - the "weasel-wording" (as I call
it) that is constantly being used to try to make E-commerce look better
than it is. George, if I had one sale online the year before last, and five
sales last year, my E-commerce sales went up *400%* - isn't that exciting??
The problem is, that my bank account and I would know that I still only had
five sales last year - so things weren't so hot after all, were they?
Similarly, given how low the number of Internet bill payments was, two
years ago, the fact that they increased by 19% the year before and 26% last
year, really isn't so wonderful, is it? In fact, you would actually need
increases in the range of HUNDREDS of percentage points from a couple of
years ago, to get anywhere near justifying that claim of 25% of all
households now paying their bills online! It's just not happening, despite
all the hype - I'm still seeing articles in banking publications, moaning
about how low the acceptance of online bill paying has been in the U.S.
To sum up: personally, I think that anyone who carries out ANY kind of
financial transaction online should be led gently by the hand to the
nearest insane asylum; just my $0.02, of course. And there certainly has
been no apparent major rush on the public's part to act like lemmings and
jump into this potential financial abyss - the increases in usage have
actually been quite modest, if you look at the numbers realistically.
By the way, please don't blame this less-than-diplomatic posting,
counseling against handling ANY financial transactions online, on the fact
that I run a company which takes all kinds of payments and donations
through an automated phone service - specifically to keep them offline, and
therefore absolutely secure. I realized the problems inherent in online
transactions years ago and therefore created a service to allow people to
avoid the very real risks; those risks have remained the same since our
start (actually, they have even grown in quantity and nastiness!), so I'm
still talking about them.
John Vinokur
Payment Central Inc.
mailto:john(at)paymentcentralinc.com
URL: http://www.paymentcentralinc.com
"The TRULY-secure payment-acceptance specialists!"
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
John, I wish you would really say what you really mean <g>. I hear you
with identity theft, but I will say it's not just from online
transactions. It's also from those advertisements for credit cards that we
all get, and any other unsolicited snail mail that we get. My daughter was
a victim of identity theft because of solicitations. Now she uses a paper
shredder for everything, which I urger everybody to do. I don't agree that
we should all stop transacting online. We just need to be very careful.
Bill paying is still an ideal way to go, especially if you travel or are
out of the country. The percentage increase with bill paying is a lot
different than your analogy (400%). There are millions of people paying
bills online.
And yes, I would like to hear more about key logging. Does McAffee or
Norton catch it? Do personal fire walls help? How do we prevent it?
George
+++ [Next Post] +++
What a great issue! I found 3 things to learn from in it. Good job!
George!.
A comment on AOL and the fleeing masses - if they'd had broadband 2 years
sooner, they might not have lost so many. I got Comcast because I couldn't
get AOL Broadband. And I've kept AOL cause the husband and son are not as
advanced Internet-wise as I am. But when they catchup, AOL will be
gone. And it's their own fault. They kept teasing with pop-ups but when
you tried to find out....no, it wasn't available.
As for the bill-paying function? I'm Not using a third party. Not when
you can go direct to so many sites and pay there. I just feel that's more
secure. Just my 2cents, which probably is not worth that much <g> But
again. Thanks for a GREAT issue. I especially like the DayTimers ideas.
Beth Cherkowsky
ebay id = woadieland
http://stores.ebay.com/id=33827&ssPageName=L2
http://members.aol.com/cougartoys/alley.html
+++ [Moderator's Comments] +++
I'm glad we were able to help in your learning process. I'm always amazed
at what I learn from the simplest things. I love talking to children and
learning from them. It is amazing how the simple things in life can be
used in most situations.
The only problem I see with going directly to the sites to pay bills is
that it is not a central source for paying. Bank bill paying is
convenient, and, for the most part, secure.
George
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[4] Outsourcing: Is it really a good thing?
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In an article in Ecommerce Times, David Gumpert reports on the perils of
outsourcing. "We need to understand that, as we send jobs to foreign
businesses, we also send critical knowledge about processes, procedures,
and development. When business conditions change, a company can't just go
to the other side of the world and reclaim those things. The new owners
aren't likely to give them up."
The report is about a US-based company who outsourced their programming to
a company in India. When the company tried to get investors, they were
turned down. Why? In large part, it was the sense that not only were the
manufacturing and development services based in India, but that the
company's most important knowledge -- software and engineering savvy, not
to mention its development expertise -- also had departed the U.S.
Personally, I experienced some issues with outsourcing. We had an
outsourcing contract with an Eastern European company who did a terrific
job developing a digital currency application. I left that company and a
couple of weeks after leaving I get a note from the outsourced company
asking if I wanted to purchase the software! Seems they learned how easy
it is to sell something that you have developed for others.
The sad part is that it is very difficult and very expensive to fight
companies like this. You need to hire a lawyer in that country, and go
through the court system, which doesn't always work in your favor. It's
similar to defending patent infringements internationally.
So think twice before outsourcing.
George
ECommerce Times article...
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/33221.html
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