Taobao.com is the 11th most successful website in the world. It makes more money than most all US ecommerce sites, except Amazon, and this may be about to change. The way ecommerce works in China is different than in Europe and the US. Partly this is to do with low credit card penetration, complex delivery logistics and customer support.

How the Chinese Amazon.com works

Ecommerce is different in China for several reasons. Low credit card penetration, for example, means that Chinese buyers tend to be in the larger cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzen, Xian, Nanjing and Chongqing. Once you get outside these areas, credit card penetration tends to decline.

So, how do you get around this?

Simple. You pay with cash. Most ecommerce is China is cash on delivery. Here’s how it works:

• You order products online – but don’t pay for it.
• Chinese is mostly cash on delivery – credit cards are making inroads but with no credit history, it takes time.
• Credit cards are still relatively new. Interest rates are high and the approval process is very stringent. In many cities, you need someone to guarantee that you’ll pay of the card if you overdraw.
• Credit card adoption is further complicated as most people have no credit history. Many products are paid for in cash. It’s not unknown for new home-owners to pay 100% cash for a new house – they like the security of owing it now!
• Goods are delivered by motorbike couriers. These are a carried by bike or, or for high-end goods, secured in a steel holding at the back of the bike. Keeping the couriers honest is another headache. The salary of many couriers is often less than the goods they deliver. You can imagine what happens…
• When the goods arrive, you can (and are expected to) open the box and check the goods.
• Your signature is recorded, sometimes on a palm/mobile/tablet device.
• Later if you have problems, you can return the goods to the distributor.
• In many cases, returns are not accepted (e.g. savvy students are known to swap the hard drives and return a PC with less powerful parts). Similar things happen with jewellery and other high end products.

Taobao Key Details

• Established in 2003
• Located in Shenzhen, a special economic zone, it is one hour from Hong Kong.
• China’s largest Internet retail platform
• 75% of market share, according to iResearch.
• Platforms within Taobao include Alibaba (www.alibaba.com), an affiliate network in China and Koubei.com (www.koubei.com), China’s leading classified listing website.

Takeaways

• Credit card adoption is on the rise but not as accessible as in the west.
• Chinese web shoppers are very web savvy and will do intensive research before buying products.
• Chinese web shoppers use Taobao to compare prices in the high street, e.g. printout of specs from the web to help negotiate.
• Negotiating (i.e. haggling) is the norm in Asia. You’re expected to haggle and fight for a better price. Only westerns pay the sticker price.
• Taobao is now so popular it is considering high streets branches and partnerships to capitalize on its position.
• Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) trading accounted for US$2 billion turnover in Q1 2008.
• Plans to have 700 stores available to buyers for the launch of mall.taobao.com. Companies pay five percent of transaction value to Taobao if their outlet fails to sell more than US$133,333 a year. In addition, they have to pay a 5,000 to 15,000 yuan one-time deposit for Taobao to compensate shoppers in case of complaints.

Ecommerce Opportunities in China

• Upselling & cross-selling are not as common as in the west.
• Long-term relationships are not cultivated, e.g. most ecommerce retailers don’t request email addresses and if they do (it seems to me) don’t know how to leverage these.
• Sales people are not trained to help customers. Their role is more to accommodate the customer rather than look for up-selling opportunities etc. They don’t waste time on this as they assume you won’t come back, which is often the case.

Taobao v Amazon

Do you think Amazon poses a real threat to Taobao? Can US ecommerce sites make a profit in the China? What do you think?

PayPal Donations is a very nice way to let people donate a small amount of your site, usually as a thank you for providing quality information, tips or advice.  You can use this to collect donations from a PayPal Donation button on your website, or even using it as a link in your email. PayPal won’t automatically place the button code on your website, but it’s very easy to copy and paste the code into your blog or website’s code. The PayPal Create Button designer screen also lets you customize the look and field of the button, set-up  donation amounts, currency types, and other options. You can also create a library of buttons and re-use these rather than starting from scratch every time.

How To Add a PayPal Donation Button To Your Blog?

Benefits

• Easy to implement – no programming experience necessary. Just copy and paste the code.
• No up-front costs – same low fee schedule as other PayPal payments
• No hidden charges – PayPal don’t charge for this service. There are no hidden costs
• Reports – PayPal maintains detailed transaction records so you can track your donations
• Flexibility – your donors can choose to give an amount of their choice
  (recommended) or you can set a fixed amount

To add PayPal Donations to your website, follow these steps:

The webpage you use to design the buttons has three sections. You only need to use the first one: the others are optional.

1. Choose the button type and enter the payment details

2. Save your button (an optional step)

3. Customize the advanced features (also optional)

Let’s get started.

1. Log in to PayPal or setup a new account.

2. Click the Profile tab.

The Profile Summary page opens.

3. Under Selling Preferences, click the My Saved Buttons link.

The My Saved Buttons page opens.

4. Click Create New Button.

The Create Payment Button page opens. This is where you will create the actual button.

How to Choose the button type and enter payment details

Let’s get started and choose the button type we want to use.

1. In the Accept payments for dropdown menu, select Donations.

2. In Organization name/service, enter the name of your organization

3. In Donation ID (optional), enter a unique number if you want to track the donation.

The next step is to customize the button. In other words, do you want a simple image with only the word ’Donation’ or do you want to add credit cards to it?

You can also upload your own image, which can be useful if you want to blend it into your site’s color scheme.

4. Click the blue triangle next to Customize appearance.

5. Click the PayPal button box.

You now have two options:

• Customize the PayPal button or
• Upload your own.

6. If you want to customize the PayPal button:

6.1 Click Use smaller button – if you want a Donate button without any branding or credit card logos.

6.2 Click Display credit card logos – if you want display credit card logos such as Visa and MasterCard.

6.3 Select the Country and language for button.

FYI: I recommend United States – US – English.

When you change the settings, a preview of your image appears in the Buyer’s View pane.

7 If you want use your own image.

7.1 Click Use your own button image.

7.2 Enter the URL of where your image is located on the web. At the moment, you can’t upload an image to PayPal directly.

Note: PayPal will not show your image onscreen when you use this option. But, when you create the code later on, it works fine. You can always go back and change it, by the way.

Next you’re going to select the currency.

8. Choose a Currency from one of these:

USD AUD GBP CAD CZK DKK EUR HKD HUF ILS JPY MXN NZD NOK PLN SGD SEK CHF.

Again, most of you will select USD (US Dollars but you can choose what you want).

Tip: If you choose a currency other than USD you run the risk of people not making a donation. People don’t want to get tricked into paying with a currency they don’t understand. If you make them go check the currency rate, they might have second thoughts on paying.

Keep it simple. Use the USD option.

Next up is the contribution amount.

9. In Contribution amount, select one of the options:

9.1. Click Donors enter their own contribution amount.

Let people choose to donate 1 dollar of 1 million. It’s their choice. Never under-estimate how generous people can be if you provide really useful content (like this!)

9.2. Click Donors contribute a fixed amount.

I’d avoid this. It’s a bit ham-fisted and forces people to pay when you think they should, under-mining the principle of making a donation.

To me, this looks more like a pseudo-payment. I’d suggest you avoid it. But, hey, it’s your site. Don’t let me stop you.

10. Next, enter the email address where the donations are sent to. Usually you’re PayPal account email address.

Step 2 and 3 are optional, so you can ignore these for now. Take a peek if you want or you can skip ahead and create the button.

The final step is to get the code for the button.

11. Click Create Button at the end of the screen.

This opens the Button Code page.

12. Click Select Code to select the HTML code.

13 Copy the code (CTRL+C for Windows and CMD+C for Mac)

14. Paste the code into your blog or webpage (Ctrl + V)

We’re not finished yet!

15. PayPal also gives you the option to add the button to emails. Fantastic if you’re selling things via email or are big into good ol’ web marketing.

Just copy and paste the link into your email. Send a few tests to yourself to check that it works. Also try the link in Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail to check that everything works fine with these.

Now you’re finished!

Other things you can do on this page

• Click Create Similar button if you want to use the button you just create as a template for your next button. Nice time-saver as you can use the same configuration settings.
• Click Create a new button to create a new button from scratch.
• Click Create Similar button if you want to create another button, with all the same/similar configuration settings as this button

I hope you enjoyed this article and that is made the whole process of creating PayPal buttons a little easier.

Next week, I’ll show you how to use more advanced features in PayPal, like setting up a Thank You page or sending customers to a download page automatically.

PS: Click Here to Setup a Free PayPal Account

What’s the difference between men and women when they go online? eMarketer highlight that when women go online entertainment takes a backseat to utility and socializing, usually with people they already know. Men’s surfing habits are different.

5 Ways UK Women Use Social Media Different Than Men

The report shows that in the UK, women are much less likely than men to seek out entertainment or pass the time on the Internet or mobile phone.

1. Women typically share content and experiences with selected friends.
2. UK women are less numerous than men online; 79% penetration compared with men’s 84%, according to Eurostat.
3. Daily usage is high; data from Nielsen indicates engagement is increasing.
4. Involvement in the social media world, where women’s adoption is outpacing men’s, is rising.
5. Women Internet users were 8% more likely than males to have a social networking site profile.

“Social networks are a primary channel for women online to strengthen existing bonds with friends and family,” said Ms. von Abrams.

According to data from Universal McCann, women’s top activities on social networks in 2009 included managing their own profile and visiting blogs maintained by people they knew.

Men, by contrast, were more interested in making new contacts.

Do Women Use Social Media Different Than Men?

Do these finding surprise you?

What do you see as the main difference in how men and women use the internet? If you’re a man, do you use it to make new contacts or strengthen your existing friendships?

• What is a User Guide? http://post.ly/1EV7 #
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• PayPal – UK Online spending to hit $40 Billion by 2011 http://post.ly/1FPT #
• Indian e-payment market worth $150 Billion http://post.ly/1FTY #

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• Flickr Tools – Use Wordle to create Tag Clouds of your Blog, Website, Text or Document http://is.gd/1fxhL #
• Google’s Marissa Mayer on the importance of real-time search http://ping.fm/BLMzV #
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• Gartner. Mobile Payment Users Worldwide to Increase 70% in 2009, up 70.4% from 2008 (43.1 m) http://bit.ly/wREeW #
• How Virtual Banks may create the Next Financial Crisis – Trouble at EBANK http://post.ly/1AsO #
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• Should Gmail be the Hub of Your Company’s Social Media Strategy? http://post.ly/1Ax7 #
• a lack of enterprise-class controls makes management of users akin to herding cats http://ping.fm/8FIxO #
• 5 E-Commerce Tips To Maximize Online Sales For SMBs http://ping.fm/A2qR8 #
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• How to Convert Files to PDF Online – Supported File Types http://post.ly/1BzF #
• Get Customized Alerts and RSS feeds directly from Forrester Research http://post.ly/1BzZ #

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• Accenture report on Creating the Digital Customer http://post.ly/18eU #
• LEGO announce new Digital Products http://post.ly/18eW #
• LEGO Digital Designer : Virtual Building Software http://post.ly/18eg #
• Facebook should look at Google Checkout before Expanding it Payments System http://post.ly/18mO #
• Value of Virtual Currencies v US Dollar | Virtual Currency Chart http://post.ly/18wn #
• PayPal Report – Download free Podcast on What Gives Online Shoppers Cold Feet? http://post.ly/19VO #
• Alipay overtakes PayPal as the world's biggest third-party online payment platform – 200 million users http://post.ly/19WB #
• Alipay Records 200m Users. Overtakes PayPal as leading payment http://ping.fm/gNWB3 #
• PayPal Report – Download free Podcast on What Gives Online Shoppers Cold Feet? http://ping.fm/nVyMC #
• WSJ – EBay's Auction Business Stabilizing, Analysts Say http://ping.fm/8MOub #
• eBay improvements down to improved search results and fee-calculation process http://post.ly/19aR #
• Amazon Payments webinar – Checkout by Amazon: Inviting Amazon customers to shop on your site http://ping.fm/BJ5gj #
• Amazon WebPay – send money to any US mobile number using text messaging or e-mail address. http://ping.fm/ZKarO #
• Marketing ROI Calculator. Check the Return On Investment of your marketing and advertising ampaigns http://bit.ly/19uPdy #

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• Tweetdeck Beta, setup multiple twitter accounts http://flic.kr/p/6Ci2A4 #
• Download Darren Rowse’s best seller 31 Days to Build a Better Blog http://bit.ly/IMdom #
• Tweetdeck Beta, setup multiple twitter accounts http://bit.ly/OGZSj #
• To find cools photos for your blog go to Flickr, advanced search, creative commons, and sort by most interesting #
• RT @ericareese: “our lives are made by the death of others.” -Leonardo DiVinci #
• Use crazyegg to track where peope are clicking on your blog. It’s a free service #
• Interface design – How to describe the inputs and outputs of a single system, interface between two systems http://bit.ly/10ZQ6Y #
• Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry. SUN’s guide to creating technical documentation and website content http://bit.l … #
• READ ME FIRST! guide to creating technical documentation from Sun Microsystems’ tech writers and editors http://bit.ly/ZC2AF #
• Guardian UK. Nokia turns to Android in smartphone wars http://ping.fm/fDMsT #
• RFPs. Monitor the schedule of all RFPs that your company plans to bid for. http://ping.fm/fBYHl #
• How to fix Google Chrome Aw Snap error message http://ping.fm/38ySv #
• Free Requirements Traceability Matrix. Excel template http://ping.fm/7YI9f #
• Open, edit, and save documents in the file formats new to Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 http://ping.fm/zmOc1 #
• How to get rid of Crop Marks in Microsoft Word 2002/2003/2007 http://ping.fm/W8pm3 #
• What is Payflow Link? payment gateway solution that can be used with Internet Merchant Account to process credit cards http://ping.fm/IUzID #
• J.P. Morgan’s In-Depth Look at PayPal’s Business http://ping.fm/6rvM8 #
• J.P. Morgan report – PayPal could be worth around $9 billion by 2011http://ping.fm/XQXiB #
• PayPal Automated Customer Service Doesn’t Serve. ConsumerAffairs.com http://bit.ly/GjGC7 #
• Amazon Flexible Payments Service (Amazon FPS). Payments service designed from the ground up for developers. http://ping.fm/aKOCr #
• Key Features of Amazon Payments – alternative to PayPal epayments http://post.ly/18Ts #
• Pricing Structure for using Amazon Payments http://post.ly/18U3 #
• PayPal to Open Payments Platform (API) to Third-Party Developers http://post.ly/18UM #
• PayPal’s Upcoming Conference re API for 3rd Party Developers – limited seating book now http://post.ly/18Ua #

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• Posterous Tip – End your post with ‘#end’ and we’ll ignore any text we find after that. #
• Instant podcast. Your RSS feed at http://ping.fm/GZI0L doubles as an iTunes-ready podcast. Attach an mp3 to an email and it works. #
• Posterous Tip #2 – Add tags simply in the subject of your email using the syntax ((tag: apple, gadgets)). #
• Oracle plans to cut at least 850 European jobs http://ping.fm/0786g #
• UnitedHealth: E-payments could save billions, help pay for health reform http://ping.fm/8MfqG #
• Microsoft – How to protect your privacy with online payment services http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/finances/paying.mspx #
• CHART – Amazon Runs Away With Retailing http://ping.fm/Li0Cl #
• Microsoft Small Basic. Teach your kids to program http://ping.fm/5JqLq #
• Operations Manual Tip – provide operators with a detailed description of how to operate an IT system & environments and http://bit.ly/152E81 #
• Website Content Specification Template. Ideal for web developers and content managers. http://bit.ly/1fXU4f #
• Marketing ROI Calculator. Check the Return On Investment of your marketing and advertising ampaigns http://bit.ly/19uPdy #
• Use this Test Plan to verify that the software meets its design specifications and requirements http://bit.ly/GNLCw #
• Google Announces AdSense For Mobile Applications Beta http://bit.ly/uqUKY #
• RT @webchameleon: if you need an inexpensive shopping cart system, e-junkie is great, especially with Blogs! http://bit.ly/4bCU1D #
• Create an Online Shop with PayPal storefront. Upload products, set prices, and start selling on your website or blog. http://bit.ly/pbEuE #
• RT @danrudolph: what’s wrong with Amazon today? System overload due to US hol weekend traffic #
• Tips on Proposals and Pricing http://bit.ly/11BOVk #

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• Google Code – Discover best practices that can make your apps faster http://ping.fm/MeR6L #
• Open source Firefox/Firebug Add-on that evaluates the performance of web pages and gives suggestions for improvement http://ping.fm/Dm2pB #
• Fiddler – Web debugging proxy. Inspect HTTP/S traffic, set breakpoints, “fiddle” with incoming or outgoing data. http://ping.fm/S21Aq #
• Google Hammerhead – Firebug Add-on for measuring the load time of web pages http://ping.fm/BZ1Of #
• IBM Page Detailer – graphical tool enables Web content providers to measure client side performance of Web pages http://ping.fm/CZ1kU #
• Microsoft Visual Round Trip Analyze. Tool to view web page performance http://ping.fm/JHFFK #
• YSlow is a Firefox add-on integrated with the Firebug web development tool. #Yahoo http://ping.fm/J10kD #
• Google Code Tips – how to optimize web graphics http://ping.fm/OASZs #
• Wharton Uni – A Mechanism for Providing Innovation Incentives for Digital Goods PDF opim.wharton.upenn.edu/wise2004/sat511.pdf #
• 3 websites to store your digital goods http://ping.fm/nBf7q #
• Chris Anderson’s Free and the future of writing: Part 1 http://ping.fm/h80ne #
• Any social networking system will eventually fail because people are always looking for the next big thing. True? #
• How does Facebook make money? http://ping.fm/oXlBh #
• PayPal – How to setup Selling Preferences http://flic.kr/p/6BSieh #
• iSubscribe.tv – How to Manage Digital Products http://flic.kr/p/6BHK9V #
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• Asia Pacific leads the world in terms of using mobile phones for m-payments, accounting for around 85% of customers worldwide. #
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• AdSense Tip – Why Your Content is Critical For Targeted Ads? http://bit.ly/17PxUt #
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• Cost Benefit Analysis Tip – how to analyze and evaluate potential solutions http://bit.ly/g77T0 #
• Tips on How to Write a Case Study? http://bit.ly/kLiBB #
• 6 Reasons Why Case Studies Are A Terrific Market For Freelance Writers http://bit.ly/fD5aj #
• Dinosaurs photo from Shanghai Geographical museum http://twitpic.com/9cvx1 #

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Posted via web from ivanwalsh’s posterous

Paypal Do Stuff For Money

Originally uploaded by Tech Writer Boy

Ask your friends to do stuff for money. This is a light-hearted site from Paypal that lets friends ask others to do small things for money, which they can send by Paypal.

Your offer may be made public on this site as soon as you click “send offer”

Here are examples of what people want done for money:

dan offered mike $50.00 to “take the rest of his calls for the day”

sabrina offered sean $1.00 to “love me”

Megan offered Kim $1000.00 to “Let mom come live with you.”

Jem offered Alan $1.00 to “Come to our house for dinner tonight”

Jeff offered Shari $5.00 to “go to a star trek movie with me”

Diane offered Lori $1.00 to “go grocery shopping for me”

Jeff offered Anyone $1.00 to “Donate me money for a college laptop ”

Dad offered Cory $10.00 to “Tell Chris to stop picking his nose!”

Kat offered Willy $18.00 to “Be a back up singer in my Boyz to Men cover band”

AP offered Kenneth $1.00 to “Get me another diet coke later.”

www.paypal-dostuffformoney.com

There is a wonderful future ahead for internal communicators who focus on content as a productive asset.

Giving control of an intranet to a traditional communicator is a bit like giving a pub to an alcoholic. It’s happy days. There’s so much to publish. All the stuff they never read offline can go on the intranet. The homepage can be covered with news because the communicator with a hammer will see nails everywhere that need to be hammered home. And of course the intranet can reach everybody (in theory, at least), not like those magazines, brochures and flyers. 

The future of internal communications is about helping employees do things, rather than getting employees to do things. It’s about the word in action. The intranet is not a place to change hearts and minds. It’s a functional utility space where employees come to complete basic day-to-day tasks, like finding people, checking procedures, searching for job vacancies and training opportunities. 

News is important to employees but it’s not the be-all and end-all. News is vastly more important to the communicator than it is to the typical employee member.

So, what is the traditional communicator to do?

Force news down employee throats, whether they want it or not? That approach won’t work. At best they’ll just ignore the news and at worst they’ll think the intranet is a waste of space.

I remember one intranet manager telling me the reason that news stories dominated the homepage, and that employees had to scroll down to get to tasks that were really important to them was that they “would read the news on the way down.”

I have heard variants of these statements made by many internal communicatorsover the years. They are the inebriated thoughts of people drunk on power. They control the intranet, at least at the homepage level, and they’re going to turn it into a newspaper front page whether employees like it or not.

Intranet internal communications is radically different from print internal communications. The intranet internal communicator facilitates rather than dictates. They help people find. They guide rather than lead. They support the completion of a task such as checking up a procedure or a job vacancy.

They focus on creating clear menus and links. 

In a world of social media where people make their own news or get the news from their peers, where even the traditional news media is being rocked to its foundations, how relevant is the traditional internal communicator anymore? Just because you can publish on the intranet doesn’t mean anyone cares. 

In a world where the first step in so much activity on the Web is to search, if employees are not actively searching for your content, how is it going to get found? In a world where the homepage is becoming less and less important, is covering it with news going to work? Did it ever really work?

This is a call to arms.

You young ambitious communicators, get involved in making search work better, focus relentlessly on the quality of menus and links, simplify the steps and words used in software applications, make policies easier to understand and forms easier to complete. There is so much to do, so many areas where you can make your organization more productive, efficient and effective.

Gerry McGovern

www.gerrymcgovern.com

Posted via web from ivanwalsh’s posterous

Yesterday, when I went to login Clickbank, I got an error message.

It told me that there was a problem with the digital certificate (i.e. what makes the communications between my PC and Clickbank safe). If you get the same message, here is what’s causing it and also some tips on how to avoid this happening in the future.

[ad#5links]

When this error message appear, the web browser makes the following suggestions.

1.       The security certificate presented by this website was issued for a different website’s address.

Thanks but that doesn’t help very much, does it?

2.       Security certificate problems may indicate an attempt to fool you or intercept any data you send to the server.

A little better but the error message isn’t instilling much confidence in me. The words ‘may indicate an attempt to fool you’ make me feel like Babe before xmas dinner. You need to see the movie.

3.       If you arrived at this page by clicking a link, check the website address in the address bar to be sure that it is the address you were expecting.

If I clicked on a link, then it’s probably the one I was sent or use all the time.

4.      When going to a website with an address such as https://example.com, try adding the ‘www’ to the address, https://www.example.com.

Now, this makes a difference.

What the error message is trying to say is this: entering or using an address without www will (not may) confuse the certificate.

Why does this happen?

Let’s say that when you login Clickbank, you visit five different pages.

Then, the next day, you type Clickbank into the address bar.

Your web browser tries to anticipate the pages you’re going to visit and displays the pages you visited yesterday. You click on the page you want to visit, for example, the monthly reports.

This confuses the digital cert.

It doesn’t know how you got to http//:www.Clickbank.com/whatever/ without authenticating the cert.

Ideally, the page should be https//:www.Clickbank.com/whatever/.
The h in https stands for secure.

How to fix this problem

Enter www.clickbank.com into the address bar and log in as usual.

The certificate will now work correctly and hopefully you’ll sleep a better at night.

PS – If you’ve found this article useful, please consider giving us a Digg or StumbleUpon.

Regards,

Ivan

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