E-Commerce spending will rise 11% to $156.1 billion

E-Commerce spending will rise 11% to $156.1 billion this year, study says.
Despite the economic downturn, e-commerce sales, including event and movie tickets, will grow about 11% to $156.1 billion this year from $141.3 billion in 2008, according to the first installment of the three-part State of Retailing Online 2009: Marketing Report from research and consulting firm Forrester Research and Shop.org, the online retail arm of the National Retail Federation, a merchant trade association. Four out of five retailers say the web is better suited than offline retail to withstand the recession.
E-commerce sales grew 13% from 2007 to 2008, the report says. Online sales will account for 6% of total retail sales this year, up from 5% last year.
While Internet sales growth continues to outpace traditional retail sales, 54% of online retailers expect overall retail growth to slow during the next 12 months, and 57% acknowledge the economy is hurting their bottom line, according to the survey.

Ecommerce Know-How: Six Ways To Improve Your Online Store

An online merchant's most important marketing and sales tool is a content-rich, visually interesting, and factually accurate website.
In this edition of "Ecommerce Know-How," I am going to propose six ways to improve your site。
Six Ways to Improve Your Online Store：

No. 1: Upgrade Your Product Descriptions, Using Three Sentences Or Less
No. 2: Use Video for Product Demonstrations, Merchandising
No. 3: Use Adobe Flash, Flex, and jQuery Plug-ins to Merchandise and Cross-Promote Specials
No. 4: Implement Product Reviews and Ratings
No. 5: Add a Cross-Selling, Suggestions Tool
No. 6: Get a Single-Page Checkout

E-commerce broke 3 trillion yuan in turnover last year

Vice Director of the Department of Information Technology of the Ministry of Commerce Nie Linhai recently revealed in Fuzhou that the financial crisis is providing a rare opportunity for development in China's e-commerce industry, and China's total turnover from e-commerce exceeded 3 trillion yuan last year, an increase of over 40 percent year-on-year.

While attending the second E-commerce and Logistics Distribution Forum and the first Seminar on Joint Development of Cross-Strait E-commerce and Logistics in Fuzhou, Nie said that China's total turnover in e-commerce trade reached 3.1 trillion yuan in 2008, a 43 percent increase from 2007.

In the current financial environment, small and medium-sized businesses engaging in e-commerce have a better chance of survival than those using traditional modes of business.

According to relevant statistics, 84.2 percent of enterprises that do not engage in e-commerce experience financial difficulty in the financial crisis, while only 16.8 percent of enterprises that do engage in e-commerce experience financial difficulty, a difference of nearly five times.

online payment---Debit-Card Use Overtakes Credit

The urge to not splurge by thrift-conscious consumers is giving the debit-card revolution a new push. On Wednesday, Visa Inc. reported that the total dollar volume of purchases made using its branded debit cards surpassed credit-card purchases for the first time during the last three months of 2008.

The $206 billion in U.S. debit-card transactions processed by Visa were 50.4% of the San Francisco company's total transaction volume in the period, up from about 40% in 2003.

"A big group of consumers like the discipline that debit spending can bring them, and that is particularly relevant in this kind of environment," said Tim Murphy, who oversees MasterCard Inc.'s main payment products around the world.

Unlike credit cards, which have balances that can be carried month-to-month, debit cards immediately deduct funds directly from a checking account. Debit cards are especially popular with younger consumers.

Top 10 E-Commerce Mistakes

The competition for e-commerce is just a mouse-click away,
so you need to design your website well to attract visitors,
who are the potential customers for you.
When designing your site, you need to avoid below 10 kinds of common mistakes:

1. Trying to sell the wrong product online
2. Lack of marketing and advertising
3. A poorly designed Web site
4. Outdated site content
5. Poor checkout procedures
6. Not testing your site
7. A hard-to-find or nonexistent privacy policy
8. Poor order fulfillment
9. Straying from your area of expertise
10. Poor customer service

E-commerce laws to be upgraded

The Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) yesterday agreed to amend state and territory Electronic Transactions Acts, following "overwhelming support" for reforms aimed at addressing technological advances since the present uniform ETAs -- based on the 1996 Model Law on E-Commerce -- were adopted.
To date, 18 countries, including China, Singapore and the Republic of Korea have signed the convention. The Law Council of Australia's e-commerce committee has urged the SCAG to also remedy variations in electronic transactions rules across Australia. "Given the benefits to be achieved in international harmony in relation to electronic transactions, it would be ironic if the opportunity were not taken to also achieve better harmony on the domestic side at the same time," the council said.
"We believe the extent of variations is beyond what is appropriate in an internet context, where state boundaries ought to be irrelevant." The attorneys-general also agreed that a SCAG working group would develop "voluntary guidelines" to assist employers and workers on workplace privacy issues, such as surveillance and email, and internet monitoring.
The guidelines are to be developed in consultation with federal and state Privacy Commissioners, as well as employer groups, unions and other interested parties.

CTOPAY- one stop e-commerce solution

E-commerce is developing with a fast pace in China. As more and more Chinese are using the internet as a source for ordering
goods and services online. Then how to set the cross board payment? CTOPAY is a global payment provider. Currently 30 million merchants worldwide are using our payment gateways. Besides CTOPAY,
other e-commerce solutions, such as CTOSHOP, CTOALL and CTOSEO, also provided for our global customers. From online shop
building to online payment settlement, a comprehensive e-commerce solution tailored to every specific e-commerce type.CTOPAY observed a tenfold increase in its transaction volume last year, in spite of the global recession. It grows in
popularity for its wide range of payment options, till now, all major credit cards and debit cards in any currency are
supported in CTOPAY. CTOPAY cares for your online transactions safety ever since it is founded. MD5（Message-digest Algorithm 5），Secure Socket
Layer (provide by GeoTrust) and many other advanced programs are applied for online safety management. And last year it
passed the PCI DSS verification, which meets the international safety standard.Mr. Wang, the CEO of CTOPAY is confident to provide a comprehensive e-commerce solution for all customers.