Steve Woda's Blog

… Ecommerce, Internet Security, Economics, and Entrepreneurship

Tag: Bonding

The eMarket for Lemons at The Wharton School

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On February 14, 2008

In buySAFE, Counterfeits, eBay, eCommerce, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Steve Woda, Surety Bonds, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

I had the opportunity to speak at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania last week about an article that Dr. Eric Clemons recently authored for the Journal of Management Information Systems, "An Empirical Investigation of Third-Party Seller Rating Systems in E-Commerce: The Case of buySAFE".  My presentation was focused on marketplace economics and specifically about information asymmetry, signaling, the "Market for Lemons" concept, and buySAFE.  In addition, I was able to share a few thoughts about my entrepreneurial experience with buySAFE.

As always, I had a great time as the guest of Dr. Eric Clemons, and I enjoyed hearing the passionate questions, insights and feedback from the students.  One of the students posted an article about my visit on his blog, The Un-Wharton. 

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Daily Roundup for 2008-01-31

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On January 31, 2008

In Bookmarks

  • Phishing Sites Proliferate, But Experts Say Help Is on the Way
    The population of Web sites dedicated to the crime of phishing jumped markedly in October after dipping late in the summer, according to the latest data from the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The good news, though, is that experts appear to be working out a new way to shut down these sites in a way that will keep fraudsters off the Internet. The group’s October report, released last week, shows the number of unique phishing sites grew 22% from September, to 34,266. That’s the highest number detected by the APWG since May, though it falls far short of the record 55,643 found last April.

  • Should I give my lawyers equity?
    When lawyers defer their legal fees, they expect equity for the risk of not getting paid. If their risk is low or they’re not deferring fees, you can say no. In any case, offer them the right to invest $25K-$50K in your financing instead of giving them free equity.

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Build Buyer Trust to Drive Holiday Revenue

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On October 22, 2007

In buySAFE, eCommerce, Marketing, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

How can you drive up your holiday revenue?  Build trust with your buyers! 
That’s right.  By simply spending a bit of time and energy thinking about how your consumers do their searching, shopping, and decision-making, you can increase your holiday revenues in a material fashion.

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On Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 11:00-12:00 PM MDT, I will be giving an educational webinar sponsored by Infopia and buySAFE on the subject of building trust with your buyers to drive up your revenues andBuysafe_and_infopia
profits.

If you can spare an hour of your time, I promise you that you will learn something
new and interesting.  If you are serious about building your online business, this will be time well spent.

Space is limited, so please register for the webinar as soon as you get a moment.  You can register at https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/890705170.

Related articles:
“Infopia Integrates with buySAFE” – Infopia Blog

buySAFE and ScanAlert (HACKER SAFE) Announce a Major Trust, Safety and Security Partnership

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On June 3, 2007

In buySAFE, eCommerce, HackerSafe, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

This week, buySAFE and ScanAlert, the provider of the Hacker Safe service, announced a huge partnership, and in my opinion, this is a great development for e-commerce.

Under the terms of the deal, ScanAlert will provide buySAFE’s Certified Merchant solution for free to its merchants during the HACKER SAFE account activation process and from within the account management console.  In addition, buySAFE will make ScanAlert’s PCI validation services available to its merchants for free as well.  This is truly a terrific combination for merchants and buyers.

Obviously, buyers want to find the right product at the right price.  Once that has been accomplished, buyers basically care about two things when considering whether or not to make a purchase online…

  1. Am I going to get what I pay for?
  2. Is my private information going to be safe?

buySAFE is the best in the world at making sure buyers will get what they paid for.  buySAFE does this by rigorously inspecting its merchants’ sales experience, online reputation, identity, and financial stability.  Then, buySAFE monitors the merchant’s transactional history, in real time, for any sign of transactional or business default.  Finally and perhaps most importantly, buySAFE puts its money where its mouth is bonding the transactions of buySAFE merchants up to $25,000 per transaction if requested.

Hacker Safe is amongst the best in the world at ensuring that buyers’ private information is going to be safe.  They accomplish this goal by performing daily vulnerability scanning of their merchants’ websites.  This helps to make sure that the merchants’ websites are secure and difficult for bad guys to breach. 

Both companies are industry leaders in the online trust, safety and security world, and both have thousands of merchant customers using their services.

Again, it important for merchants to understand that their shoppers are concerned with two things…  and Will I get what I paid for, and is my private information going to be safe?   Optimal web site conversion metrics can only be achieved by answering both of these questions credibly.  Together, buySAFE and ScanAlert are a powerful combination that will benefit merchants, buyers, and the entire e-commerce industry.

Related articles:
"buySAFE & HACKER SAFE in a Ground Breaking Announcement – Enabling Risk-Free eCommerce" on the buySAFE blog
"BuySafe Partners with ScanAlert/Hackersafe and CRE Loaded" on AuctionBytes.com

France, Luxury Goods, and the Counterfeit Problem

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On March 23, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Economics, Surety Bonds, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

Travis Brown, buySAFE’s General Counsel & VP of International, recently spent a week in France as a guest of the French government.  The purpose of the trip was to learn more about the exploding counterfeit goods industry, and to explain how bonding merchants and buySAFE could significantly mitigate this  huge problem.

I found Travis’ post to be one of the best I have ever read on the issue of counterfeit goods, and I am sure you will agree.  I encourage you to give it a quick read.

"buySAFE Invited By French Government to Help Stop Online Sales of Counterfeit Luxury Goods" by Travis Brown on buySAFE’s blog

I am very interested in your thoughts and insights regarding the counterfeiting issue, so please share.

Related articles and blog posts:
"buySAFE Takes on the Issue of Counterfeit (Knock Off) Merchandise" by Fraud, Phishing and Financial Misdeeds

Wake Up With buySAFE on The Today Show

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On March 19, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Online Fraud, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

It’s been a lot of fun (not to mention a lot of hard work 😉 to see buySAFE grow from an idea in my head into a company that is changing the face of e-commerce. Knowing how far we’ve come makes it exceptionally rewarding when major, national news outlets cover buySAFE and the impact we are having.

One such news outlet – The Today Show on NBC – will be including buySAFE in a story that will run tomorrow, March 20 shortly after 8:00 a.m. Consumer reporter Janice Lieberman spent the day at buySAFE headquarters last week as part of a piece about the prevalence of counterfeit luxury goods being sold online. With consumers often unknowingly buying knockoff merchandise, it’s tough to know how to protect yourself from becoming a victim.

Fortunately, buySAFE solves this problem. By certifying that a merchant is trustworthy and reputable, identifying the merchant with the buySAFE Seal, and taking the extra step to guarantee the transaction, buySAFE ensures a safe, smooth transaction for consumers every time. Rather than worrying about having bought a fake, shoppers that buy from a buySAFE Merchant can rest easy knowing that they’re dealing with one of the safest merchants anywhere.

I encourage you all to tune in the Today Show tomorrow, March 20th at 8:00 a.m. to see how buySAFE is making e-commerce safer and more efficient for everyone involved.

What do Digg and eBay Have in Common?

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On March 18, 2007

In buySAFE, eBay, eCommerce, Online Fraud, Portable Trust & Reputation Signals, Trust and Safety, Web/Tech

Written by Guest Blogger, Lauren Davis – Georgetown Law student

What do Digg and eBay have in common?  Their rating systems are under assault by the fraudsters, and in some cases, this mischief is undermining the systems’ credibility and effectiveness.

There has been a great deal of buzz surrounding a recent article in Wired magazine. The piece, entitled “Herding the Mob,” notes that online retail sites, such as eBay and Yahoo Auctions, and social bookmarking sites, including Digg, del.icio.us, and Reddit, share a common problem: the gaming of their community-based systems.

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