Internet Transactions... Voidable?

I read today's newspaper. On page 41, there is a paid advertisement for new changes to the Consumer Protection Law (CPL). One of these changes addresses contracts that are established electronically: as long as the transaction occurs with both parts at a considerable distance from each other, a contract could be void within 8 days, at the consumer's will. These includes transactions made over the Internet!

So, how would this affect E-Commerce? Well, it could really boost trust in trade relationships over the Web. For most Web companies, such terms are well-known and accepted, but it's not always the case here. Asides from challenges such as Internet users representing less than 10% of the total population, lack of education in Web technologies, etc., one the current E-Commerce obstacles in the country is the distrust in electronic transactions. Users fear their credit cards will be charged, and no product/service will be delivered. They are also concerned about credit card fraud. Protection from banks and financial institutions could prove enough for most users... Although a first hand, Web company assurance is common for services such as Ebay, and really gives peace of mind to customers.

For companies, it could pose a chance to become more competitive locally, and prepare them for more outside competition. It is very uncommon to see Terms of Service, Service Level Agreements, sufficient and publicly-available policies (return, shipping, etc.) in local stores, and it's even more rare to see them in E-Commerce Web sites. Organizations will move from a product-centered perspective, to a more customer-centered philosophy. Besides, they wouldn't want people ending contracts in a disgusted manner, hurting their relationship with the company.

More to come on changes to the CPL, hopefully from the primary source: the CDC.

Transaction Brokerage and Security

Due to some work on E-Commerce for my master's degree, it has come to my attention that there's no such easy-to-use, architecturally complex and well-designed credit card transaction service in Central America as Google Checkout.

For those of you who don't know about the service and/or don't want to browse the technical pages and cookbook, Google Checkout allows for payment processing, and seamless shopping cart and fulfillment systems integration. This is done by implementing Web services to interact with Google's. There are great advantages to this, and one of them is that the merchant won't need to handle cardholder information; they wouldn't need to worry (too much) about security and compliance.

There's is one similar service being offered in the region: Ez Pagos Centro América (as in E-Z Payment Central America). Internally, they might be using Web services, but externally, they use a PHP interface to receive variables from customers (subscribed merchants), and they process credit card payments on their website. Considering the implemented technology, it should be tougher to integrate existing backoffice systems to their service.

On the security side, nonetheless, Ez Pagos doesn't really talk too much about it on their website. An online demo of an E-Commerce site using their system has been defaced for a little while.

There are still some challenges to overcome in the region, most importantly in the way business plans are developed. As in any planning process, if you overlook (or simply forget) little aspects, they could become big issues after deployment, not only in the IT area, but also in marketing, customer service, etc. Hopefully, we may see more offerings in transaction brokerage in the future.

As a region, we need to focus on obtaining the right technical personnel, whether it's outsourced or internal to the organization. Schools, colleges, and the private sector, should see the need for more specialized certification, as in information security, E-Commerce, and E-Business in general.