Greatest Evil for Ecommerce

[LaDonna]

The web's greatest evil isn't site or cart abandonment contrary to what many experts suggest.

What is the web's greatest evil then?

Thanks!

[jsinger]

What is the web's greatest evil then?

From the standpoint of an ecommerce retailer here's a handful of overriding problems off the top of my head:

1) Death of email as an advertising medium
2) Pfishing, which scares people off the web
3) Adware and viruses
4) High cost of PPC advertising
5) Online fraud

[KevinC]

lack of trust, all online sales are based on trust. Nobody will fork over their credit card number without trusting that you are legit.

without trust you got nothin.

[lorax]

Are we talking items that hurt the web or items that hurt ecommerce?

[Corey Bryant]

I am not certain if I really understand the question, but I would say it is merchants who do not clearly put on their website what they accept as payment, Visa / MasterCard, Amex, Paypal, etc.

Upon checkout, if I see it is only Paypal - this can sometime cause me pause and I will usually try to locate another merchant that will accept my credit card so I do not have to use Paypal

-Corey

[wildbest]

...I will usually try to locate another merchant that will accept my credit card so I do not have to use Paypal.

I'm sorry, but do not see too many or too important reasons why customers should prefer credit card payments against PayPal?

[truezeta]

That's interesting! I like seeing paypal on ecommerce sites, for the simple fact that I DON'T have to dig for my credit card.

[Conard]

Whoops, I thought this thread was going to be about GBuy the new Google payment system.

Never mind.

[Corey Bryant]

This is my own preference just because Paypal does not really screen their merchants. Some merchants are underage and a lot of my clients have had problems. With Paypal so large it is harder to control and I would rather do business with a company that has a merchant account so I know they have been screened at least.

You will run into people who like Paypal and you will run into others who do not.

-Corey

[Wlauzon]

We have never used Paypal mainly because their rates are so much higher than what we pay for VISA/AMEX etc.

About 2.5 to 3x as much.

We may set it up eventually for some lower cost high margin items, but a lot of what we sell is high dollar low-margin items, so an extra 2% per sale can make an impact on profits.

But the greatest evil is spam.

[jsinger]

Paypal is hardly the web's worst evil. LOL.

[minnapple]

On higher end products, with a high margin
1. No 1-800 number
2. An 1-800 number that isn't answered
800 numbers that are well manned can increase sales 2x to 4x.

[lgn1]

Death of email as an advertising medium

I belive email as an advertising medium was stillborn to start with :)

[jsinger]

believe email as an advertising medium was stillborn to start with :)

It was a goldmine in the 90s. We started using email newsletters around 2000 and they were highly profitable for a few years.

Offhand, I think I'd be willing to pay for reliable email advertising delivery to opt-in customers with uncluttered in-boxes. We'd send far fewer emails and get a much higher response. Email is too good a medium to give up on, or to cede to the scum.

[HRoth]

I don't know what the greatest evil is for ecommerce in general, but I know what it is for me - constantly going down the rabbit hole. I get off on some idea that I want to implement and get away from priority tasks. I see something and think, wow, that would make a good product if I could just this, that, and the other thing... Meanwhile, I have emails to answer, pages to write, orders to send. For me this rabbit-holing is the hardest, most evilest thing about ecommerce. Some people call it ADHD.:)

[cybert]

IMHP - the greatest evil is not allowing everyone to compete on an even playing field - I know its utopic isn't it...

[crak_bot]

I don't know what the greatest evil is for ecommerce in general, but I know what it is for me - constantly going down the rabbit hole. I get off on some idea that I want to implement and get away from priority tasks. I see something and think, wow, that would make a good product if I could just this, that, and the other thing... Meanwhile, I have emails to answer, pages to write, orders to send. For me this rabbit-holing is the hardest, most evilest thing about ecommerce. Some people call it ADHD.:)

Wow, I'm not the only one who does this.

[DrDoc]

I always thought competitors and doorway page builders were the greatest evil ...

;)

[cybert]

Here's another one:

FEES, FEES and more FEES!

[webtress]

My first thought was low rankings, second thought the hype of "Get Rich Quick". Both are evil.

[Essex_boy]

People who put themselves over as an expert on the web and really know nothing.

These people are the most dangerous the blind leading the blind with neither realising that they cant see.