I Shop, You Pay

WEEK 3.

Doing Business on the Internet.

The Gist.

doing business on the internet seemed like the normal thing nowadays. the flow of money (not in its real physical form) has increased over the years in terms of online transaction. so what makes it so attractive to do business online? the perils and dangers?

So What Else.

all we need is a credit card, a medium with which to pay like Paypal and voila! transaction done. simple, without undue frills. you just have to wait for next month's credit card bills to come in scrolls. with the availability of the internet, we can do auctions via Ebay and the like, buy movie tickets without queuing, purchase pizza or even chinese chow. more importantly, foreign transactions can be made without crossing borders. indeed, life has becoming much more smaller, easier, thanks to being wired.

Why Should We Care?

other than credit card bills, we should also look out for things like fraud. if we're paying for something that doesn't use something trustworthy like paypal, then we're in for some trouble. also, there're times where what we thought we're buying may not be the exact thing we had in mind. for example, renting a car or checking into a foreign hotel may not be as easy as doing it physically. more often than not, we get less than desired results. i can't choose my movie seats online (though some do now), i can't tell the eatery not to add anchovies in my pizzas. put it simply, there is a lack of human communication.