I would like to sell goods on my website, but are there risks to my business incorporating transaction processing into our website?

An overview of online fraud

Yes, credit card fraud does affect online businesses but there are a wealth of tools available to help those businesses minimise fraudulent transtions. Transactions occur in a 'card not present' situtation, where chip and pin security can not be used, so the the mechant becomes reliant on the authenticity of the credit card owners registered address and real-time verification services that check a credit cards within 5 seconds to see if the specific credit or debit card has been reported stolen or lost.
Additional security

Secondary security checks provided by the credit card companies - Visa (3D-Secure module) and MasterCard (SecureCode module) - add a further level of security to any transactions and e-commerce website owners can further minimize online credit card processing fraud by simply checking orders.

E-commerce payment gateways and online shopping cart scripts provide information that can provides clues and even automatically alert website owners to transations that appear unusual.
The conclusions

All in all, a little bit of investment in some basic security measures can help make doing business online as safe and secure as doing it in person. Everyday there are millions of pounds safely spent and received by businesses - if it wasn't secure, businesses simply wouldn't use the Internet to do business!

General Questions

Can digital design agencies work to fixed price?

E-creation generally works to a fixed price on web and multimedia projects. In order to do so, we will work with the client in the quoting stage, providing initial free consultancy, in order to establish the general requirments. This information enables us to then provide a fixed price quote for most projects.

Working to a fixed price can however cost the client more than working to time material. Clients generally require fixed price becaue they either have a limited budget to work within or because they think they are going to get a better deal from the digital design agency they are employing. From the designers / developers perspective, if the client requires a fixed price on the project, it is sensible to include a degree of contigency in the case the client changes what they want, requests additional content or generally takes longer to manage - hence the project price is higher than an estimate for a time-material project.

What's most important; good design or good code?

E-creation sees the integration of good design & good code as one of our key skills. They should work effectively together to bring out the best in each other.

The Internet has however made is possible to pass information from person to person with 'no cost' and as a result, companies and organisations now use viral marketing to create brand awawreness very cost effectively. The viral video was the first form of viral campaign to be used by companies as part of �buzz marketing�. More recently, social netowrking sites such as Facebook & MySpace have created new social media marketing opportunities.

Technical Questions

What is Flash?

Flash is an animation tool first developed by Macromedia (now Adobe) in 1996. With a primary focus on interactive multimedia content, such as animations, video, audio that is graphically heavy, Flash is a small application that is installed onto the user's machine. Historically, there has been a concern about developing websites that use Flash, in the case a website visitor does not have it installed, but currently Adobe claim 99.3% of desktop users have Flash installed. E-creation's approach has always been to develop in HTML that is 100% compatible with all website users and to incorporate elements of Flash into the HTML with animated GIF or JPEG alternatives that automatically display if Flash is not available on the visitor's machine.

Broadband & file sizes on websites?

The use of broad band in business and at home has changed the way websites are created. The issues that website designers & developers faced 10 years ago, when significant portions of the population were on 'dial-up', are simply not a concern any more. Unless you are incorporating large videos, animations or audio files, bandwidth is very unlikely to be an issue - so feel free to suggest large images and graphics for your website - it might take one or two seconds to load, but people visiting your site will appreciate what they see!

Inside View by MD

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One of the most important jobs we have as a creative digitial design agency is to answer the questions that clients have. They come to us because we are the experts at making things look good and work well, and sometimes that can get very involved technically. But we are able to explain in everyday English to our clients how things work and what will work best for them. We are always looking into the latest technologies and business developments to make sure that the advice we give is cutting edge without being impossible or irresponsible to implement.

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viral video, buzz marketing, social media marketing, butterfly marketing, word of mouth marketing, viral campaign, viral advertising, viral email, online viral marketing, viral email marketing, viral marketing campaign, internet viral marketing, viral marketing strategy

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