The era of ecommerce

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">Applying for an <strong>offshore merchant account</strong> doesn&#39;t mean you have to fly an airplane to go offshore, literally.</font></font></p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">The roots of doing business without actually standing in the conference room making a presentation, and then having coffee after and waiting for days for a mere yes or no.</font></font></p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">Thanks to the birth of <strong>ecommerce</strong>.</font></font></p><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br /></font> </p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><h1 align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2"><strong>Origins</strong></font></font></h1><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">Electronic commerce has been around at least for 30 years now. Safe to say, it was originally defined as as a </font><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> &ldquo;</font><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="2">the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, usually using technology like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT)&rdquo;. This was initially and clearly exhibited by sending electronic purchase orders or invoices.</font></p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">Then the process evolved to the proliferation of telephone bankings, purchasing via credit cards, and automated teller machines (ATM). These electronic processes were done mostly by banks and financial institutions. But come the 90&#39;s, this process was elevated to a &ldquo;web commerce&rdquo; where businesses started to sell over the the internet. </font></font> </p><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br /></font> </p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><h2 align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2"><strong>Booming results</strong></font></font></h2><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">&ldquo;</font><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">E-shopping&rdquo; became the the purchasing trend through the upgrading of <strong>ecommerce</strong> systems. This shouts the convenience of choosing the items that you like at the comfortability of your home, paying it is just a click away. Minus the pressure of actually buying the purchase because of a sales person at your back.</font></font></p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">Major industries became dependent on electronically controlled processes to facilitate their everyday workings. From production, to quality control, distribution, and monitoring are all under the ecommerce premise. Do and make business in a click of a button.</font></font></p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">Another process, &ldquo;e-banking&rdquo; was also born due to the development of <strong>ecommerce</strong>. Deposits, withdrawals, asset transfers and account applications and set ups are done electronically. These are all ofcourse protected by security protocols. </font></font> </p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">This by-product gave way to doing transactions with people in foreign territory. Days of country-hopping is moderately decreasing, (but would that be exciting, entering a new country would be the coolest), you can close a deal just by transferring your proposal electronically. </font></font> </p><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br /></font> </p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><h3 align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2"><strong>Reality check</strong></font></font></h3><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">Though it has been around for more than 30 years, certain countries are still in the &ldquo;getting-to-know&rdquo; stage with ecommerce. I&#39;ve read in an google bulletin that <strong>ecommerce</strong> in Kenya, a country in eastern Africa, is being &ldquo;hampered&rdquo;. Observers say that minimal online business is done in Kenya, with information dissemination as the only process occuring, no actual transactions taking place, so in effect to the state of <strong>offshore merchant accounts</strong> there, no assets are transferred to these kind of merchant accounts. A lack of ample business legislations are also seen as a cause of the slow growth. </font></font> </p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">Experts concluded that an increased awareness on the benefits of <strong>ecommerce</strong>. Also, to incorporate ecommerce to their key industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, tourism (Tours &amp; Travels), arts and handicrafts, hotels and restaurants and shipping sectors is a way to fully realize the positive economic contributions of ecommerce there, and in turn, for <strong>offfshore merchant accounts </strong>to be fully recognizes, in turn, making Kenya an merchant account haven.</font></font></p><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="2">Some may say that <strong>ecommerce</strong> takes away the &ldquo;personal touch&rdquo; in business dealings, since face-to face contact is no longer needed. This is a good observation, but at the the end of the day, doing business as usual has two clear goals; close the deal and keep the profits coming.</font></font></p><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify">&nbsp;</p><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br /></font> </p><div align="justify"> </div><p style="margin-bottom: 0in" align="justify"><font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br /><a href="http://www.onlywire.com/submit?u=http://www.offshoremerchantexperts.com&amp;t=the%20era%20of%20ecommerce&amp;tags=offshore%20merchant%20account%20ecommerce" target="_blank" title="Add this Article to Onlywire"><img src="http://www.onlywire.com/i/onlywire.ico" border="0" alt="" align="absmiddle" /> Add to Onlywire</a></font> </p>