Cybercrime: A Challenge to Law Enforcement

When comparing 100 years ago and today, we always mention the social, economic and political changes that have influenced the emergence and development of the opportunities that we have today, with special emphasis on technological changes. Technology has evolved so fast that it seems that in the blink of an eye something new has just hit the market. Whether we like it or not, technology has become part of us, part of our lives, where we upon spend a great deal of the day with at least one of our technological devices with which we perform many tasks. Nowadays there are limitless possibilities of gathering information, business, shop, and almost anything through the internet. Although it is a very easy to make payments online, it can be quite risky, because not every website offers the security and convenience for purchasing the product we want and we may have doubts whether the money we have paid has gone to the right place and for the specific service, which we have paid for. The Internet has many positive as well as negative aspects, since it also carries great danger because it is much easier to hind behind a false identity and commit illegal acts. Cybercrime presents a new challenge to legal systems, considering that the more individuals use computer, and the Internet, the more the interest of hackers and perpetrators to commit these types of crimes increases.

Exploring Deal of the Day: an e-commerce strategy

PurposeThis paper examines differences in the discounts offered during Deal of the Day (DOD) promotion schemes by online retailers based on product category, festival season and the economic status of a country.Design/methodology/approachIn study 1, the authors conducted three focus group studies and 20 in-depth personal interviews (PIs) to explore consumers' perspectives on DOD. To validate the hypotheses based on the findings of study 1 and collected 515 data points from Amazon.com (313 data points from the United States) and Amazon.in (202 data points from India) in study two. The authors used multinomial linear regression to analyze the data.FindingsA significant difference in savings for buyers on the purchase of electronic product categories as compared to savings made by them on the purchase of non-electronic product categories during DOD promotional schemes. Electronic products get deeper discounts in the US during festival seasons as compared to non-festival seasons during DOD promotional schemes. In emerging economies discounts offered by e-commerce retailers during DOD offers on electronic items are lesser as compared to those offered during DOD offers made in developed economies like United States.Practical implicationsManagers should avoid offering the same products under DOD during the festive season and non-festive season at similar prices in emerging economies as during festivals customers expect more savings over and above the regular savings.Originality/valueDOD is offered every day irrespective of the other promotions on e-commerce platforms to boost sales. This study analyses any significant difference in saving for DOD offered during special sales days in emerging and developed economies.

Beyond the "mobile versus PC" dichotomy: Profiling online shoppers based on device usage

Availability of a growing number of devices for information searching and purchasing online is affecting consumer habits and company strategies. This paper investigates device usage patterns in the online Deal of the Day (DoD) shopping process. The study employs a cluster analysis of respondents based on their device usage. Four clusters emerge and are profiled by means of a benefits and costs approach based on demographic and psychographic characteristics. Multi-device behaviours for information search and DoD purchasing and multi-device behaviours are found to be dominant. Smartphone exclusive users display higher purchase frequency than multi-device segments. Tablet and smartphone users are found to be Market Mavens. Several implications for marketers are discussed.

Deal of the Day

Deal of the day is a form of e-commerce in which an intermediary allows merchants access to a subscriber list, to promote their offerings at a discount. This study performs a cluster analysis on the purchase history of a deal intermediary, to identify customer segments based on their purchase frequency, price sensitivity and the types of deal they buy. Five segments were identified, including a large group of customers who made one purchase and then stopped buying, a small group of extremely deal-prone subscribers, and a segment that limits their purchases to very few types of product (e.g. restaurant meals or spa treatments). The findings further show that targeting deals to specific customers may be desirable in the future to prevent information overload and ensure loyalty.

Going Local or Global: The Case of Online Daily Deal Company TicketMonster

TicketMonster is a deal-of-the-day coupon site which utilizes the Internet and mobile infrastructure to offer deals in Seoul and other cities around Korea on services at restaurants, cafes, spas, and so forth. Following the company's rapid expansion, management made the decision to expand the scope of TicketMonster beyond Korea's borders with the aim of taking on other Asian markets. To this end, TicketMonster acquired Everyday.com.my, the biggest social shopping site in Malaysia. However, it was believed that simply competing in markets across Asia would not enable TicketMonster to claim sufficient market share in light of the international expansion of Groupon and LivingSocial, two online daily deal global giants. Furthermore, competition in the online daily deal sector in Korea had escalated as local, regional and international players vied for consumer awareness and loyalty. On top of an advertising war, competition grew to the point where several sites began selling coupons while knowingly taking a loss by lowering commissions in order to attract competitive products or services for their respective deals and at times paying for the services themselves. In mid-2011, U.S.-based LivingSocial made an offer to buy TicketMonster in order to strengthen its presence in Asia. Considering these changes and challenges, what are the strategic issues regarding TicketMonster and how should the company deal with the offer to deploy its transfer of ownership to LivingSocial? This case will help readers form an opinion on the related management issues and analyses.

Consumer Protection on so Called Discount Websites

The subject of this article is the Th e “Deal-of-the-day” operators (discount website operators, such as Slevomat in the Czech Republic, or Groupon at the international level) and their practices, which can be unknown territory for most of their consumers. “Deal-of-the-day” websites (discount websites) are websites offering consumers a service to buy discounted (oft en gift ) certificates (coupons or vouchers) which can be used at local or national companies. When examining the issue deeply, we realise that there are many potential threats for the consumers who are not as well protected by consumer law as they should be. The article covers these problematic areas.