SECURING SAFETY AMIDST IMPERFECTIONS: My Ways of Mitigating Risks in E-Commerce

Haven't we always heard, "money is the root of all evil"?

Take for example a dollar bill — it's flimsy and thin but it means and equates to so much more than just mere numbers. The way this hybrid of cotton and linen urges people to do malevolence is terrifying to say the least. Times evolved and along with that was most all worldly things. Money could be expressed in many ways now: it isn't just a collection of bills, or cash, it could be intangible and invisible.

Times evolved... and so did the ways evil perpetuates in the lives of humans.

Ultimately, it seems that money is the reason why risks exist in e-commerce. It's all about how far people would go in order to gain. This is where the scams come in; and all sorts of deception. However, these risks could also be due to the limitations of human capabilities and automation efficiencies; as well as factors we could not really control like those in relation to delays in shipping and deliveries (i.e. weather, checkpoints, etc).

In our class discussion, there were four known risks in e-commerce mentioned, namely: product risk, privacy risk, temporal risk and financial risk.

As an avid online shopper and e-platform users for my purchases, I guess I could give my fellow online shoppers some of my tips in order to mitigate these risks.

The first one is to select widely known and public-certified or verified e-commerce applications and websites.

This usually goes by word of the mouth, or through coming across recommendations online, like in advertisements or short clips such as those found on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. For example, I recommended Shoppee to my sister and taught her how to navigate the application. I had been using the said app for years now and I guess it's the one that works best with my preferences. So far, so good. It has security features for both the shoppers and sellers so, in my opinion, it is safe. It has yet to fail me so until then, I would keep on promoting it should anyone ask me what e-shopping app to use best.

The second one is the most basic: READ!

Thinking about it, some errors might just lie on manmade shortcomings on the part of the buyer. Admit it, some of us don't really take the time to read the details of what we were supposed to check out. From what I can recall, the most reliable shops always input really long product descriptions for their items, especially if they make it a point to be trustworthy. Somehow, even just checking that part says a lot about the reliability of a particular shop. So, yeah, they took time to put those details there, it's only normal to expect a buyer to do their part of reading them.

Thirdly: NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF REVIEWS!

This is what I never miss to do everytime I want to buy something online. It matters to me if that particular product has been bought a lot of times, along with that, the reviews should also be significant in numbers, and of course, most of them should mention how good the product is or whether they do or do not recommend it. It's the census! Doesn't the majority always win? Sometimes this aspect overpowers even the questionability of a seller or shop. Who cares if the shop is not too popular? It sells a product that has satisfied a thousand of customers.

Reviews also make you more receptive of some things to consider, for example, the possible delay in the actual time of arrival. If a product is worth it, who would not be willing to wait, right?

Lastly: BE PRUDENT!

Why, if it isn't the most difficult thing to do? Haha. I might be mean to say this but for the sake of setting an example such that its recurrence could be minimized, I have observed the lack of this particular virtue in some people when dealing with online transactions especially in my own family. I think merely securing your account details and keeping them private could be an act of prudence in this field, as well as being mindful of information being spread on the net. Some of my family members are often easily led by the nose by the terms "free" and "sale" online. I see them clicking on dubious and suspicious links a lot of times. I always tell them not to outright believe the things they see on the net because it's where misinformation and deceit thrive. The enlightened few among us realize right away just how much of a travesty those are. As for me I always remember a particular expression that goes like, "there is no such thing as free lunch"; so when I see crap like "earn money fast" or "get this for free" online, I treat it like a plague.

The risks in e-commerce are pretty much manageable if I consider the many ways to mitigate them. It just requires substantial knowledge about how the internet works as well as a considerably huge gauge for tolerance. E-commerce comes about as a collaborative work between humans and information technology. Humans are too far from being perfect and information technology is just one of their creations. The bright side is that anything that's not  nearly perfect always has an expansive room for improvement.

Times evolve, and so do humans; so do their creations.