We have discussed a lot of the problems for e-commerce in developing countries but not a lot about the individual work arounds for both buying and selling through e-commerce.
Trying to think like a businessman, it sounds like the problems related to e-commerce and security can be divided into: 1. payment systems 2. methods to verify identity and build trust (for resolution of problems, quality, trust, branding) 3. shipment/tracking that goods and services are actually delivered 4. privacy for transactions (i.e. you don't want your competitors know prices/locations, etc) >From what I know (and that is rather limited) there are a variety of work arounds, including partnering with bigger, more well known companies (such as eBay or Amazon) to sell goods, or find individual responses (like finding a friend with a US-based credit card to process payments). I would love to hear of other work arounds that developing country entrepreneurs use to overcome the security issues with e-commerce. Siobhan Green www.sonjara.com ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org