Consumers buying goods and services digitally tend to research online and choose retailers with convenient prices and free delivery services.

"They make online orders from their PC, pay with credit cards and prefer fast delivery. The global distance selling sector will grow by more than 10% per annum by 2020."

"In Asia Pacific, ecommerce has been spurred by increased internet access, by traditional retailers and start-ups embracing the opportunities of offering their goods online in shops and marketplaces, and by an ever expanding middle class in emerging markets. It resulted in market developments as Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and China, which saw growth rates ranging between 5% and 42% in 2013."

"More than 90% of people having online access in China, Japan and South Korea are distance selling customers. They are predominantly young, highly educated and from urban areas. Consumer electronics, books, clothing and apparel and food are the online products most purchased in Asia Pacific."

"British and German consumers use distance selling the most (94%) while consumers in India or Mexico are more reluctant to order from home and online. European consumers also place more orders per year (29 in UK, 18 in Germany) than their counterparts in emerging markets (9 in India or 6 in Brazil)."

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UK government has released a support package aimed at boosting cross-border business.

"UK Trade & Investment organisation, a UK Government department, has informed that businesses can develop international trade via online channels and that the support package can offer SMEs a cost-effective way to expand reach in terms of both numbers and geography."

"The government unit is currently working with various international e-marketplaces, including Tmall China, Amazon China, Japanese ecommerce platform Rakuten and Harper’s Bazaar."

"The programme, dubbed the e-Exporting Programme, will encourage UK exporters to reach out to the generation of digitally-capable consumers who are increasingly influenced through online channels."

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Source Socialmediatoday.com

Phishing continues to be an effective tactic for infiltrating enterprise networks.

"80% of its participants failed to detect at least 1 of 7 phishing e-mails. Furthermore, results shows that finance and HR departments performed the worst at detecting scams, falling behind by a margin of 4% to 9%."

"The survey points out that both mass campaign phishing and spear phishing are still rampant in the attack strategies used by cybercriminals around the world. Meanwhile, the US continues to host more phishing URLs than any other country."

"New malware samples rose by only 1% in the Q2 2014. However, with more than 31 million new samples, this was still the largest amount recorded in a single quarter. The total count of mobile malware increased by 17% in the Q2 2014, while the rate of new malware appears to have leveled off at about 700,000 per quarter. Also, denial of service attacks rose by 4% during the period under review and remain the most prevalent type of network threat."

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Integrating digital payments into the economies of developing nations addresses issues of economic growth and individual financial empowerment.

"Digital payments offer immediate benefits for both senders and receivers in developing economies, as well as the ability of such payments to increase citizen access to affordable financial tools."

"The benefits of digital payments go well beyond the convenience many people in developed economies associate with the technology."

"Action plan for governments to adopt, in order to realize the benefits of digital payments:
• Digitize government payments and receipts, including social transfers.
• Engage actively on the regulatory agenda.
• Convene public and private sectors to create a basic technical payment platform infrastructure, across which providers can compete on product development.
• Create an enabling environment that fosters private-sector innovation.
• Recognize the role of remittance providers in offering a digital entry point to formal financial services for senders and receivers."

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