Diamonds, Diamonds, Diamonds! This holiday season as more and more internet traffic and transactions increase, safety and security continues to be the hot topic for online shoppers so that gift giving is the only thing on their mind and credit and safety issues are not. As online jewelers we are always walking a balance between protecting our customer's security and managing fraud especially concerning diamonds and engagement rings. Jewelry is a slightly different purchase than electronics or flowers as it is a gift with a large potential value contained in a very small box. Jewelry has a direct value which can be retrieved by simply melting gold or silver or selling loose diamonds.

Protecting customers with secure shopping
Most customers are very worried about fraud and the validity of merchants. As a rule of thumb most online merchants tend to be legit and trustworthy (not all, so be vigilant). However merchants are much more susceptible to fraud than customers, as customers can complain to their bank or credit card company as a recourse, however merchants are usually left wide open to the risk of sending a high value orders.

Most jewelry merchants will contact a customer on a high value order in order to verify the validity of billing and shipping information and make sure the customer's expectations are met. In some cases due to the nature of diamond jewelry especially many customer may be required to ship to the same address as their billing address or make sure that their shipping address is on file with their bank. In additiona with very large purchased additional information may be required to ship the goods.

What's a Diamond Certificate?
When purchasing expensive jewelry, every online retailer usually offers the item details information, diamond size, weight and clarity and on higher-end diamond rings a certificate from the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and EGL may be included. Items which have a certificate included usually are priced slightly higher for this authentication. However jewelry without a certificate is usually fine if it is purchased from a respectable jeweler.

What You Should Look For From an Online Retailer When Shopping Online?
Do not judge a book by its cover. Many retailers with funny looking websites are very secure and many sleek clean websites are less than secure. Technology and proper fraud management come together to provide a secure website for their customers. Here are a few tips you should look for on the web site to help insure security.

1. Customers should always check if there is a toll free 1-800 phone number available to contact the merchant directly. The customer should be able to contact the merchant during business hours and verify that there is always a direct human contact for any enquiries and that proper information can be delivered in a timely manner.

2. Every online retailer should make their security policy available on every page of their website. This policy dictates the conditions for security within the website and if these conditions are being met.

For example >> http://www.myjewelrybox.com//pages/popup.php?section=securityPolicy

A secure socket layer certificate (SSL) is required for every online store to make sure your transaction is processed securely during the checkout process. Most web browsers today enable you to validate and authenticate specific information concerning a company and website via the certificate provider. MyJewelryBox.com for example uses VeriSign.

Shoppers should not be fooled by fancy logos, as security is not related to how fancy the security logos are on the bottom of a screen but rather the technical security and the level of encryption on your credit card data when the transaction is occurring. Today most online companies must be PCI compliant as well, which insures that your credit card data is being stored securely and that it is being erased within an acceptable period of time. A respectable merchant will not store your credit card data for more than 60 days.

3. Does the merchant offer a warranty or guarantee on the items which are being purchased. Is it easy to return the item that was purchased easily? Always read the fine print! Always review the retailers return policy. A good return policy is one which provides a 30 day money back guarantee or possibly longer before the Christmas rush.

4. Research the website you are purchasing from. Find out what others have to say about this website. Find 3rd party customer reviews from product comparison portals such as MSN.com product reviews, Bizrate.com and or pricegrabber.com. These reviews will help to authenticate the validity of the company. If many people have shopped at that retailer over a 12 month period, then usually that retailer is there to stay.

What Happens when I make an online Purchase with my Credit Card
Tips to Understanding Online Credit (http://www.myjewelrybox.com/?section=Bank_info)
Online merchants have a variety of methods available to charge customers. However when talking about credit card transactions they must follow banking practices and conform to a more bricks and mortar retail approach. Below is a quick understanding of what happens when you make a purchase with a credit card online. Remember a customer will always decrease his chances of being frauded by providing the most accurate credit information, address information and contact information and by sending a package to him/herself. The easier a customer is to contact the faster issues can be resolved.

How is credit charged to a credit card?
When an order is placed usually an authorization is performed on the customer's credit card. An authorization only holds the funds until a settlement of funds can be performed. Settlements on the customer’s account are usually done after the order is approved and ready for shipment. Occasionally customers click the “Submit Order” button more than once and may create extra authorizations on their credit card depending on the merchant. A merchant will usually only settle one authorization per customer and should not charge the customers credit card when multiple authorizations are placed.

What is an authorization?
An authorization is a freezing or holding of funds on a credit card for a few days, which can either be settled for money or canceled and never settled. Canceled authorizations can take 3-7 business days to be released by the customer’s bank unless a merchant contact's the bank directly to manually remove the authorization.

What is a settlement?
A settlement is when funds are requested from the customer's credit card company in order to fulfill payment on a purchase.

This holiday Season Make it a Secure Purchase and a great gift.
Holiday shopping should be easy, quick and secure online. The customer should always feel that they are able to process the order quickly and efficiently in a secure environment. Sites which offer user name and password account creation add an extra level of security to an order but no extra security within the transaction itself. Remember banks are very difficult to deal with sometimes for both the merchant and the customers and the best policy is to have patience and a good line of communication with the merchant to resolve any potential issues. As a rule, a good merchant will report fraud instances to the bank and to the customer who was frauded if possible. Remember every online merchants wants to provide a great service to their customers and try to offer the most secure environment they can. They want to make sure that every order is legit and it is the job of every lawful customer and merchant to work together to avoid fraud and keep a safe and secure online shopping experience for all.

Christmas with MyJewelryBox

Christmas is around the corner! Oh, how time flies when you’re making money…
MyJewelryBox have focused on setting up exciting promotions around particular dates this festive season.

The first two dates worth noting at this stage are the following:

• Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employers give the day off, allowing consumers to get a head start on their Christmas shopping.

• Cyber Monday – The term Cyber Monday refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday, the ceremonial kick-off of the holiday online shopping season in the United States between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas. Whereas Black Friday is associated with traditional brick-and-mortar stores, “Cyber Monday” symbolizes a busy day for online retailers.

MyJewelryBox have put together some appealing Christmas creative and have upped the anti with a 20% consumer discount this festive season. These are very busy times and MyJewelryBox would like to help you maximize your earnings!

Christmas Promotions

MyJewelryBox have loaded some great new Christmas creative. The creative themes are focused around Christmas Treasures, Holiday Gift Guide, Holiday Shopping and the 20% Christmas discount offered to consumers.
MyJewelryBox have also supplied a 20% discount coupon code.

These are very exciting times indeed, for MyJewelryBox and all their partners!

I have included the Internet-Consumers-Report.org’s report below.

My Jewelry Box

Well designed, well organized, and well managed, three phrases that can be used to describe My Jewelry Box. This site was able to take an otherwise generic method of laying out an online market, and turning it into a vibrant website for its patrons.

The high energy use of bright red fused with white really grabs a user’s attention. Utilizing a dual navigation in a very standard method of displaying shopping methods along the side and site navigation links across the top seems to do the trick in keeping things simple for a customer. The home page does an excellent job of attracting customers. As they have quite a bit of motion advertising several promotions, as well as feature bargains of the week and best seller items.

The search feature really stood out in the top right portion, opposite the logo, and featured a very well designed “go” button. This really grabs the user’s attention, and the rest of the search didn’t disappoint. The results were very specific, displaying rows of 4 that included a thumbnail graphic, brief description, price, sale price, savings percentage, as well as buttons to view more details and the “add to bag” shopping cart feature. While there are a lot of features, not once did the site the results seem cluttered or ill managed. Also along the top is several drop-downs which let a user refine their search based on product, metal, color, stone, and price.

The product description page continues this trend of consistency in terms of design as well as the quality of the page layouts. With a thumbnail graphic in the left, a nice feature directly below it is a drop-down that will let a user further refine their search based on different sizes of the product being displayed. Below that is a mini table of related products including a thumbnail, description, as well as price. To the right is all of the necessary product information including description, price, “buy now” button, as well as product specs below that. Nothing seems to be overdone on this page, as all of the information provided seems necessary. The use of several “little features” adds further to the usefulness of the page. A print page feature is provided, which for many, is a nice thing to have should they want to shop around and keep all of the information with them. One can also “email product to a friend” to share the item with others via email.

The checkout process is simple, and all fields are provided in an attractive format that offers security and comfort to those spending a considerable amount of money on a product that they are unable to see in person before purchasing. All of the fields are very straight forward, and with many delivery options MyJewelryBox.com allows a customer to get a close estimate as to when and how their purchase will arrive.

While it’s tough to imagine running into any problems with this site, contacting My Jewelry Box is made easy. With a toll free order line displayed in the banner on every page, this provides a level of consistency that is tough to be matched. There are also “Contact Us” and “Help” links provided in the horizontal navigation on every page as well. These pages are easy to find and include all of the necessary information to get in touch with a representative from the organization.

Offering a pleasant, safe experience, My Jewelry Box is a must for those shopping for jewelry online!

I’ve noticed that some of the networks we’re running on including Buy.AT still have not changed the SEARCH policies to reflect the great allowances made by CA.com for search affiliates.

Please review the search policies and if you’re not already running the campaign consider running it!

The campaign is running on Zanox, Buy.AT & Webgains for EMEA – so take your pick!.

Contact me if you need any more info or have any questions

Nelson

nelson@forgebusiness.com

Dear Computer Associates Affiliate

We are pleased to offer you an opportunity concerning the use of CA keywords for Internet search engines as a part of CA Affiliate program and Affiliates Agreement via the Buy.at network.

As you should know, CA trademark policy currently prohibits any use of certain domains as visible URLs for search engines by a 3^rd party. (ca.com, ca.com/uk, ca.com/de, ca.com/fr, ca.com/it, ca.com/es, shop.ca.com/UK, www.ca-store.de , www.ca-store.fr, www.ca-store.it , www.ca-tienda.es, www.ca-store.eu, www.ca-store.co.uk, ca.com/uk/homestore, ca.com/de/homestore, ca.com/fr/homestore, ca.com/it/homestore, ca.com/es/homestore)

1. You may use the branded terms, as keywords for Internet search engines, solely for the purpose of directing traffic to CA websites direct or indirect under the Affiliates Agreement. The search results produced from a search from any of your keywords may not place your site above CA, in the search results of any search engine. Other display are permitted under this agreement.

2. To protect CA customer experience, you should only refer to local landing pages when advertising on a local Search Engine – For instance: on www.google.co.uk, you should only use UK landing pages with UK currency for your Paid Search ads.

3. This permission is non-exclusive and non-transferable. You agree that you acquire no rights in the name “CA” or other CA trademarks as a result of this permission agreement. You acknowledge that CA owns all rights in his trademarks and you agree that you will not contest the validity of CA’s rights while or after this permission agreement is in effect. You shall clearly and prominently identify yourself as affiliate in all offers and advertising, marketing and promotional materials relating to this Agreement.

4. As a leading software provider CA’s brand identity must be protected. Affiliate partners may not modify CA’s logo or represent themselves as CA in any way, such as by citing themselves as an “Official Site” or “Official store” in search engine listings. Partners may not use any of the content or images shown on CA’s site without prior written approval.

5. This permission agreement will take effect upon your return of this agreement to us after signing below. CA reserves the right to terminate this permission agreement at any time for any reason, upon notice to you. Unless sooner terminated as provided herein, this permission agreement shall remain in effect for as long as your Affiliates Agreement is in effect. Upon termination or expiration of this permission agreement, you must immediately cease all use of the term CA in keywords for search engines.

6. You will indemnify and hold CA harmless against any claims, actions, or demands resulting from or related to your use of CA in keywords for Internet search engines.