Tenders for the Australian government's Northern Territory Intervention 'Basics' EFTPOS card are due to close next Thursday the second of July.
A large cast of banks, card organisations and payments businesses will be trying to win the contract, which is expected to be awarded in September this year.
The card was created following the Australian government's NT intervention, (which was prompted by evidence of child abuse in some Aboriginal communities.
It enabled the government to implement a key part of the intervention, namely the new policy of Aboriginal income management.
Under this policy, Aboriginals must spend at least half of any government payments they get on approved items.
Because of the hasty way in which the government intervened in the NT, the initial Basics card contract was awarded to UK owned - Retail Decisions - without a tender.
Now however, the government is going to tender and opening up the opportunity to others to profit from controlling the way in which Aboriginals spend their incomes.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
CoreMetrics online spending numbers look dodgy
Lots of online news services have rushed to publish numbers purportedly showing that Australian online shoppers are "returning to the web in droves to peruse global e-commerce websites and make online purchases."
Trouble is, the numbers come from a June 18 press release issued by a US online marketing services provider - CoreMetrics. And they look decidedly dodgy.
For example, CoreMetrics claims that its numbers derive from a survey of "the buying habits of more than 75million shoppers world-wide."
But there is a very real question of whether there was any actual surveying done.
Instead it may well be that the numbers were extrapolated from the behaviour of online shoppers as monitored by cookies or similar tracking tools at CoreMetrics customer sites.
Certainly there are some very strange results being reported. One that caught my eye is the average order value numbers. These show the average online purchase for a Chinese online shopper is worth $US163, and for an Indian online shopper is $US91.
By comparison, CoreMetrics found the average order value for an Australian shopper at $US90.
Results like that suggest that something is very wrong with CoreMetrics data and should suggest extreme caution and even scepticism about any conclusions drawn from them.
Trouble is, the numbers come from a June 18 press release issued by a US online marketing services provider - CoreMetrics. And they look decidedly dodgy.
For example, CoreMetrics claims that its numbers derive from a survey of "the buying habits of more than 75million shoppers world-wide."
But there is a very real question of whether there was any actual surveying done.
Instead it may well be that the numbers were extrapolated from the behaviour of online shoppers as monitored by cookies or similar tracking tools at CoreMetrics customer sites.
Certainly there are some very strange results being reported. One that caught my eye is the average order value numbers. These show the average online purchase for a Chinese online shopper is worth $US163, and for an Indian online shopper is $US91.
By comparison, CoreMetrics found the average order value for an Australian shopper at $US90.
Results like that suggest that something is very wrong with CoreMetrics data and should suggest extreme caution and even scepticism about any conclusions drawn from them.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Mystery solved - dStore executive behind bogus eLance invitation
Mystery solved.
Michael Hellwig, a marketing analyst at Brisbane based online department store dStore - has been flushed out as the person who advertised a bogus job at eLance.com.
The job was for a journalist to write for a new Australian ecommerce blog, up to nine a hours a week. The ad attracted at least two responses from freelance journalists.
But the job isn't genuine and Hellwig is just wasting their time.
Hellwig isn't actually identified at eLance as the advertiser but when eCommerce Report contacted him he confirmed that the new ecommerce blog at http://www.ecommerceworld.com.au/ was his, but said it was just an experiment in search engine optimisation.
Later, after the invitation for job proposals at eLance was pointed out to him, Hellwig changed his tune, and said that he'd exaggerated the job.
As if that weren't bad enough, Hellwig also said that the new blog had nothing to do with his dStore job.
But one of the stories the site carries is about dStore, and its planned push into bricks n mortar retailing.
The story gives no indication that the publisher is a dStore employee and only adds to the general bad odour around this site.
Michael Hellwig, a marketing analyst at Brisbane based online department store dStore - has been flushed out as the person who advertised a bogus job at eLance.com.
The job was for a journalist to write for a new Australian ecommerce blog, up to nine a hours a week. The ad attracted at least two responses from freelance journalists.
But the job isn't genuine and Hellwig is just wasting their time.
Hellwig isn't actually identified at eLance as the advertiser but when eCommerce Report contacted him he confirmed that the new ecommerce blog at http://www.ecommerceworld.com.au/ was his, but said it was just an experiment in search engine optimisation.
Later, after the invitation for job proposals at eLance was pointed out to him, Hellwig changed his tune, and said that he'd exaggerated the job.
As if that weren't bad enough, Hellwig also said that the new blog had nothing to do with his dStore job.
But one of the stories the site carries is about dStore, and its planned push into bricks n mortar retailing.
The story gives no indication that the publisher is a dStore employee and only adds to the general bad odour around this site.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
eCommerce.com.au mystery
It looks like www.ecommerce.com.au is off the air, and I'm guessing thats because either its current owner or a new owner is gearing up to become an ecommerce publishing tycoon.
Certainly a brand new member at eLance has requested proposals from interested freelance journalists to work part -time on a new Australian ecommerce news site.
The invitation at eLance says "I am in the process of setting up an Australian news site for the ecommerce industry and am seeking writers to write articles on ecommerce news for the Australian region."
Maybe the would-be publisher thinks that eCommerce Report isn't doing a decent job as an "Australian news site for the ecommerce industry".
I'd obviously like to talk to this person to find out why, but I'm not sure who it is.
Its probably the person who registered the domain.
whois records show that online shopping software company, Gate13 (now owned by the web payments company - Securepay) is the owner of the domain.
So I'll be trying to contact them.
Certainly a brand new member at eLance has requested proposals from interested freelance journalists to work part -time on a new Australian ecommerce news site.
The invitation at eLance says "I am in the process of setting up an Australian news site for the ecommerce industry and am seeking writers to write articles on ecommerce news for the Australian region."
Maybe the would-be publisher thinks that eCommerce Report isn't doing a decent job as an "Australian news site for the ecommerce industry".
I'd obviously like to talk to this person to find out why, but I'm not sure who it is.
Its probably the person who registered the domain.
whois records show that online shopping software company, Gate13 (now owned by the web payments company - Securepay) is the owner of the domain.
So I'll be trying to contact them.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
eBay au unveils new rules for Certified eBay Educator
eBay Australia's new Certified eBay Educator programme is now up and running.
Details of how to become certified are spelled out in a 17 page contract that must be agreed to before sitting the online exam.
Developed by Sydney based market research company, Stokes Mischewski, the new programme replaces the former eBay 'Education Specialist' arrangement with PowerU university in the US.
Any current eBay user with a feedback score of more than 50 and a feedback rating of more than 98% is entitled to sit the online exam.
And once the exam has been passed, you are entitled to style yourself a Certified eBay Educator and start offering eBay training courses.
Under the contract eBay trainers have to use specified textbooks including How to use eBay.com.au and How to use PayPal, both written by eBay Australia's customer insight manager, Todd Alexander.
For more info email to aucategory@eBay.com
Details of how to become certified are spelled out in a 17 page contract that must be agreed to before sitting the online exam.
Developed by Sydney based market research company, Stokes Mischewski, the new programme replaces the former eBay 'Education Specialist' arrangement with PowerU university in the US.
Any current eBay user with a feedback score of more than 50 and a feedback rating of more than 98% is entitled to sit the online exam.
And once the exam has been passed, you are entitled to style yourself a Certified eBay Educator and start offering eBay training courses.
Under the contract eBay trainers have to use specified textbooks including How to use eBay.com.au and How to use PayPal, both written by eBay Australia's customer insight manager, Todd Alexander.
For more info email to aucategory@eBay.com
Thursday, June 04, 2009
eCommerce publishing heats up down-under
Earlier this year we started getting a new daily online newsletter in our email inbox called Digital Media.
It styled itself 'Australia's journal of the new media revolution' and with a daily pdf edition, original stories written by respected IT journo - Natalie Apostolou, and a web-site featuring all the polish of publisher Reed Business Information, the future looked bright.
But something seems to have gone wrong.
The daily email hasn't appeared for a while and visitors to www.digital-media.net.au will find that some of the links aren't working and the content hasn't been updated for weeks.
Publishing is a tough market, and particularly online, where the barriers to entry are mininal.
A good example is online retailing. Australia now has two new online publications focussed on the sector. The first is www.eTailToday.com.au, published by the same people at Octomedia who produced Inside Retailing.
eTailToday offers a free daily email newsletter, but the content appears to be all recycled and produced from web feeds. There doesn't appear to be any actual journalism involved.
There is definitely some original material at the other new player, published by two Melbourne men -Nathan Huppatz and Mark Freidin.
Launched this week at Internetretailing.com.au the service targets much the same market as etailtoday.
Internetretailing.com.au looks to have some good content and so, even though it overlaps with what we do here at Australia's first, original and still the best ecommerce publication in the land - our eCommerce Report - we wish the newbies well.
It styled itself 'Australia's journal of the new media revolution' and with a daily pdf edition, original stories written by respected IT journo - Natalie Apostolou, and a web-site featuring all the polish of publisher Reed Business Information, the future looked bright.
But something seems to have gone wrong.
The daily email hasn't appeared for a while and visitors to www.digital-media.net.au will find that some of the links aren't working and the content hasn't been updated for weeks.
Publishing is a tough market, and particularly online, where the barriers to entry are mininal.
A good example is online retailing. Australia now has two new online publications focussed on the sector. The first is www.eTailToday.com.au, published by the same people at Octomedia who produced Inside Retailing.
eTailToday offers a free daily email newsletter, but the content appears to be all recycled and produced from web feeds. There doesn't appear to be any actual journalism involved.
There is definitely some original material at the other new player, published by two Melbourne men -Nathan Huppatz and Mark Freidin.
Launched this week at Internetretailing.com.au the service targets much the same market as etailtoday.
Internetretailing.com.au looks to have some good content and so, even though it overlaps with what we do here at Australia's first, original and still the best ecommerce publication in the land - our eCommerce Report - we wish the newbies well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)