E-Commerce

For all the publicity surrounding merchant dissatisfaction with payment-acceptance costs, the issue doesn't rank high with online retailers looking into alternatives to bank-issued credit and debit cards, a payment-industry researcher says. E-commerce merchants are adopting, or investigating, such payment providers as PayPal Inc. and Bill Me Later Inc. hoping most …

Assurz Inc., which this week signed up its biggest merchant so far for its transaction-guarantee service, expects to have about 10 large merchants and between 20 and 30 smaller ones on its client roster by year's end, according to Steve Hoffman, chief executive of the Redwood City, Calif.-based startup, which …

Data Insecurity Part 6 The electronic payments industry's continued prowess in holding fraud in check despite the mounting scourges afflicting online transacting is all the more remarkable when you consider that the banking industry, whose fundamental business is risk management, is largely a no-show in this channel. Merchants and their …

Evidence emerged again this week that Web-site breakdowns are causing more broken transactions online than e-commerce managers might suspect. Indeed, the proportion of consumers who report having had a problem completing an online transaction has remained little changed over the past three years at around 90%, while the fraction that …

NACHA-The Electronic Payments Association on Wednesday unveiled pricing for a pilot program it will launch early next year to test automated clearing house payments made by consumers to online merchants and billers, with payments authorized by online-banking programs. For e-commerce merchants, the fees, which will include a straight 1.35% levy …

Data Insecurity Part 3 For as long as we've had threats to transacting online, there's been a data-security industry poised with a vast array of solutions to protect us, anxiously awaiting evidence of a compelling business case to get things started. But for just as long, it's been axiomatic that …

The payment gateway business may be consolidating, but smaller players are trying to survive by adding services to meet e-commerce merchants' demand for more diversified payment options than simply credit cards. This week, for example, Los Angeles-based USA ePay announced that it is offering Digital EFT Solutions LLC's DEFT Deposit …

Payment-processing software specialists hoping to find new business through independent sales organizations may have a new way to reach those often-elusive customers. The channel comes in the form of an agreement between Denver-based technology provider IP Commerce Inc. and eProcessing Network LLC, a gateway with links to major payment processors, …

Traditional private-label credit cards steadily lost ground over the past two decades to general-purpose payment cards that have much greater utility. Despite the retreat, retailers still like private-label cards because their key attribute?holders tend to shop more often and buy more than non-cardholders?apparently is still valid. Now a new service …

With its official unveiling on Friday of an early version of an online payments system, e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. has launched itself into head-on competition with established players like PayPal Inc. and well-funded upstarts like Google Checkout. The service, called Amazon Flexible Payments, is in a so-called beta stage with …