Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Evidence that the battle for supremacy among alternative-payments providers remains intense arrived on Wednesday with Google Inc.'s announcement that its Checkout service will continue to process transactions for free through January. “Considering how busy this time of year is for you,” says Checkout product marketing manager Gavin Chan in a …
Read More »Bill Me Later-Amazon Deal Could Be a Huge Boost for Both Parties
At the stroke of a pen, Bill Me Later Inc. has not only become the sole third-party alternative payment vehicle accepted by the world's largest retailing Web site, but it also receives an injection of capital as that site, Amazon.com Inc., takes an undisclosed equity stake in the Timonium, Md.-based …
Read More »Cyber Monday Traffic Soars, But Sites Labor Under the Strain
Online shoppers hit virtual stores on Monday in greater numbers than they ever have before on the Monday after Thanksgiving, but a number of leading e-commerce sites struggled to keep up with all the traffic, according to reports released on Tuesday. On so-called Cyber Monday, consumers performed 1.9 million transactions …
Read More »E-Commerce Sales Continue to Rack up Double-Digit Gains
Retailers and analysts have been giving forecasts ranging from ho-hum to downright pessimistic for the upcoming holiday spending period, but the outlook for online retailers almost certainly is better. Growth rates in electronic-commerce remain near 20%, the U.S. Commerce Dept.'s Census Bureau reported on Monday. The Census Bureau's quarterly report …
Read More »With Plug-In, PayPal Looks for Expanded E-Commerce Reach
PayPal Inc. on Tuesday will make available to its entire account base a so-called virtual debit card it has been testing with a large number of account holders for nearly 18 months. The new product, which PayPal has dubbed Plug-In, carries a MasterCard Worldwide brand and allows users to buy …
Read More »E-Commerce Fraud Rate Holds Steady, But Fraud-Control Costs Go Up
Online fraud rates are holding steady but the cost of fraud is going up as e-commerce grows and companies hire more people to weed out suspect orders, according to CyberSource Corp.'s 9th annual e-commerce fraud survey. The merchant processor and risk-management firm's recent survey of 318 American and Canadian retailers …
Read More »BSG Extends Its Bill-to-Phone Service to Mobile Commerce
BSG Clearing Solutions has started talking to sellers of digital merchandise about using a new service that would allow them to take payment for games, songs, and other such goods by charging the items to consumers' wireless bills. The targeted sellers for the new service are so-called off-deck merchants, or …
Read More »Phishing Takes a Break As Attacks, Hosting Sites Slip in July
The crime of phishing entered midsummer doldrums, offering some relief to financial institutions, merchants, and other organizations engaged in e-commerce, according to the latest report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The number of unique e-mail attacks dropped 17%, to 23,917, in July, while the population of sites launching attacks dipped …
Read More »By Arming Consumers, a Startup Hopes to Cut Down on ID Fraud
In a sign of how the problem of identity fraud is spawning new businesses, a La Jolla, Calif.-based startup announced on Tuesday a free service allowing consumers to determine which pieces of junk mail they want to stop receiving. Once consumers use ProQuo Inc.'s Web site to indicate their preferences?which …
Read More »Eye on Earnings: Google Checkout Adds More Merchants
Google Inc. gave a progress report about its Google Checkout payment services launched in mid-2006 and processors and banks heavily involved in the payments business reported third-quarter earnings last week. ? Search-engine leader Google's Google Checkout online payment service added PetSmart, Drugstore.com, Shoebuy.com, and the NHL Store as merchants in …
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