E-Commerce

The need among online merchants and banks to harden their Web sites against phishing, pharming, and other attacks only rises by the month, and that's helping to drive business for startup companies like The 41st Parameter Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz. The company, formed last year, takes its name from its belief …

Online-transaction processor PayPal Inc. processed 110.4 million transactions in the first quarter worth $6.23 billion, up 39% and 44% respectively over the year-ago period, according to figures released today by San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc., the company's parent. Of this transaction volume, some 71% came from auction activity, principally on …

Online merchants are interested in alternatives to credit cards for payment, but set high hurdles for alternative payment methods to overcome, including the need for authentication, for a smooth, uninterrupted customer session, and for reasonable pricing from processors that doesn't tax merchants to develop a user base for the processors. …

An operational test of a system by which consumers could instruct their banks to pay online merchants and billers is set to take place in July, according to NACHA, the Herndon, Va.-based rule-setting association for the automated clearing house that is sponsoring the test. Participants so far include Radio Shack …

Mer-Tec Inc., an online transaction processor based in Lewisville, Texas, will switch on a micropayments service next week for handling online payments and rights management for digital content, with an emphasis on song and video downloads. The service, which Mer-Tec calls SecureCastle, will open with about 10 independent artists as …

PayPal Inc.'s experience with processing payments for music downloads is encouraging the San Jose, Calif.-based processor to begin investigating other micropayments markets, including downloadable games, electronic greeting cards, and news media. “The success of PayPal adoption for the music vertical has inspired us to look at other verticals,” says Peter …

With hackers, phishers, and other criminals undermining the trust all transaction networks depend on for their survival, some experts say the time has come to fight back. In the following excerpt from “The Myth of Invincible Encryption,” an article that will appear in the May-June 2005 issue of Digital Transactions …

With credit card fees having become one of their biggest operating expenses, airlines are turning to alternative, lower-cost payment options. The aim is to reduce the collective $1.5 billion in card-acceptance costs airlines pay annually, according to a recent study by Edgar, Dunn & Co. Houston-based Continental Airlines has moved …

A Manhattan-based startup company is bringing the concept of check guarantee to the business of processing card-not-present payments. Precharge Risk Management Solutions, founded less than two years ago, has only in the past few months been actively marketing its service but has already signed up more than 1,000 online merchants, …

E-commerce fraud is beginning to make itself felt in the markets for voice-over-IP (VoIP) services and in digital-content downloads, both of which are high-potential markets that many processors are counting on for transaction growth, according to Retail Decisions Inc., the U.S. unit of Retail Decisions PLC, a provider of online …