eTrade, the first of its family of e-commerce offerings expected from GX Networks and Global Internet's BSG, offers the opportunity to any organisation to devise an on-line store for its customers, safe in the knowledge that it is easy to set up, simple to use, and totally secure for both merchant and consumer. But eTrade goes even further, providing an added service for merchants; complete on-line management and audit tools, allowing each merchant to track use of the on-line store. Each purchase that a customer makes can be tracked and recorded by the merchant, allowing the merchant to develop clear ideas of the popularity of product lines.
E-commerce is the wave of the future. It is the next step in selling to consumers, beyond telephone and mail order to the Internet. But e-commerce can offer much more than this. It provides the opportunity for retailers to access remote customers anywhere in the world - from two doors away to Timbuctoo. Still a developing area, the greatest drawbacks for business to consumer on-line selling have been ease of set up by the merchant and the trust of the consumer in the security of transactions.
Neil Laver, Site Server product manager at Microsoft UK commented:
"We are glad to see that Global Internet and GX Networks have perceived the importance of offering an e-commerce solution to their customers. By building on Microsoft technology, they are offering any size of organisation the crucial elements of security and reliability that you would expect in any e-commerce solution from a major player. This is the type of initiative which will really help UK companies to get greater business benefit from the Internet."
Gavin Breeze, managing director of DataCash, commented:
"We know from enquiries we receive that eTrade's marriage of leading e-commerce technologies, Microsoft and DataCash, solves many of the issues facing businesses looking to launch stores on the Internet. eTrade provides an integrated technical solution allowing the customer to continue with what they are best at, selling their own product. DataCash is focused on providing eTrade customers with a secure, resilient solution to all their payment processing requirements."
eTrade offers conventional server hosting either on a virtual (or shared) or unique service, based on Microsoft SiteServer 3 Commerce Edition. eTrade also offers store creation tools, software to allow the consumer to use a 'shopping basket' to collects their goods, as well as a complete back end system to authorise and clear credit payments, managed by DataCash software through the merchants chosen acquiring bank (needing no input from the merchant). Not only that, but eTrade offers tools for containing and managing a catalogue of products with pricing and stock availability information. Merchants with the system will even be able to view an audit trail of every transaction which takes place in their store - on-line, as and when they need it.
The transaction process is secured by SSL protocols, which encrypts data sent over the public network, ensuring that credit/debit card details remain inaccessible except by the consumer and the payment gateway. The DataCash payment gateway itself is secured with 128 bit encryption. At no time through the validation process is credit/debit card data sent over the public Internet.
Maria Cappella, general manager Global Internet BSG and GX Networks, said
"eTrade will allow consumers to pay for goods using Visa, MasterCard, American Express and all common debit cards. Purchases can be made in over 150 currencies, and transactions can be settled in one of 20 currencies. This means that US customers can pay in dollars and see that direct amount deducted, the same for UK customers in pounds. This will help not only to minimise queries and chargebacks, but also to build consumer confidence in the merchant's store. Each transaction, irrespective of value, is authorised in real time - not overnight as with many competitors."
There are already a number of services in the market, from off the shelf software to bespoke systems, but the eTrade system requires minimal integration to existing systems. Once a merchant has a Merchant ID from its acquiring bank, all that is needed is a phone call. At a cost of £1995 for set-up, with £333 per month servicing charge, any merchant can enter the world of e-commerce.
The system is hosted on an NT platform, running SiteServer 3, using high performance, resilient Compaq ProLiant server hardware with the payment gateway services being sourced through DataCash Ltd.
For the present, and for the future, eTrade allows any merchant of any size to compete in the e-commerce arena. Whether you sell software, flowers, travel or peanuts, its no longer a question of if you should start to sell online, but when. And eTrade makes this a simple process.
For further details, please contact:
Fiona Montgomery-Baird/Mark Charmer Montgomery-Baird Communications 0181 440 9100/0802 895340 fiona@fm-b.com
Notes to Editors:
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer): SSL handles the encryption of data between recent releases of most popular browsers and the webserver. Although the provision of SSL is commonly used to define a 'secure server' it operates only on this limited part of the process. It is analogous to scrambling a phone call when ordering from a mail order supplier, and is intended to prevent the interception of credit card details over the public internet.
Merchant ID's:
Banks require merchants to apply for an ID before agreeing to acquire their Internet based transactions. Appropriate contact points and forms are available from the DataCash site under the SIGN UP pages on http://www.DataCash.com . Any merchant already accepting cards on a 'cardholder not present' or retail basis will have little difficulty in obtaining such an ID. With eTrade the merchant's Internet transactions are acquired with the same ID and in exactly the same way as retail or mail order ones with no intervening third parties or additional percentage charges.
Global Internet and GX Networks will not be acquiring transactions on a bureau basis, all transactions will continue to be on agreement between the merchant and the acquiring bank.
Transaction process:
The browsing customer accesses the merchant site as usual. Having selected a product/s, they are prompted for credit/debit card information. At this point a secure HTTP session is opened using the DataCash plug in to the Microsoft payment Pipeline to encrypt the card data through transmission from browser to server. On the server, the card is checked to determine if it is a valid (i.e. possible) number and that the card issuer can be accepted by the DataCash gateway. If the card number passes these tests, the transaction details are heavily encrypted and sent to the DataCash server which then applies for transaction authorisation from the validation centre of the acquiring bank.
The validation centre then checks, in real time, that the card is not on the "Hot Card" stolen list and that sufficient credit balance is available for the transaction. As appropriate, a transaction approved or denied message and reference number is returned to DataCash, the eTrade server, and then confirmed with the buying customer. Merchants are required to debit cards on a dispatch of goods rather than on order. This is to ensure a minimal number of chargebacks or complaints if customers receive delayed or partly filled orders. A transaction is logged onto the merchant's database, and can be flagged as fulfilled once the goods are dispatched. Then the merchant can either re-validate or close the transaction and the acquiring bank is informed.
The card holders account is then debited by the acquiring bank and the appropriate amount is then credited directly to the merchant account.
Comprehensive online reporting:
From the DataCash server Merchants are securely provided with comprehensive online reports enabling you to view the status of all your transactions for the following time periods:
All transactions since the beginning of set up:
- Today's transactions
- Yesterday's transactions
- This week's transactions
- This months transactions
- Last months transactions
- This years transactions
- Last years transactions
DataCash provides a summary via a secured web-based interface:
- Total number of transactions
- Total number of invalid transactions
- Total number of valid transactions
- Total number of declined transactions
- Total number of approved transactions
- Total refunds processed
- Total number of fulfilled items
- Total number of items waiting fulfilment
- Value of fulfilled transactions not yet passed to bank
Audit trail:
In addition to the reports detailed above, DataCash allows a complete audit trail of a particular transaction can be viewed. This provides:
- Transaction details
- IP address of customer site with approximate breakdown of location
- Date transaction fulfilled
- Date record transmitted to bank for settlement
- Approximate date of funds being credited to the merchants account
For more information please contact:
The DataCash website: Click Contact Link
Contact: Gavin Breeze DataCash Tel: +44 (0)171 820 7733 Mobile: +44 (0)370 752 563 Email: Click Contact Link
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
