Cyber Monday Rings in Huge Holiday Sales for Retailers; Mercent eCommerce Performance IndexTM Reports Revenue Increase Across Top Online Channels

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire -- Mercent™, a leading provider of on-demand marketing solutions for retailers, released today its Mercent eCommerce Performance Index™ (MEPI) for Cyber Monday 2010 -- the largest online shopping day of the year with over 102 million American shoppers -- and for the extended 5-day shopping weekend starting Thanksgiving Day and ending Cyber Monday. 
The Mercent eCommerce Performance Index is a quarterly eCommerce report that measures year-over-year (YOY) aggregate same-seller gross merchandise value (GMV) across online sales channels and shopping destinations supported by the Mercent Retail™ channel management platform, including Amazon.com, Google, Microsoft Bing, Yahoo!, eBay, and more than 120 others. During the holiday retail selling season, Mercent supplements its MEPI by issuing two annual holiday reports that measure 24 hours of online retail sales for Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.

Today's release specifically includes consumer retail eCommerce growth figures for Cyber Monday, November 29^th, 2010, and the five-day shopping period of November 25^th (Thanksgiving Day) through November 29^th (Cyber Monday), 2010.

• For the 24 hours of Cyber Monday 2010, Mercent reports overall same-seller online retail GMV across all channels grew 34% relative to Cyber Monday 2009.
• On Cyber Monday, same-seller GMV of Mercent clients participating in Amazon's "Selling on Amazon" third-party marketplace program increased by 75% relative to Cyber Monday 2009.
• Same-seller GMV sales on the Google Product Search advertising program showed a 37% increase over 2009 on Cyber Monday.

2010 Key Holiday Shopping Days Versus Corresponding Days in 2009 for eCommerce Spending
Holiday Season Day		Online Shopping Channels
		ALL		Amazon		Google
November 25th(Thanksgiving Day)		32%		58%		31%
November 26th(Black Friday)		30%		105%		69%
November 29th(Cyber Monday)		34%		75%		37%
Complete 5-day Shopping "Weekend"		31%		86%		37%

"The Mercent eCommerce Performance Index reflects remarkable online retail sales performance this holiday shopping season," commented Mercent CEO Eric Best. "Year-over-year same-seller GMV across all Mercent-support channels increased 34%, and sales on Amazon and Google Product Search also grew by 75% and 37% respectively. We are confident growth this year continues to be driven by value-conscious consumers. However, this value-driven shopping trend is no longer a function of a soft economy, rather a permanent change in retail shopping behavior. With purchasing information and capabilities directly at their fingertips via browsers and mobile apps, consumers are armed with real-time data on pricing and product availability, promotions and offers, member discounts, and group-buying and local offers to evaluate every purchase. The implication for retailers is the requirement to fully engage customers online and on mobile devices in deliberate and increasingly sophisticated ways in order to effectively compete, survive and thrive."

Mercent eCommerce Performance Index™ Methodology:The methodology for the Mercent eCommerce Performance Index comparison matches all prior studies and reports retail transactions driven through Mercent's network of online shopping and advertising channels, including comparison shopping engines (CSEs), third-party seller marketplaces, and affiliate programs. To ensure continuity and to eliminate artifact associated with new customer ramp, the Mercent eCommerce Performance Index only references retailers live on the Mercent Retail platform prior to and during the entire reported term. Information regarding Mercent Retail shopping feed management technology, Mercent Performancemarketing services, and the complete list of online marketing channels in the Mercent Shopping Network are available at www.mercent.com.

About MercentMercent is a leading provider of online channel marketing technology and services for retailers. Through its award-winning Mercent Retail™ SAAS technology and Mercent Performance™ professional services, Mercent helps the world's most successful online merchants including 1-800-Flowers, Bass Pro Shops, Brookstone, GUESS?, L'Occitane USA, Redcats Group, and REI optimize online shopping channel marketing campaigns to drive customer acquisition, revenues, profits, and inventory velocity. Mercent is the single point of integration with a vast online advertising network that includes transactional marketplaces such as Amazon.com and eBay;comparison shopping engines (CSEs) such as Shopping.com and NextTag; affiliate marketing programs such as LinkShare and the Google Affiliate Network; and other product advertising channels including Microsoft Bing Shopping and Google Product Listing Ads (PLA). The company is a 'Selling on Amazon.com' Certified System Integrator, Buy.com Gold Certified Partner, eBay Certified Provider and certified Google Product Search Partner. Founded by a seasoned team of Amazon.com veterans, Mercent is a venture-funded company based in Seattle, WA. For more information, visit www.mercent.com.

Mercent PR Contact:
Kristine Szarkowitz
Email Contact
(Tel: ) 206.310.5323

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Chase Paymentech Cyber Holiday Pulse Index Reveals Record Volume over the Shopping Weekend

December 01, 2010 02:48 PM Eastern Time 

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Chase Paymentech, a leading merchant acquirer and payment processor, today announced season to date results from the Cyber Holiday Pulse Index.

The 2010 Data clearly indicates that holiday shopping season no longer officially begins on Black Friday. Thanks to the 24/7 reality of online commerce, consumers can begin their shopping as soon as they step away from the Thanksgiving table, or even while they wait for the turkey to finish roasting. More than ever, merchants are taking advantage of the online channel to extend shopping hours, and, as seen in the Chase Paymentech Cyber Holiday Pulse Index, consumers are clearly responding. And the spending does not stop as shoppers return to work. Gift buying can continue on Cyber Monday and beyond.

Pulse Index Results Past Seven Days

Sales   Transactions   Avg Ticket Mouse-over data points to see detailed information.

The Pulse Index is an annual tracking of online shopping activity during the holiday season. From November through January, Chase Paymentech monitors the daily settlement activity of 50 of the largest 250 Internet retailers, as defined by the Internet Retailer Top 500. The data includes the average ticket, total number of payment transactions and total dollar value processed. The data is taken from transactions crossing Chase Paymentech's processing platforms.

Record Volume Over the Shopping Weekend
The 2010 data clearly indicates that holiday shopping season no longer officially begins on Black Friday. Thanks to the 24/7 reality of online commerce, consumers can begin their shopping as soon as they step away from the Thanksgiving table, or even while they wait for the turkey to finish roasting. More than ever, merchants are taking advantage of the online channel to extend shopping hours, and, as seen in the Chase Paymentech Cyber Holiday Pulse Index, consumers are clearly responding. And the spending does not stop as shoppers return to work. Gift buying can continue on Cyber Monday and beyond.

For the five-day period beginning on Black Friday, the Pulse Index indicated a dramatic 37 percent increase in transactions and a 30 percent increase in sales over the same period last year. On Tuesday, when many Cyber Monday purchases actually settled, the Pulse Index set a single-day record for both transactions and settled sales.

For the full holiday season, transactions are up 35 percent, and sales are up 23 percent. The average ticket values remain down, falling 8.6 percent from last year. This may be a symptom of increasing sales of digital goods and of discounting early in the season.

Send feedback about the Cyber Holiday Pulse Index.
For the five-day period beginning on Black Friday, the Pulse Index, which tracks sales and transactions for 50 top e-retailers, indicated a dramatic 37 percent increase in transactions and a 30 percent increase in sales over the same period last year. On Tuesday, when many Cyber Monday purchases actually settled, the Pulse Index set a single-day record for both transactions and settled sales.

For the full holiday season, transactions are up 35 percent, and sales are up 23 percent. The average ticket values remain down, falling 8.6 percent from last year. This may be a symptom of increasing sales of digital goods and of discounting early in the season.

The season has only just begun, and the early numbers are encouraging for merchants with an e-commerce presence. As we move closer to the holidays, keep an eye on the Chase Paymentech Cyber Holiday Pulse Index (http://pulse.chasepaymentech.com) to see if the growth continues.

About the Chase Paymentech Cyber Holiday Pulse Index

Now in its fifth year, the Pulse Index tracks millions of payment transactions daily throughout the holiday season, taken from a sample of 50 of the top U.S. retail Web sites as ranked by Internet Retailer magazine. Unlike other data sources that monitor holiday spending, the Pulse Index data reflects empirical merchant purchase data – it is not a consumer sample, a survey, or an estimate. As the market leader for e-commerce processing, Chase Paymentech is uniquely able to provide this type of information. The Pulse Index data is updated every business day throughout the holiday period, from November 4 through January 6^. Insights, analysis and commentary are provided weekly.

About Chase Paymentech

Paymentech, LLC (“Chase Paymentech”), a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase (JPMC), is a global leader in payment processing and merchant acquiring, capable of authorizing transactions in more than 130 currencies. The company’s proprietary platforms provide access to a wide variety of payment methods, such as credit cards, debit cards, prepaid stored value cards and electronic check processing. In 2009, Chase Paymentech processed 18.0 billion transactions with a value of $409.7 billion, including an estimated half of all global Internet transactions. The company also provides a full set of solutions aimed at accelerating cash flow and managing transaction data. On the Internet or at the point of sale, Chase Paymentech’s unique combination of outstanding service, innovative solutions and financial strength offers solid benefits to companies both large and small. More information can be found at www.chasepaymentech.com.

Contacts

Chase Paymentech
Paul Hartwick, 302-282-3961
paul.hartwick@chase.com

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E-Commerce Report 2010: Fewer Fraud Attempts in European Online Trade

COLOGNE, Germany, December 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of fraud attempts in European online trade has declined slightly. This is one of the results of the new E-Commerce Report 2010 by Deutsche Card Services. In case of the most popular e-commerce payment method - the credit card - fewer chargebacks after a cardholder complaint were caused by fraud attempts. This is evident from the fact that the share of chargebacks on the grounds that the purchase was not authorised by the cardholder or that the card was not presented fell by 7%. At 0.34%, the chargeback ratio - the share of credit card transactions charged back after an objection by the cardholder - is still low. The non-payment risk is higher for men than for women. Furthermore, it is higher for both British shops and British customers and is above the European average. It applies to all card payments in e-commerce and, with one exception, to direct debits, that a higher transaction value means a higher non-payment risk. More information: http://www.deutsche-card-services.com/en/ecommerce-report0/e-commerce-report. html.

Payment Behavior

• Credit cards remain the predominant payment method in European e-commerce.
• Visa remains the most important credit card provider in European e-commerce, ahead of MasterCard.
• In Europe as a whole, still beats Visa MasterCard (ratio: 2:1).
• Mastercard Increased its market share among men but, lost market shares to Visa among women marginal.
• The market share of other credit cards (mostly American Express, Diners and retailer credit cards) rose to more than 4% and even more than 20% among German customers.
• giropay keeps growing.

• Credit cards become the predominant payment method for German consumers and relegate direct debits to the second place.
• giropay is another winner in German online trading, its share is already above 17%.
• In contrast to German women, German men are not particularly interested in offline payment methods.
• In the UK, Maestro is the only online payment method that plays a non-negligible role besides credit cards.
• Outside Germany and the UK, credit cards are virtually the only payment method in online trade.

• The average value of purchases paid for by the insecure direct debit method drops to a bit more than half, it clearly rises for the secure giropay procedure.
• The transaction values of modern online payment methods, credit cards and searchable as giropay, did not decline much Despite, the financial and economic crisis.
• Credit cards are often used for Relatively transaction values of less than EUR 10, Whereas giropay is used to pay for luxury goods with a price of more than EUR 500

The E-Commerce Report analyses purchasing and payment behaviour and non-payment risks in online trade; the study has been published annually since 2002. In contrast to other research, the study by the Deutsche Bank subsidiary is based on real-life purchases and not on surveys. It starts from about 24 million transactions processed via the Deutsche Card Services platform. All data are fully anonymised and comply with all data-protection requirements. The study is available from the online shop of Deutsche Card Services.

General non-payment-risk trends in e-commerce:

    - Fewer fraud attempts

    - Non-payment risk higher for men

    - Higher non-payment risk in British shops

    - Chargeback ratio declines further

    - Higher transaction values result in higher non-payment risks generally

    Complete press release:

http://www.deutsche-card-services.com/en/company/press-room/latest-news.html

Deutsche Card Services
    Marketing&Communications
    Tobias F. Hauptvogel
    Tel.:+49-22199577-728
    Fax:+49-22199577-8728
    http://www.deutsche-card-services.com
    E-mail:pr.deucs@db.com

SOURCE Deutsche Card Services GmbH

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Consumers Have Role in Future of Internet PIN Debit Payments

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Here are some excerpts from an article written by Will Hernandez for American Banker where he takes a closer look at Internet PIN Debit.  To read the entire article, click here.

Future of Web PIN Payments Still Rests with Consumers
By Will Hernandez, American Banker

More electronic funds transfer networks are supporting Internet PIN payments to capture transactions otherwise lost to alternative payment methods that use the automated clearing house system for settlement.

Merchants should be eager to accept PIN debit transactions online to reduce transaction costs, thanks to lower interchange rates and decreased chargeback risk, executives from companies offering these products said.  At least one independent sales organization said it believes Internet PIN debit already has helped it gain business it would have lost to competitors.  However, the determining factor for consumers might rest with their comfort in entering PIN codes in an environment other than at the point of sale or an automated teller machine.

Acculynk Inc.'s PaySecure service has sprinted to the front of the pack in the race to determine which product gains universal acceptance among consumers and merchants.  Nine EFT networks support PaySecure — Accel/Exchange, Alaska Option, Credit Union 24, Maestro, NetWorks, NYCE, Pulse and Shazam. A thousand merchants accept PaySecure transactions.

MasterCard/Maestro Goes with Acculynk

Acculynk enables consumers to use PIN debit cards to make purchases online by integrating its PaySecure software into a merchant's online checkout system. Cardholders enter their four or six digit PINs into a virtual PIN pad that appears on-screen.

RATES VARY

Card-not-present signature debit rates set by Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. typically range from 1.64% to 2.2% of the sale, depending on the type of transaction, according to Acculynk. The final price to the merchant for PaySecure typically is 20% to 40% lower than what they would pay for card-not-present signature debit, Acculynk has said in the past.

The EFT networks set the PIN debit interchange rates, which determine how much the issuer receives from the merchant's bank for the transaction.

The acquiring bank then passes the expense along to the retailer as part of the discount rate, which also covers costs for processing and other services, including those provided by the supplier of the PIN debit payment service.

THE ISO ADVANTAGE

In April, Acculynk launched an ISO reseller program to enable companies to sell signature and Internet PIN debit processing as a package and to pursue the card-not-present and Internet merchant markets strategically, said Nandan Sheth, Acculynk's president.

The Atlanta company's expanded product, PaySecure Plus, includes credit and debit card processing and Internet PIN debit transaction processing.

Elavon Inc., an Atlanta processor owned by U.S. Bancorp, is providing card processing services for Acculynk, Sheth said.

JetPay LLC of Dallas is one of the few merchant services providers to publicly promote itself as a PaySecure supporter. JetPay has offered PaySecure to merchants since September and determined that the product gives the company an advantage in the marketplace, claims its chairman, Trent Voigt. JetPay mostly deals with Internet-based businesses.

Internet PIN debit's allure forced one merchant to rethink a commitment it was about to make with a bigger transaction processor that did not offer PaySecure, Voigt said. JetPay also is a processor.

"Some accounts we didn't win because we weren't the bigger company," Voigt said. "Now we can go back to those accounts, ask them if they want to do [Internet] PIN debit and process those transactions."

EFT network executives seem to be comfortable with PaySecure, and some networks have been testing the product for more than a year.

Last year, Fiserv Inc.'s Accel/Exchange became the first to roll out the service.

"We like this model because it doesn't cut out the bank," said Michael Kelly, the general manager of Accel/Exchange. "There are a couple of other networks that have aligned with PayPal, but we don't think that is the right model."

Signature Debit might have higher fraud, but it also makes more money for the banks
so they push it over the more secure PIN Debit.  Many feel that's about to change.

In April 2009, Javelin conducted a survey that found 80% of participants would use PaySecure if a trusted merchant presented it as a checkout option.  Javelin surveyed 500 signature debit card users who had made online purchases in the previous year.  Survey participants used PaySecure for a mock online purchase and then answered questions about their experience using the product.

One aspect Internet PIN debit technology has in its favor is that consumers already are familiar with the transaction process, said Dan Kramer, Shazam's senior vice president of marketing and merchant services.

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