•Next generation e-commerce markets •Three world leading e-wallets •Interesting webinars •Spotlight on: China •Another bank joins Finland Internet Bank Payments
•Welcome onboard: American Apparel •Our brand new look •Upcoming events

Introducing Netgiro News

Welcome to the premier issue of Netgiro News, a newsletter packed with the latest developments to Netgiro's offering, interesting facts and figures from the world of e-commerce and a preview of what will be happening in 2009.

The next generation e-commerce markets

Brazil, Russia, India and China – the BRIC markets – are the next generation e-commerce markets and have considerable untapped potential. Together, these countries cover more than 25% of the earth’s surface and account for around 40% of the world population – a rather astonishing fact!

Last year, Netgiro took its first steps into BRIC with the launch of local card processing in Brazil, and during the first quarter of 2009 we have expanded our offering to include both India and China. Russia is a priority on our product roadmap, so by the end of the year we will cover all of tomorrow's most progressive growth markets.

Three world leading e-wallets – from one supplier

Both consumers and merchants are turning to e-wallets because they offer a simple, quick and secure way to make online payments. Today's financial instability has affected the willingness of consumers to use credit cards, further strengthening the importance of e-wallets. Netgiro is your single access point to three major e-wallets – PayPal, ClickandBuy and Alipay.

PayPal is the world's leading e-wallet service and has more than 75 million active member accounts in 190 countries and regions worldwide. In only seven years, PayPal has become one of the most-used and preferred online payment methods, second only to credit cards. Research shows that up to 24% of online shoppers worldwide prefer to pay via their PayPal account. This success can be traced to the fact that PayPal provides consumers security, convenience and choice. From a merchant perspective, this success translates into sales growth. Adding PayPal as a payment method on your site will help you reach consumers that would not normally pay online using other means.

ClickandBuy is a major European online payment solution with more than 14 million active users, a figure that continues to grow with thousands of new registrations every month. ClickandBuy has been processing payments online since 1999 and consistently posts impressive growth rates. Today there are well in excess of 14 million active ClickandBuy account holders with thousands of new customers signing up every month. Thanks to its expansive offering of services, including 126 different display currencies and over 46 different local and international funding options, more than 14,500 merchants worldwide in all industries offer the ClickandBuy solution as a payment option to their consumers.

Alipay is China’s leading online payment service in both number of users and total transaction volume. By the end of 2008, Alipay had more than 110 million users and a daily transaction volume exceeding RMB550 million through more than 2.5 million daily transactions. Read more about our offering of Chinese online payment methods below.

China

Reach all the way to China with Netgiro! With its large population and strong growth in Internet penetration and e-commerce acceptance, China is becoming a key market for all global e-merchants.

ONLINE PAYMENTS IN CHINA – CONSUMER TRUST IS CRUCIAL
Credit card penetration in China is generally low in both offline and online marketplaces. Debit cards issued by local banks are popular, but the question of security on the Internet remains an obstacle to their use in online payments. However, Chinese online consumers are prepared to pay with their debit cards online via a trusted party, such as an e-wallet, or by paying directly at their bank’s gateway.

NETGIRO IS YOUR ONE STOP SHOP TO CHINESE ONLINE PAYMENTS
We connect you to the most popular local payment methods to help you maximize the number of local online consumers you can reach.

• Alipay is the largest e-wallet solution in China with more than 130 million active account holders. Since its launch in 2004, Alipay has become the most popular and extensively used online payment tool for all areas of e-commerce in China, and is fast becoming the industry standard.

• Local debit cards work well online as long as consumers feel secure about the payment process. Netgiro gives you access to a local solution where the consumers interact with their local bank to initiate and approve the online payment. This means that consumers do not need to share their card information with the merchant. Netgiro’s solution includes 22 local banks, more than 40 different debit card brands and at least 120 million debit card holders.

Another bank joins Finland Internet Bank Payments

The 4th largest bank in Finland, Aktia, which has a 14% share of the Finnish consumer bank market, is now included in the Netgiro Internet Bank Payments offering. Internet Bank Payment is a real-time, irrevocable online payment method that is rapidly gaining popularity in many markets. Netgiro already works with the top three banks in Finland and the addition of Aktia’s 400,000 banking consumers in Finland gives Netgiro close to 100% coverage of all banking consumers in the market.

DID YOU KNOW THAT INTERNET BANK PAYMENT IS THE MOST COMMON METHOD FOR PAYING ONLINE IN FINLAND?
In Finland, we have seen merchants with 55-75% of their total transaction value via Internet Bank Payments. The growth of this payment method has been exceptional, and we are witnessing the same trend in other European markets, such as Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria and Germany. If you are planning to enter any of these markets or if you are already selling in them but do not yet support Internet Bank Payments, you should consider adding it to your payments options. You will see a difference in your sales results.

Welcome onboard: American Apparel

American Apparel (NYSE Amex: APP) is now using Netgiro’s payment services on a global scale for their online business. American Apparel is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of branded fashion basic apparel based in downtown Los Angeles, California. This fast-growing fashion company employs approximately 10,000 people and operates more than 260 retail stores in 19 countries all over the world. American Apparel's direct-to-consumer web business represents 11.5% of the company’s retail sales. In 2008 web sales grew 55%, rising to $39.4 million from $25.4 million in 2007. The next step in the integration with Netgiro will be to add alternative payment methods that are attractive to American Apparel’s target group, to further improve online sales.

Our brand new look

We would like to take this opportunity to unveil our new makeover. You have probably already seen our new logo. It has a more modern touch and a clearer reference to the Digital River Group, which we joined in 2007. The wave motif will be shared by all the business units in the Digital River Group, which will make it easier for you to recognize the e-commerce and e-marketing specialists of our Group all over the world.

Upcoming events

Meet us at any of the following industry events:
• Stora E-handelsdagen , 27 May, Stockholm, Sweden
• Internet Retailer , 15-18 June, Boston, USA
If you would like to arrange a meeting with our representatives at any of these events, stop by our booth or contact us in advance at info-(_sm3Remove)-_-(_a)-_netgiro-(d_)-_com .

Feedback

Let us know what you think of our newsletter.
- Did you find the information useful? Would you prefer more or less detail? Are there other topics that you would like us to cover in this forum in the future? Your feedback is much appreciated and very valuable to us. Talk to your Netgiro account manager or e-mail us at info-(_sm3Remove)-_-(_a)-_netgiro-(d_)-_com . Thank You.