Editorial

Let me introduce myself: my name is Ingrid Lindström and I have recently joined Netgiro as Managing Director. I have a background in international payments as well as the telecom and IT industries, and I most recently served as Managing Director for Payzone Nordics. I am excited to be part of this fast growing and highly energetic organization and I am very much looking forward to the upcoming steps of the company’s global expansion plan and the enormous opportunities we can offer together with the entire Digital River group of e-commerce and e-marketing experts.

In this issue of Netgiro News you’ll find a helpful overview of our latest product offering enhancements — such as a tokenization feature and a new bank connection in Australia. If you’ve been following the development of mobile commerce, you’ll enjoy our review of recent research into this growing market. We’re also continuing our exploration of the BRIC countries: following up our last issue’s article on China with a spotlight on the Brazilian e-commerce market.

Also, please mark your calendar for our next webinar, held 1 October. Our previous webinar covering online payments in China was very appreciated by the payment professionals from all over the world who attended. This time, we will share valuable local insights about the Brazilian online payments landscape and on how to enter and stay successful in this growing and lucrative online market. Click on the link below to sign up.

Best regards,

Ingrid Lindström
MD, Netgiro Systems

New bank connection in Australia

Australia is home to 13 million Internet users, and over 20 billion USD in e-commerce sales. You might already know this is an important market, so why not process your Australian payments locally and save money by taking advantage of lower interchange rates? Netgiro has expanded its Australian offering to include a direct connection to National Australian Bank (NAB). By doing so we can support a wide range of value-added functionality such as recurring billing, soft descriptors and multi-currency processing. In addition, local processing in Australia eliminates the cross-border fees normally charged to the consumer by local issuers when processing via a foreign bank and thereby you can secure a better consumer experience.

Reduce your PCI compliance costs with Netgiro’s tokenization feature

Did you know that Netgiro’s hosted Payment Page solution offers tokenization functionality?
Tokenization lets Netgiro store encrypted customer information, such as credit card data, and reuse it for repeat purchases. From a customer point of view this means that a number of fields can be pre-filled on the checkout page when a returning customer logs in. The end result: an enhanced buying experience on your site. And for you as a merchant: reduced security requirements related to storing sensitive customer data.

The Payment Page is hosted on our multi-continental data center park, which supports more than 40,000 e-merchants worldwide and serves 20 million page views every day. This solid and proven infrastructure gives you service stability. It also ensures that the processing is handled in a secure environment according to all relevant payment industry security requirements, including level 1 PCI certification. Because Netgiro and Digital River cover the PCI requirements, it lightens the time and cost pressure on your system administration while maintaining a high level of security.

Continue reading below for more insights on subscription-based solutions offered by our colleagues at THINK Subscription.

Accept payments via mobile phones and handheld devices

Internet access is no longer restricted to homes, offices or kiosks. Wireless connections, handheld devices and mobile phones let users be online at all times. Mobile phones are no longer just a means of communicating. They’re gaining popularity as a way to search for information and shop online. Is your e-commerce site adapted for the format mobile devices require?

With Netgiro’s Payment Page solution you can integrate a fully customizable web page in the checkout flow that’s hosted on Netgiro’s servers. This page can be adapted to any display format needed to cope with your target audience’s online access behaviors. If you are planning to pursue increased sales by taking your online store to the next level of shopping, make sure to keep your conversion rate up by adapting the payment flow to this new media channel.

A great opportunity for e-retailers but slow customer adoption

In a study published earlier this year, Forrester presented an optimistic view of the future of m-commerce (mobile commerce). While the survey results still show a low consumer penetration — only 14% of US web buyers with a mobile internet-enabled device said they have used it to make a purchase — Forrester still points out a number of indicators that mobile commerce sales will gain speed.

Most interesting is the diversity of retail categories purchased via mobile devices. Digital content — such as games and ring tones — is still the dominant category. This is followed by event tickets and then travel. However, food, apparel and books also appear on the list of goods purchased via mobile devices and this may point toward an expansion of m-commerce usage as adoption rates grow.

eMarketer is more skeptical in its analysis of the US mobile commerce landscape and they do not anticipate a “mobile commerce revolution” in the near future. A survey quoted in their report found that only 7% of US online retailers had a mobile commerce site in late 2008. However, other survey results quoted by eMarketer show that consumer attitudes about the safety of mobile commerce are generally positive. The Forrester survey reinforces this finding when summarizing the top reasons that consumers avoid buying products via their mobile device; namely, the high cost of mobile internet and the wish to keep their mobile phone numbers private.

So, is it the online retailers who need to get up to speed with the new technology? Or, are we waiting for the broad consumer base to adopt the new technology? Apparently, this question will remain unanswered, at least in the short term.

Has your company launched a site for mobile commerce yet? Join our survey below and see how other companies have answered the same question.

Sources:
Forrester: The Emerging Opportunity In Mobile Commerce, 2009
eMarketer: M-Commerce Ringing Up (Some) Sales, 2009

Has your company launched an m-commerce site?

Click on the survey to submit your response and to view the current survey results.

Netgiro on the move

Netgiro’s Stockholm team has recently moved to new premises that better suits our growing staff. The new visiting address is Textilgatan 31, close to the waterfront in beautiful Stockholm, Sweden. All phone numbers and other contact details stay the same.

As part of this move, some of the data hall and office materials have been replaced. We are proud to announce the results of our recycling activities. According to our recycling partner…

> We recycled enough metal material to build 207 new bicycles.

> The combustible material we recycled could generate enough energy to heat 0.55 houses for a year.

> The children and teachers of the Björkhagen School, situated in a suburb of Stockholm, are the happy recipients of 30 used office desks, 20 chairs and 2 writing boards.

Welcome aboard: MovieTickets.com

We are proud to announce that MovieTickets.com has chosen Netgiro to support the online payment processing for their European operations.

MovieTickets.com, the worldwide leader in advance movie ticketing, offers moviegoers a convenient way to buy advance movie tickets online for movie screens across the United States. They also operate in Canada at MovieTickets.ca, in the U.K. at MovieTickets.co.uk, in Ireland at MovieTickets.ie, from any internet-enabled wireless device at mobile.movietickets.com, and from any phone by calling 877-789-MOVIE. Its elite collection of partner theaters consistently represents over 50% of the top 50 and over 50% of the top 100 grossing theaters in North America on any given weekend. The MovieTickets.com theater chain group, which includes 154 theater chains, has about seven times the number of chains of its nearest competitor.

In this section we would like to introduce you to the great variety of businesses included in the Digital River family, starting with THINK Subscription.

THINK Subscription provides subscription-based businesses with the tools they need to manage and maintain their subscribers. With THINK Subscription’s customizable software, we are able to help you move beyond a simple recurring billing model. THINK Enterprise provides you with the tools to create and manage metered, time-based, or scheduled delivery subscription models. You can also automate payments and billing and track subscription metrics across currencies and locales.
Marketers are able to easily monitor the subscribers’ actions with over 130 canned report templates as well as customized options using Crystal Reports. THINK Enterprise has allowed marketers from all over the globe to proactively manage and organize their future marketing efforts. THINK has developed adaptable software for your subscription business, whether it’s online, print, gaming, etc. THINK has a solution fitted for your subscription needs.

Upcoming events

MEET US AT THE FOLLOWING INDUSTRY EVENTS :
Internet Retailing , London, 13 October
Join us at the Internet Retailing Conference! We have a small number of free entry passes —contact us for more information.

The PhocusWright Conference - The travel industry event of the year - Orlando, Florida, 17-19 November

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-(d_)-_

AND THERE IS MORE…
In addition to these events, Netgiro will be hosting a one day seminar with our partner Barclaycard. The seminar will take place on 21 October in London and cover a range of interesting topics for international e-merchants. Contact us for more information and to save your seat.

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-(d_)-_ Thank You.