MarketLive, a hosted eCommerce provider, has announced aggregate performance indicators of their mid-sized retailers for the first nine months of 2010. During the period January 1, 2010-September 20, 2010, retailers experienced a record 44.5% increase in traffic to their sites, resulting in the creation of 55.9% more carts and a 32.4% overall growth in orders. Revenue also increased by 23.3% over the same period in 2009 and units sold increased by 45.5%.

Chase Paymentech Europe has announced results on an independent national merchant survey, finding that "79% financial directors thought that their CNP payment capability had developed in a less than ideal way; a figure which rose to 94% in large organizations. The research also found that 68% of merchants still relied on manual CNP payment processing, requiring staff to process and reconcile CNP data manually, placing a huge strain on finance departments." It's even worse for cross-border sales.

Apple made a slew of announcements yesterday largely focused on its consumer entertainment franchise. If you're into consumer gadgets, gizmodo has a nice run down on what was announced. On the payments front, Apple also boasted that there are now 160 million iTunes accounts, each one of which has a payment card on file. The company also mentioned that it now supports 1-click shopping in 23 countries.

Compete recently released the findings of its quarterly Online Shopper Intelligence Study, revealing that 83% of consumers are shopping online at least weekly. The Q2 report was compiled from a survey of 3,119 online purchasers between May and July 2010. READ MORE »

iPay88, a large eCommerce platform in Malaysian, and Alipay, China’s leading online payment service, have announced a strategic partnership. Under the agreement, Alipay will be able to provide its users with the ability to purchase goods from more than 2,000 Malaysian merchants who use iPay88, and iPay88 merchants will have access to Alipay’s more than 300 million registered users in China.

comScore has released its Q2 2010 U.S. retail eCommerce sales estimates, which showed that online retail spending reached $32.9 billion for the quarter, up 9% versus year ago. This growth rate represented the third consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth following a year of flat or negative growth rates. READ MORE »

A recent study commissioned by Visa revealed that eCommerce grew by 39.2% in 2009 in Latin America and the Caribbean region, reaching US$21.8B. Various drivers contributed to regional e-Commerce growth, including changes in consumer behaviors, perception and demand; increased computer and broadband penetration and improvements in online security; expansion of key industries such as travel & tourism; as well as the addition of large-scale merchants, especially in Brazil.

It is forecasted that by the end of the 2011 year, the region will experience a 58% increase in e-Commerce, realizing a total of US$34.5B. READ MORE »

eBillme has announced its latest quarterly eBillme Online Spending Index finding that 17% of consumers plan to do their back to school shopping online this year, a five percent increase over last year.

According to the Q3 Index, consumers are planning to spend an average of $271.77 online, an 8% increase over Q2 and 20% over Q3 2009.

Chase Paymentech Europe has announced results from a national survey today exploring the challenges faced by UK firms in ‘Customer Not Present’ (CNP) payments. The survey conducted for Chase Paymentech by independent research company, Dynamic Markets, showed that 30 percent of the 200 businesses questioned had international growth plans within the next one-to-two years, but that most did not have the payment systems in place to properly support European customers. READ MORE »

Zuora has announced the release of Z-Commerce for the Cloud earlier this week at GigaOM’s Structure 2010 event in San Francisco. According to the company, "Z-Commerce for the Cloud enables the new business models introduced by cloud computing that enterprise customers now demand. The new solution is the result of 12 months of development with cloud leaders including Cloud Central, EMC, IC&S, Nu-b, Sun, Tata, and Zetta." READ MORE »

Visa has announced the launch of payclick by Visa - calling it "a new way to pay online, that is ideal for downloadable content such as music, games and movies. payclick was developed by Visa and Australian consumers are the first to experience this innovative transaction service." READ MORE »

Acculynk has announced that is has entered into an agreement with Fifth Third Processing Solutions' Jeanie Network to offer Acculynk's Internet PIN debit solution, PaySecure, to Jeanie participants this year. READ MORE »

Following the recent entry of paysafecard into the Latin American market, GlobalCollect has announced it has increased the number of countries where it offers this payment method to include Argentina. According to the companies, "paysafecard enables consumers to make online cash payments in local currencies without needing a bank account or credit card. In a region where - according to the World Bank - only 30% of adults have a bank account, offering alternative payment methods such as cash and prepaid is crucial for e- commerce merchants to succeed. paysafecard is being distributed via 3,500 outlets in Argentina, which will be the company's base for further expansion into Mexico." READ MORE »

Magento has introduced Magento Mobile - calling it "a new product that addresses the need for merchants to reach consumers through mobile devices." Magento mobile integrates with Magento’s e-commerce platform and uses PayPal’s mobile payments library to streamline checkout on a mobile device. Magento Mobile "transforms a retailer’s product catalog into a fully-functional, branded, native application which merchants can use to interact and transact with their most valuable customers in a way unlike any other channel." READ MORE »

Verifi has announced the availability of a new hosted payment page that enables merchants to outsource PCI compliance and fraud prevention. Verifi says its hosted payment page "provides retailers with complete flexibility to customize their checkout page for a seamless, branded customer experience, along with tools to optimize sales conversions." READ MORE »

Guardian Analytics has announced closing $9 million in Series C funding led by Sutter Hill Ventures with participation by existing investor Foundation Capital. According to the company, "the Series C funding will be used to accelerate product innovation and capitalize on the growing demand for fraud prevention solutions that can protect financial institutions and their customers from today's sophisticated cybercrime." READ MORE »

Vindicia has announced that Boxee, which brings movies, TV shows and video from the Internet to the TV screen, has selected Vindicia's CashBox billing solution to enable the new Boxee Payment Platform. According to the company, "Vindicia CashBox will enable Boxee content partners to offer premium content to Boxee users through a wide variety of payment methods and plans, from individual pay-per-view charges to premium subscription models. Boxee users will also have the option to provide their payment information via credit card, gift cards, and PayPal for easy, one-click content purchases with the underlying security of Vindicia's PCI-compliant environment." READ MORE »

Based on results of a study that tracks Mother's Day campaigns conducted by social games on the Facebook Platform, TrialPay reports that Mother's Day generated a 5x boost in social games revenues, driving $1 million per day for publishers with 40% of purchasers being first-time buyers.

"According to TrialPay's research, in the week leading up to Mother's Day, about $1 million per day was generated by "gifts for mom" promotions that paired offers from online flower merchants and others with free in-game virtual goods and currency. TrialPay estimates that these promotions drove a 5x increase in social game revenues over normal daily revenue, and found that about 40% of purchasers were first-time buyers in these games. In addition to adding new buyers, the holiday also helped game publishers more than double their visitor conversion rates - meaning that twice as many players as usual made a purchase during the period."

To download the full research report (registration required), visit http://www.trialpay.com/go/mday_2010. READ MORE »

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Scott Loftesness takes a look at Klarna - an ecommerce payments provider based in Sweden that's attracted a major investment from Sequoia Capital and partner Michael Moritz.

Digital River has announced it has acquired fatfoogoo, a Europe-based, in-game and online commerce service provider. According to the company, "the combined forces of Digital River’s e-commerce solutions with fatfoogoo’s technology will offer game publishers and developers an unparalleled, single e-commerce connection to manage their online product sales both in-store and in-game." Digital River paid approximately $10 million for fatfoogoo plus an additional earn-out opportunity tied to performance. READ MORE »

Klarna AB has announced that Sequoia Capital is investing in Klarna AB and will become Klarna’s largest single owner. Michael Moritz, Partner at Sequoia Capital, has been made a member of the board.

"Sequoia Capital has extensive expertise and many years’ experience in investing in and developing promising growth companies operating in industries that are exciting for successful global companies. We are now stepping up the pace of our international expansion, first in Europe and then globally, said Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna and previous CEO of Kreditor."

"Klarna has done a fabulous job serving the needs of merchants and consumers in Europe’s e-commerce market," said Michael Moritz, Partner at Sequoia Capital. "With e-commerce growing rapidly across the E.U., where card based payments are only 1/3 that of the U.S., Klarna has an incredible opportunity to be the most trusted solution in the $40 billion global payments market."

Visa has announced it is prohibiting web merchants from providing cardholder information to other companies without the consumer's knowledge or active consent. To address the data pass practice, Visa is requiring that "merchants will now have to prompt consumers to re-enter their card information to accept a subsequent offer from a third-party merchant. This provides a clear signal to cardholders that a second purchase is being initiated and protects them from questionable marketing practices."

According to Visa, "the misleading practice, called "data pass," usually involves a consumer shopping at a familiar retailer. At checkout, the consumer receives an offer for a discount or reward and does not realize it is from a different merchant and comes with unexpected monthly membership fees or recurring charges. Such deceptive marketing can result in high levels of consumer disputes and degrades the efficiency, reliability and security of the payment system. According to a 2009 U.S. Senate Commerce Committee staff report, 35 million consumers have paid $1.4 billion for "data pass" marketing offers." READ MORE »

PayPal's parent eBay announced financial results for the first quarter 2010 today.

eBay's Payments segment (including PayPal and BillMeLater) revenue was $809.3 million for the quarter, an increase of 26% year over year. Net total payment volume (TPV) for the quarter was $21.3 billion, an increase of 35% year over year. Merchant Services (the off-eBay business) was 59% of TPV, up from 57% in the prior quarter. Active registered accounts reached 84.3 MM, up 15% year over year. PayPal's revenue ("transaction revenue rate") increased to 3.59% with a transaction processing expense rate at 1.13% and a record-low transaction loss rate of 0.18%.

Bill Me Later's volume for the quarter was 1% of the total Payments segment payment volume. Net chargeoffs in the BML portfolio were 9.49%, down from 11.14% in the prior quarter.

Over on PaymentsViews.com, Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg shares a perspective on Visa's announcement earlier today to acquire CyberSource.

Merchant e-Solutions (MeS) has announced that it has been selected by NetSuite as its preferred payment provider for merchants and partners. NetSuite introduced the expanded MeS partnership recently during its annual SuiteCloud 2010 Partner Conference. READ MORE »

A webcast is underway regarding this morning's announcement of Visa acquiring CyberSource. Accompanying the webcast is a presentation, an FAQ, and a Fact Sheet.

Separately, in an SEC 8-K filing this morning, Visa included as an exhibit the Agreement and Plan of Merger document.

Visa and CyberSource have announced entering into a definitive agreement for Visa to purchase CyberSource, a provider of electronic payment, risk management and payment security solutions to online merchants at a price of $26.00 per share - for a total consideration of approximately $2.0 billion to be paid with cash on hand. READ MORE »

Payvment, a Facebook eCommerce solution provider, has introduced a Facebook Fan Incentive Pricing feature for its Payvment e-commerce solution. According to the company, "the program marks the first time sellers on Facebook can provide instant product discounts to users that become Fans or “Like” their Facebook page. Now any brand or seller with a presence on Facebook can finally provide direct rewards to current and potential customers by tying the action of becoming a Fan to sales discounts." READ MORE »

Alipay, which claims to be China’s largest online payment network, has announced that Alibaba Group will invest a total of RMB5 billion (equivalent to US$732 million) over the next five years.

The company said in a press release that the new investment "will be used to enhance infrastructure security; develop products to improve ease of use and convenience for customers; continue to grow a massive number of consumer accounts; build a comprehensive network of merchants; and retain and attract top-tier talent from the payments industry." READ MORE »

Jay says it's important that payment service providers "finally realize that it is much more effective to sell their services by educating merchants and selling on the strength of their offerings - rather than keeping things dark and scary and selling on merchant’s trepidations."

Are you seeking to expand your ecommerce efforts globally? Contact Jay!