INNSBRUCK, Austria; SOFIA, Bulgaria; and NICOSIA, Cyprus, January 31, 2012 – Market.com (www.market.com) debuts today as a new name for a broad range of highly experienced and successful global ecommerce infrastructure brands, which provide start-to-finish solutions for online businesses.

Market.com, unveiled internally in July 2011, serves as a new corporate umbrella for solutions already familiar to thousands of online sellers around the world including SafeCharge, xt:Commerce®, MarketNetwork, InstallSmart and Ginyas. The company’s consumer-oriented brands – MessengerPlus! and Plus! Network – boast hundreds of millions of downloads and tens of millions of users worldwide.

The new corporate structure of market.com is in response to feedback from clients who indicated their preference to work with a single trusted provider offering a broader range of services. With that goal in mind, SafeCharge, a prominent and respected online payment provider, made several acquisitions in recent years to round out the company’s service portfolio and simplify the way it serves its clients.  SafeCharge remains a key brand within the ePayments division of the newly formed market.com.

Market.com offers solutions both for merchants selling physical products that must be stored, managed and shipped to purchasers, as well as digital products such as software and other downloadable offerings.  The company has over 12 years’ experience in providing services to a broad range of online industries including retail, digital goods and services, casual and massively multiplayer online games, gambling, dating, forex and more.

Market.com services and products are used by prominent companies including Volkswagen, Aeria Games, IncrediMail, Osram and Markets.com. The company has over 200 employees in company locations in Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Israel and Serbia.

“The new market.com has been working hard to deliver on our vision of creating the best online payments, ecommerce and Internet marketing solutions for our clients,” said Alon Shamir, director, market.com. “Our many brands offer a full range of high quality services – from driving traffic and conversion, to creating online shops and accepting payments. We offer these services to our clients in a streamlined manner so they can focus on their businesses and spend less effort on dealing with the services they need to run their business.”

The company’s slogan, “Everything eBusiness,” succinctly describes its vertically integrated business model and key value proposition.

eCommerce

Market.com’s eCommerce division offers its leading ecommerce shop solution, xt:Commerce. It is an innovative and easy-to-use system for building single shop and multi-shop online stores. The system includes straight forward administration tools and back office, built-in search engine optimization features and a range of templates and add-ons that contribute to the success of the shops. Its modular design allows for the easy plug-in of new features and services.

xt:Commerce is the most popular shopping cart platform in Germany with more than 150,000 downloads and approximately 200 new shops each day.

eMarketing

The market.com eMarketing division helps companies to drive traffic to their shops and to monetize that traffic to the highest extent possible. Services include proprietary media channel opportunities, traffic monetization solutions and a highly effective affiliate network which drives a massive number of monthly impressions worldwide.

Brands in this group include:

• MarketNetwork, a powerful affiliate network active in 45 countries which promotes and serves affiliates and advertisers with unique in-house offers and exclusive advertising products;
• InstallSmart, an optimization platform providing online companies which offer downloadable software with actionable download analytics.  InstallSmart helps clients to optimize their download and installation processes and to monetize their traffic by offering opt-in downloads during installation; and
• Ginyas, an online coupon marketing platform and unique marketing tool that offers geo-targeted contextual promotions based on user behavior and serves as a monetization platform for site and software owners.

ePayments

The ePayments division is a highly successful part of the group’s offerings. Market.com offers clients a range of payment solutions to fit the requirements of all ecommerce sites – from small to large and those offering tangible or intangible goods. The solutions include a PCI-certified gateway (since 2005), well established banking relationships, maximum global, local and alternative payment methods and billions of dollars in transactions processed annually.  The company’s ePayments solutions include one of the strongest risk management and fraud protection programs in the industry. Brands in this group include:

• SafeCharge, a well-known and respected payment solution for large online businesses with more than a decade of experience;
• SafeCharge Connect, the company’s gateway-only service connecting clients to its network of acquiring banks;
• Gate2Shop, a strategic partner providing a secure online ecommerce platform for online businesses specializing on digital services, games and products; and
• xt:Commerce Payments, an internet payment service provider for online businesses selling tangible goods.

“Conduit has partnered with several of market.com’s individual solutions and we believe a good part of our online success is directly attributable to the superior technology and human support we have received over the years,” said Brock Kaye, Conduit VP of Business Development.

“As an innovative, web-based auction site, Ziinga has benefited greatly from market.com‘s eMarketing services,” said Masih Nikdar, director of Ziinga. “We have seen significant traffic increase to our site leading to increased sales.”

For more information about market.com and its service offerings, visit www.market.com or contact marketing at info@market.com.

The speakers numbered near 100, and most came from or represented the nations of Italy, the United kingdom, the United States, Israel, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Hong Kong, and Austria. They spoke on the topics of regulation and taxation, new markets, global vs. local, start-up strategies, cost-efficiency, sustainability, next-generation products, Italy in the spotlight, securing a competitive edge, implementation of social media tools, convergence of platforms, the advent of the new generation of “digital natives,” and payments in regulated and regulating markets.

The panel titled “Payments in regulated and regulating markets” was led by fellow industry associates who shared their experience and opinions on the following two points: one, understanding regulatory requirements for payments in new markets and implementing a successful and effective compliance, and two, identifying the local payment habits and needs and use that knowledge to optimize customers’ experience in local markets.

Sponsors of the even included Playtech Ltd., Intralot Interactive, Kambi Sports Solutions, many more and of course Safe Charge. We were the main sponsor of the official EiF Party, for which we put up an invitation in an earlier post.

Fraud prevention, in its many layers and forms, is one of the most important services that can be provided to e-merchants. With each passing year, fraudsters become more experienced and new forms of fraud are developed.

What is different in recent years is that we have been dealing with an economic recession. As a result, there has been an increase in the amount of “friendly fraud,” with people making online purchases legitimately and then making chargebacks when they realize they don’t have the money to pay.

“Chargeback” is one of the words online merchants despise the most, as it means not only the loss of their product or service, but also the risk of heavy fines, account closures, and even blacklisting.

As banks may be less strict with chargeback initiation throughout this challenging economic period, this fraud has been a big challenge for merchants in 2009, and will continue throughout 2010.

For many online merchants, there has also recently been a decrease in the amount of volume and an increase in the amount of fraud, which means chargeback ratios will rise drastically and will therefore have a greater risk of being closed by the bank. With fraudsters, it is a cause- and-effect relationship: First, they develop the fraud method. Then fraud-prevention tools follow — the fraudsters are always one step ahead of everyone else.

They have also infiltrated the affiliate world. Some affiliates are concerned only with their commissions, so they often don’t care to differentiate between fraud and solid sales.  Affiliate fraud has merchants drowning in chargebacks and paying commission to someone who has not brought business.

Also, fraudsters can register as affiliates and send 100 percent fraud to merchants. Since affiliates can design their own nicknames, fraudsters can come back again and again with different names.

Fraud prevention differs from fraud detection, as recognizing fraud is not enough — it needs to be stopped. The merchant’s payment provider should investigate all efforts to “fight back” the charged amount from the acquiring bank. Once the fraud has been detected, proper features can be implemented by the payment provider to prevent future fraudulent activity.

Using a sophisticated IPSP (Internet payment service provider) that offers fraud-protection features specific to each industry in which an e-merchant works will definitely help reduce the amount of fraud. A few examples of such features are rule engines and behavioral purchasing patterns — that is, knowing how to identify fraud patterns.

Also, tracking the patterns of customers on the Web site and knowing how to track suspicious or irregular end-users who may be fraudsters in disguise will help a merchant get the best fraud protection and help to preent chargebacks.

Every service provider provides risk support, but the best ones offer a combination of a sophisticated system and support team. A common approach of fraud protection in any online industry is to block all suspicious transactions through an automated system.

Instead, a risk support team should always communicate with the merchant online about a particular suspicious transaction. That way, the decision to approve or block a suspicious transaction is made by both parties working together in an educated manner.

Maximum fraud prevention means having to be equipped with the detection and screening tools to ensure maximum protection with minimum rejection rate. A trained risk manager with a wide array of experience should also be dedicated to your account, as professional human judgment should always be intertwined with even the most superior technological system.

The combination of the two ensures that all transactions that will lead to profit are approved and those that will lead to fraud, loss, and fines should be recognized and declined.

The old and outdated “scrubbing” system does not work — too many potential valid sales are lost and approval ratios suffer. Only the combination of superior technology and the proficient risk team can bring the kind of success that ensures maximum conversion rates with minimal fraud.

As technology advances, so does the level of sophistication of online fraudsters. As such, the rules and regulations of the credit card companies must become stricter in order to protect e-merchants and their clients from fraud, theft, and hacking. Therefore, all online merchants should be compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

PCI security standards are operational requirements set by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council in order to protect card holder data. The standards govern all merchants and organizations that store, process or transmit this data.

Any company that wants to have the most secure card storage should be PCI-certified. If one does not want to be PCI certified, however, then it is possible to utilize a payment provider’s credit card storage. This protects merchants by storing the database of customer card information with the PCI-certified processor, which has ultimate security and no risk of hackers aiming to use and abuse personal data. This not only relieves the merchant of the burden of storing classified information but also protects its core business.

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/68542.html

Managing traffic means routing the transactions to the most suitable location – the acquiring bank that will give the transaction the best rate, approval chance and best overall condition.  This routing is based on bin number, country, credit card company, currency and other predefined rules.  This not only helps raise approval ratios but also helps increase sales conversions and provides the transaction with the most customized treatment possible.

Partnering with a service provider that is so widely connected to banks as well as additional payment options means that you are covered from every angle and spared the long process of constantly applying for new merchant accounts that have different requirements and standards.   This approach to multi-banking also saves money on handling and administrative fees, as well as the time consuming application processes that differ per bank.

If there are technical problems with a certain bank or a sudden change in a bank’s policies, such as temporarily stopping processing transactions or discontinuing a payment method that is crucial to your business, potential sales can be lost.  If this occurs and you work with a PSP with only one acquiring bank, you can lose money as well as credibility with your traders, which is why multiple banking opportunities are so important for brokers.  The PSP retains the ability to switch your processing to another bank with which they are connected – without losing a minute of profitability.

For these reasons, merchants use online payment solutions that lead them through the standard fraud checks such as card verification process and developing country blockage, among others.  However, even with these processors, chargebacks can sometimes still occur.

Some payment processors have systems for advanced chargeback prevention that is integrated into the merchant’s own admin back-office.   Such a system has the ability to alert the merchant when a chargeback has been made, or better yet, when a “retrieval” has been made. A retrieval is the critical stage where an end-user simply inquires about the charge before he makes an official chargeback.  Once this happens, the bank notifies the payment processor and they are able to alert the merchant instantly by posting a notification in his back-office.  This feature is important because it gives the merchant enough time to settle the issue directly with the end-user, before the official chargeback  occurs.

In the event that a chargeback should nonetheless occur, they too will be immediately posted in the merchant’s back-office, so that the merchant can immediately block the problematic user and terminate any pending activity with him.

This type of feature cuts down chargebacks, keeps merchants within permitted thresholds set by the international credit card companies, and most of all, guarantees no unwanted surprises.

Certain payment processors have the ability to make an international wire transfer appear as if it is local.  The money is sent through at local time and even before it actually arrives, the money is credited to the trader’s account.  The funds can be made available within 24 hours, instead of having to wait for international wire delays.

The way it works is that each transaction cycle creates a transaction ID and each ID receives a response – approval, decline or error.  If the transaction receives an ‘approval’ the first time it is sent to a bank, the transaction is completed and no further work is necessary.

With a cascading feature implemented, if the transaction receives a ‘referral’ or ‘timeout’ response, instead of being returned to the merchant and essentially the end-user, the system automatically reroutes the transaction to the next best bank.  If the transaction fails in the next bank, it is rerouted over and over until it has been sent to all of the banks available for use.

This type of feature significantly helps increase approval ratio, as it utilizes all the banking resources available.

With a VIP customer identification feature implemented,  brokers who know which of their traders are reliable, trust worthy and most of all profitable, can allow them special accounts with higher deposits and no limits.   These accounts are identified as VIP sub accounts but can be under the same MID as a regular account.

A VIP identification feature can also alert a broker in real-time when a profitable trader is online, and he can use it to promote further promotional tactics while the trader is online and ready to spend.  From a risk standpoint, transactions from those end-users undergo more lenient fraud checks.

Traders love to feel important and by allowing those who are trusted and who have proven themselves reliable certain benefits, they will always prefer one broker over another.