Several Irish companies signed up yesterday for Microsoft's "e-Christmas" project, designed to speed up awareness of online shopping this holiday season. Aer Lingus, Bewley's Hampers, Hughes & Hughes bookshops and Waterford Glass are among those participating in the Europewide scheme.
The website - to be found at www.e-Christmas.com - has been configured to work in six languages, with multi-currency pricing, and will be running from November 3rd. Microsoft said yesterday that Internet customers would be able to pay for goods in a variety of ways, and have them delivered speedily by UPS.
"Visitors can search and select for various types of gifts, and are seamlessly linked to the merchant's storefront at one of the satellite sites to make the purchase, confirm payment and delivery details," a spokeswoman said.
In recent months, Microsoft executives have expressed concern that Europe has fallen behind the United States in the volume of electronic commerce. Although the company will not make an immediate profit from the project, it sees an advantage in promoting Internet shopping.
See also Technology, pages 10-12
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