THE first Irish service allowing companies wishing to conduct business transactions over the Internet to accept and validate credit and debit card payments within seconds was launched yesterday by Internet service provider, Indigo.
The company's general manager, Mr Mark Beggs, contends that the new Transactor product will make electronic commerce a reality here. It can conduct multiple currency transactions, opening up a global market for Irish traders hoping to export.
Costing around £1,000 (€1270), Indigo's Transactor product is provided by UK bank, NatWest, and Worldpay, an Internet payment processing company, which provides the software. The payment system uses the leading security technology SSL (secure sockets layer), and credit card details are protected from Indigo, Worldpay, and the merchant website.
Real time validation takes approximately seven seconds, and payments are credited to the vendor's account within three working days. Transactor accepts all major debit and credit cards including Visa, Mastercard and American Express.
Mr Beggs said the company started looking for such a product last October, following requests from customers. "Transactor was the only solution we could find in a short space of time. We would like to do business with an Irish bank, but the only solution available at the moment comes with NatWest."
In order for traders to take up the service they need to apply for a merchant account with NatWest. The same approval criteria apply as with real world trading. The retailer must be in business for two years, have a clean credit rating and must be profitable.
Indigo will charge around £450 for its virtual server to host an e-commerce enabled site. Transactor allows retailers to conduct price and product changes on their websites. Alternatively, Indigo will manage the service entirely for the trader.
The Transactor product was launched jointly by Indigo with Druid Chocolates, now Ireland's first e-commerce-enabled website (www.druidchocolate.ie). A small company, with an annual turnover of £100,000, Druid believes the capability to conduct transactions electronically will cut out the costly distribution element of its business.
Mr Beggs added that Ireland still has a lot of work to do to truly embrace e-commerce. "All Internet service providers need to get the message across that electronic commerce is essential for Ireland. In five or 10 years' time, schoolkids will take it for granted, and if it isn't available here they will buy products abroad. This will have a knock-on effect for jobs and the standard of living."
