Suite of Transaction Processing Services

Processing services may let webhosts and ISPs easily incorporate and offer e-commerce services, and allow merchant customers to accept credit card payments online.

by Wayne Kawamoto
[December 23, 2000]

Kurant Corporation announced an agreement with SurePay to deliver a suite of merchant processing services geared towards ISPs, which may give them the ability to offer merchants near-instant e-commerce capabilities.

This agreement should enable merchants to quickly and securely establish a merchant account, and via the SurePay payment gateway, accept credit card payments online.

According to the companies, before merchants can sell online, they have to select an Internet gateway and apply for a merchant account, a process that can take several weeks and requires manual administration from the merchant, the merchant's bank, and the ISP that hosts the merchant's online store.

Under the terms of the agreement, ISPs may be able to offer merchants access to a fully integrated suite of Internet merchant-processing services, including First Data's online credit decisioning tool, VirtualApp, and the SurePay payment platform. VirtualApp is a paperless, click-through process that's designed to let online merchants establish a merchant account and receive a credit decision within minutes in order to accept payments.

The SurePay payment solution is designed to let merchants process online payments including credit card transactions, check payments via First Data's TeleCheck subsidiary, and cash payments through First Data's Western Union retail agent locations. By integrating VirtualApp and the SurePay payment solution with StoreSense, Kurant says that it helps ISPs of all sizes and helps to level the playing field in the ISP marketplace.

"This SurePay agreement provides yet another way for ISPs to benefit from a relationship with Kurant," said Curtis Pierce, chief executive officer at Kurant. "When they choose StoreSense, ISPs get a solution with a clear and compelling merchant upgrade path, ensuring an increasing revenue stream. Now, with our new offering, we've also greatly reduced the administrative burden of setting up Internet gateway and merchant account services, meaning it's just that much easier for ISPs to secure new business."

"In today's competitive marketplace, where ISPs are struggling for market share, secure payment solutions and near-instant merchant account provisioning become a critical advantage," said Dominic Morea, vice president of Merchant Commerce Services at SurePay. "Our agreement with Kurant helps deliver an easy, complete solution to remove the barriers for ISPs to provide electronic commerce solutions and facilitate their entry into a key market space."

"By including SurePay payment solutions, ISPs can be sure their customers will gain access to user-friendly, trusted and reliable tools to payment-enable their storefront/e-commerce strategies," added Morea.

Availability
The merchant processing services are available now.

—End

 

Related articles:
	[Oct. 31, 2000]	Evolutionware Transforms xSPs to ASPs
	[Oct. 18, 2000]	Kurant's StoreSense 4.0