Much Ado About eCommerce

With brick & mortar retail sales demonstrating a paltry 0.1% growth in June, artificially supported by rising gas and food prices, there is a concerted move among big box retailers to enhance their online sales presence.



Comscore reported last week that ecommerce sales continue to refuse to succumb completely to the weakness of the American consumer. The rate of growth has fallen by 50% year over year, but ecommerce spending continues to demonstrate growth in the low double-digits. There is faint hope that the stimulus checks will continue to provide further boost to online retail spending.

Retailers are demonstrating that the lesson of this divergence between the growth prospects of online and offline sales is not being lost on them. Internet Retailer notes that, "At Sears Holdings Corp., same-store sales at Sears and Kmart retail chains declined 8.6% for the quarter that ended May 3, the company lost $56 million and shuttered 62 stores, yet the company increased investment in its online and multi-channel operations by $10 million."

Shop.org, the online arm of the National Retail Federation & the e-tailing group have each published white papers concerning the focus of those eCommerce investments in "The State of Retailing Online 2008" and "Investing in eCommerce, Despite the Times", respectively. Universally, there is a great deal of focus on improving on-site merchandising tools, including search, personalization, and integration of product presentation for the online and internet spaces. From the e-tailing group's document:



Opportunity for Mpayy

According to Shop.org, which conducted the research in conjunction with Forrester Research, more than 75% of retailers cite the Checkout Process as a tactic and investment priority. Of that group, 80% want to improve their shopping cart page; 79% want to improve their checkout process; and, 57% want to include "Third-party Email Payment" capabilities.

Mpayy is in finishing stages of launching its Lightbox Checkout Window that will streamline the checkout process for its online retail partners. (Check back for sneak peeks.) Mpayy's offer for online retailers enables them to reduce cart abandonment and growth their sales online.

Mpayy is a secure online & mobile payment processing system that processes payments from shoppers' checking accounts at a 50+% discount to credit cards. Mpayy provides 0% fraud liability for retailers, and guarantees payments. The application is developed by and housed at US Bank (NYSE:USB) in an environment that meets PCI DSS standards, and is compliant with USA Patriot Act, OFAC, Reg E and Reg Z.