One-stop buying coming to the Web

    By Margaret Kane
    March 21, 1997 3:05 PM EST
    PC Week Online


    Ten different purchases at 10 online stores means you have to punch your
    credit card number into the Internet  10 times, right? Not if The Internet
    Mall Inc.'s new purchasing system takes off.  Shoppers heading to the
    Internet Mall, a Web site with connections to more than 26,000 stores, will
    soon be able to make purchases from those stores online and pay for them in
    a single transaction.  The company plans to debut a new service, the
    OrderEasy Secure Internet Shopping Service, which will provide shopping cart
    services, a database server, shipping and tax services, and transaction
    servers for real-time credit-card authorization to companies.

    "Basically, you're looking at companies that have already purchased a
    server, they have an Internet connection, they're doing their
    marketing and now they want electronic commerce," said Bob Fasano,
    executive vice president of marketing and sales and a founding
    partner of The Internet Mall, based in San Jose, Calif. "If you want
    to, you need to upgrade or buy a new server, change software. It's a
    huge undertaking. We can offer immediately that transaction service
    capability." [Image] Fasano said he currently has five stores in a
    beta test of the service, and expects to bring in 200 merchants in
    the first 90 days after the service goes live March 31.  [Image] The
    company has three pricing plans.  The basic plan lets a company list
    10 items for a $100 startup fee and a 15 percent transaction fee. The
    most expensive plan lists up to 200 items for a $2,000 startup fee,
    plus $500 a month and a 2.5 percent transaction fee.

    The advantage for consumers is that they will be able to make
    purchases at several of the sites and only go through the transaction
    process once. The setup uses cookies to track individual shoppers.

    "As I buy products, I continually fill my basket. It doesn't ask for
    ID and so forth each time," Fasano said. If a shopper is using a
    browser that doesn't support cookies, they will be asked for a
    password and ID.

    The service also will compute the tax and shipping charges for each
    purchase, to help users keep tabs, and compile a grand total. The
    transaction can be completed with a credit card or by using CyberCash
    Inc.'s electronic wallet software.  The Internet Mall then splits up
    how much of the payment goes to each store.

    The Internet Mall can be found at www.internetmall.com.

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