May 07 2008
Opening up Europe
The key to opening up Europe is the ability to sell in the correct currency for the consumer, and using the system the users are happiest with, but until now this has been a logistical nightmare.
If you want to sell products in Germany you’re not going to sell many if you only give credit cards as an option. The latest tool from Netbanx lets you sell across the biggest markets in Europe, and lets you do it in a language and a currency the customer is familiar with, and at price – in local currency - that’s set at the time of the transaction, not found out four weeks later when they open the statement.
We talked to Netbanx’s EVP, Dan Starr about the new system on the eve of the launch and while Netbanx were keen to stress the ability of the system to do real-time currency translation – which according to Dan should help solve “shopping basket abandonment from users unsure of the eventual transaction value” - we were much more interested in the ability to select payment options that were described by Dan as “irrefutable,” like Germany’s Giropay. After all the last thing you want when you enter a new country is to open up your system to a bunch of fraudulent card not present users.
According to Dan it’s also simple to setup, taking “15-20 minutes to setup on our site and a few hours to test.” If it works as well as Netbanx say then it should open up Europe to a lot more retailers, or at least the parts of Europe the system currently works in, plus there’s talk of China by the end of the year. Now that is a market!!!
If you want to know more here’s the release.
The new Netbanx international version means that customers can easily pay online in their own currency and language, using local or global payment cards or other local payment options. This improves choice for consumers, as well as giving them a better rate of currency exchange. For merchants, this means they can improve customer loyalty, customers are less likely to abandon a purchase, and merchants share revenues generated from in-stream foreign exchange.
The Neteller Group’s Netbanx platform provides global payments services used by businesses of all sizes to accept payments via the internet, IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition) and call centre channels. This new release delivers specific enhancements that allow merchants to accept payments from overseas customers, including:
Multi-lingual pay pages that allow merchants to collect payment from consumers in the language of their preference, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Welsh.
In-stream Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) that allows international consumers to pay in their local currency right on a checkout payment page, without having to pay exorbitant acquirer foreign exchange (FX) rates, and without having to wait for their next card statement to see exactly what they have been charged. Merchant’s also have the opportunity share the revenue generated from the foreign exchange transactions that happen on the page.
Support for all major international card payment brands, including Visa and Mastercard.
Support for a broad suite of European non-card and non-global card payment types to allow merchants to offer more funding options to their consumers, including giropay and ELV for Germany, iDEAL for Holland, Carte Bleu, domestic and international for France, and Carte SI for Italy.
The new enhanced version of the payment gateway is available immediately. No further integration is required for existing merchants to access the new features.
