E-Commerce Revenue without the Effort

New payment/accounting system cuts ISPs in on online sales without making them partners in the technological infrastructure.

by Ted Stevenson>
managing editor of ISP-Planet

Want to increase your bottom line by providing commerce services for your customers without having to install and maintain transaction servers and other high-powered hardware and software? A new kind of commerce scheme, launched today (May 17, 1999) by Israel-based TrivNet Inc. and dubbed WiSP, promises to do just that.

WiSP is actually a payment and clearing house system that brokers sales between the customers of participating ISPs and participating online merchants-for the moment, merchandise is limited to digital, downloadable goods, including text-based information such as newspaper articles, electronic images, music, software, and the like. Here's how it works.

At a WiSP enabled site, the buyer makes a selection, a WiSP buying screen appears, the buyer clicks OK, and the item is delivered. Period. That's it. The buyer doesn't have to register or download any software. Neither her identity nor her credit information is transmitted to the seller, so security is not compromised. At the end of the month, buyers receive a billing statement from their ISP, which transfers the revenue-minus commission-to TrivNet. TrivNet then settles with the merchants.

One-click "Buy" page can be branded by vendor.

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