Monday, February 6, 2006

Pay by Touch Online

From DEMO Conference 2006: Pay by Touch announces biometric online payment system.

Could it be that this is going to put Pay by Touch in the business history books, the same way that coffee put StarBucks, books put Amazon, and web access put AOL?

Online payments boomed in 2005, despite online-security and ID Theft fears running rampant. According to comScore Networks, "Last year, consumers spent a total of $143.2 billion online, 22 percent more than in 2004. So far this year, online spending overall has surpassed $9 billion, again, a 22 percent increase over the amount spent in the first few weeks of 2005.
Pay by Touch is now introducing the first payment system that utilizes biometric security to purchase online goods. Here's a major variable to consider: Pay By Touch has the only biometrically-enabled ACH platform designed for Internet use. That is one helluva market position to be in at this time and space... just wait until they incorporate their proprietary PIN Debit Internet Platform. (read about the PBT PIN Debit platform at Digital Transaction News Magazine)
Unlike Paypal, it will eradicate the use of passwords, be muti-authenticated (biometric sign-on, keyless entry of PIN) AND and eliminate the need for any personal information (not even your shipping address) being typed in. But the biggest advantage over Paypal is that it introduces loyalty rewards to Internet consumers while at the same time, administer loyalty programs for Internet Merchants.
Loyalty plays a bigger role on-line than it does in brick and mortar stores, because of the ability to Google's, Froogle. Loyal customers, with the savings derived from merchants using Pay by Touch, will, in my estimation, receive a better overall online shopping experience staying loyal, (and better customer service) than they possibly could derive from Froogulating about.

Currently, online merchants pay inordinate amounts to process a transaction. The reason is that there is no credit card present, so the risk for fraud is exponentially higher. Pay by Touch eliminates the card at brick and mortarl establishment, so why would the risk be higher for an online merchant? The answer is it would be lower. This is about to change everything. 10 years ago, nobody used e-mails. Now everybody uses them.. Expect the same for biometric payments.
This is a paradigm shift in how the internet payment space will work. PayPal, owned by eBay, will at least keep them as a major client, but the rest of the "Internet Retail 500" will no longer have reason to do business with them. Why? Because with Pay by Touch they'll save so much money on processing transactions, that they'll have no choice but to switch to this win-win offering from Pay by Touch.
Pay by Touch, although they have not publicly announced rates, have stated that with their platform, Internet retailers (and we're talking about the top internet retailers) will cut their processing of transactions in half. Based on the fact that these retailers work on such slim margins, a biometric ACH will be a most attractive alternative to their current processing methods. Instead of paying a 3% discount rate on a $100 transaction, plus transaction fees, internet retailers will pay a flat rate for an ACH transaction.
The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring and U.S. Robotics. With such an impressive reputation, consider this very powerful quote from Chris Shipley, executive producer of Demo 2006, where PBT introduced PBT Online:

The incessant news of data thefts, spyware and other information security threats undermine online trust, leaving too many people rightfully wary about the safety of their personal information," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of DEMO 2006. "By offering consumers the security and convenience of finger scan authentication on laptops and PCs, Pay By Touch Online will rebuild consumers' confidence in the safety of online transactions and accelerate e-business overall."
Read the entire press release here.
Learn more about Pay by Touch here: www.paybytouch.com