Volume on the eBillme payment system, through which online shoppers pay through their bank’s bill-pay system, tripled in 2008 over 2007, and the company expects continued sharp growth driven partly by its new shopping portals, CEO Marwan Forzley says.
“We maintained the same pace throughout the holiday shopping season, and we’re bullish on 2009,” he says. “We’re looking to triple volume again.”
Forzley attributes eBillme’s growth to the increasing number of merchants, now at about 200, that accept eBillme payments, and to a shift among consumers toward cash-based payments. When online shoppers choose eBillme in a participating merchant’s checkout process, they can view a copy of their bill on their computer screen as well as receive an e-mailed copy of it. They then typically have up to three days to use their own bank’s bill-pay system to send payment to the eBillme network, which then instructs the retailer to ship the order and forwards the retailer the payment.
EBillme charges retailers 1% of the purchase amount, billing them once a month. It also provides additional benefits to shoppers, including a 90-day lowest-price guarantee and a 90-day warranty on purchases.
EBillme launched two shopping portals for the 2008 holiday shopping season, eBillme.com/forher and eBillme.com/forhim, where shoppers can browse merchants that accept eBillme as well as select from products featured on each portal’s home page as among a list of top 10 gifts from eBillme merchants.
Although initially launched just for the holidays, each portal will undergo a redesign and is expected to relaunch as a permanent shopping site later this month, Forzley says.
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