Online discount retailer Buy.com has always offered a range of payment options for consumers with credit, including credit cards and such alternative methods as Google Checkout and PayPal, which can be funded with credit cards. A year ago it added eBillme, which lets consumers pay with funds in the bank, and it’s brought new customers to Buy.com, says Jeff Wisot, vice president of marketing at the e-retailer.
Seven of 10 of the customers who have checked out with eBillme in the past year were new to Buy.com, which has served 12 million online shoppers since launching in 1997. “It’s exciting when a partner can bring in a new demographic for us, and that’s what eBillme has done,” Wisot says.
With eBillme, a customer gets an invoice for the purchase amount, then pays it through an online bill payment system, as though it were a utility bill or mortgage payment. A new feature eBillme added last month allows consumers to pay for online purchases with cash at 75,000 locations, including 40,000 MoneyGram outlets.
“These are people who are turned off from using credit or who don’t have credit,” Wisot says. “A lot of people these days are trying to pay down their credit, and this is something that would appeal to a lot of those people.”
Wisot has also been pleased to see that eBillme users are buying higher-ticket items—the average value of their orders is 70% higher than the $107 average for Buy.com, Wisot says. While he would not say what percentage of orders eBillme accounts for on average, he says it’s gone as high as 6% when either Buy.com or eBillme has promoted the payment option.
Buy.com is No. 33 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
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