Online payment transactions rose 75% in 2002 over `01, VeriSign says

In another measure of how well the online retail world is doing compared to offline, payments processor VeriSign Inc. said the number of online payments transactions conducted by its client merchants rose 75% in 2002 over 2001.

VeriSign also said its clients saw substantial increases in the value of transactions. It noted that the average dollar amount per transaction for the 50 largest VeriSign client merchants reached $123.85 in December 2002, nearly three times the average transaction of $43.91 in December 2001. Mountain View, CA-based VeriSign says it has 80,000 merchant clients and processes more than 25% of all online merchants` Internet transactions.

"In a year when overall holiday spending was off because of macro economic conditions, our average merchant saw sales increases of approximately 5%, which demonstrates that consumers trust the Internet as a secure method of purchasing products and services," said Barry McCarthy, vice president and general manager, VeriSign Payment Services. VeriSign said it also found, however, that 59% of respondents to a survey this month said they were still concerned about online fraud.