buySAFE blog

VeriSign Announces Partnership and Investment in buySAFE, Inc.

A major announcement and copy of the press release just issued by VeriSign, Inc. 

VeriSign Adds buySAFE Merchant Bonding Solution

to its Offerings for Online Businesses

Global Leader in SSL Security Enables Merchants to Enhance Consumer Trust with Security and Verification of Merchant Reliability

BALTIMORE – August 4, 2009– eTail East Conference, Booth #27 – VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world, is broadening its portfolio of trust-building solutions for online commerce with buySAFE, Inc.  buySAFE provides online merchants a bonding solution that inspects the merchant’s business, monitors their performance and enables shoppers to bond their purchases, which has been shown to significantly increase Web site conversion, sales and customer loyalty.

Under terms of a new alliance, VeriSign will promote the buySAFE solution along with its globally trusted VeriSign® Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificates and VeriSign Secured® Seal solutions.  Together, the two offerings make it easier than ever for online businesses to cultivate trust with consumers. For more information, go to www.verisign.com/buysafe

VeriSign® SSL Certificates with the VeriSign Secured® Seal help assure consumers that their transactions and personal information remain secure.  buySAFE’s bonding solution assures shoppers that the merchant is reliable, stable and able to deliver on the promises made.  By increasing shopper trust and confidence in the merchant, buySAFE increases Web site conversion, generates more repeat buyers and increases merchant profitability.¹  As a result, online shoppers and merchants both benefit.

“As the most trusted brand on the Internet, VeriSign has long provided solutions that help online merchants boost consumer confidence by establishing trusted relationships, and today’s announcement continues this commitment,” said Chris Babel, VeriSign’s senior vice president and general manager, authentication. “Combined with VeriSign SSL protection and the VeriSign Secured Seal, buySAFE’s bonding solution enables online merchants to build greater confidence with online shoppers, helping drive conversion rates and revenues.” 

buySAFE is a two-part trust solution. The buySAFE Seal provides an explicit third party endorsement of a merchant’s quality and reliability, thereby helping eliminate consumer uncertainty.  The buySAFE bond option in checkout provides shoppers a choice to purchase a bond with two benefits: a full guarantee of the transaction terms of sale up to $25,000, and thirty days of identity theft protection service.² The benefits of the bond option provide uncertain shoppers an added level of confidence, which in turn makes them more likely to buy. buySAFE has been shown to increase Web site conversion 10.6 percent on average, making buySAFE’s free solution highly profitable for online merchants.³  Together, the VeriSign and BuySAFE solutions address the two key sources of consumer uncertainty: information security and merchant reliability. 

 

 “We are excited about our alliance with VeriSign, as we offer highly complementary solutions for online merchants,” said Jeff Grass, president and CEO of buySAFE.  “VeriSign’s leadership in authenticating and securing Web sites now combines with buySAFE’s expertise in ensuring confident, fully-guaranteed online shopping through bonding. At a time when consumer confidence is low and online shoppers feel uncertain, the confidence that online merchants can build with VeriSign and buySAFE is invaluable.”

The VeriSign Secured Seal appears on Web pages of merchants whose identities have been verified by VeriSign through SSL certification. Site visitors click on the seal to verify a merchant’s site information in real time. Sites secured by VeriSign SSL and that show the VeriSign Secured Seal have been shown to experience lower shopping cart abandonment and increased visitor-to-sales conversions.⁴

¹  Testing by 12 online merchants (including many in the Internet Retailer Top 500) across 11,200 separate purchases, showed significant increases in repeat buyers who experienced buySAFE 30, 60 and 90 days later.  Your company’s results may vary.

 2 Available to United States based shoppers only.  Not available to shoppers in some states.

³  Average buySAFE Impact Test results based on A-B tests conducted by 45 separate online merchants over 5,228,801 online site visits.  Approximately 50% of visitors were shown the buySAFE Seal and Bond option, and 50% were not.  The average relative increase in conversion for all merchants was 10.6%.  Every merchant participating in the test showed a positive conversion increase of at least 4.5%.  Your company’s results may vary.

⁴  Based on customer reported results. Case studies can be found at: http://www.verisign.com/ssl/ssl-information-center/ssl-case-studies/index.html  Your company’s results may vary. 

About buySAFE

buySAFE, Inc. provides eCommerce bonding services that build consumer confidence and provide significant financial and brand building benefits for online merchants.  buySAFE’s bonding solution is backed by the financial strength of Liberty Mutual, Travelers, and ACE USA and its identity theft protection services are provided in partnership with Assurant Solutions.  With over 4 billion views of the buySAFE Seal, 20 million bonded purchases and over 3,000 buySAFE Bonded Merchants, buySAFE is widely recognized as a leader in providing confidence and safety for online buyers and increased sales and profits for online merchants.  buySAFE’s investors include Grotech Ventures, Core Capital Partners, VeriSign, Inc. and The Hartford Financial Services Group.  For more information, visit:  http://www.buysafe.com

 

About VeriSign  

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ VRSN) is the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world. Billions of times each day, VeriSign helps companies and consumers all over the world engage in communications and commerce with confidence. Additional news and information about the company is available at www.verisign.com.

VeriSign Contacts

Christina Rohall, crohall@verisign.com, 650-336-4663

Investor Relations: Nancy Fazioli, ir@verisign.com, 650-426-5146

buySAFE Contact

Hans Dreyer, hdreyer@buysafe.com, 703-778-4445 x110

Any surety bond or insurance policy or contract issued or sold as part of the buySAFE services will be issued and sold by buySAFE, a licensed insurance producer.  buySAFE, Inc. is an agent for the insurance company that will issue the bond.  VeriSign is not a licensed insurance producer or insurance company.  VeriSign does not have the authority to solicit, negotiate or sell surety bonds or any other insurance policies or contracts.  By promoting, negotiating or selling the buySAFE services, VeriSign is not soliciting, negotiating or selling surety bonds or other insurance policies or contracts.

Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause VeriSign's actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the uncertainty of future revenue and profitability and potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results due to such factors as the inability of VeriSign to successfully develop and market new products and services and customer acceptance of any new products or services, including VeriSign SSL and VeriSign Secured Seal solutions;  the possibility that VeriSign’s announced new services may not result in additional customers, profits or revenues; and increased competition and pricing pressures. More information about potential factors that could affect the company's business and financial results is included in VeriSign's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. VeriSign undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release.

©2009  VeriSign, Inc. All rights reserved. VeriSign, the VeriSign logo, VeriSign Secured,  the Checkmark Circle logo, and other trademarks, service marks, and designs are registered or unregistered trademarks of VeriSign, Inc., and its subsidiaries in the United States and in foreign countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

# # #

What is buySAFE?

In response to many questions from readers to "put it all together for me", here's a quick overview on "The Problem" buySAFE solves, how we solve it and the benefits to online merchants and shoppers.

 

1. The Problem:  
Buyer uncertainty costs online merchants millions of dollars in lost sales and profits each day.  It is a pervasive problem that affects every online retailer — even the biggest sites with the strongest brands.

Source of the Problem:  Consumer uncertainty is caused by two main consumer concerns that, if unanswered, reduce the likelihood of web site visitors becoming buyers.  These are:

v      Is my personal information secure?  SSL & site scanning are website security solutions designed to address this concern.  Shoppers are assured the site is authentic, their information is SSL encrypted and the website is secure from hacker break-in.

v      Is this merchant reliable and will they perform as promised? – buySAFE’s website bonding completely addresses this concern.  buySAFE builds confidence by reducing consumer uncertainty about merchant reliability and performance.

2. The Solution:  buySAFE

buySAFE provides ecommerce merchants a unique trust solution for increasing confidence of website visitors, turning more of them into buyers.

 

buySAFE…

v      Builds confidence with website visitors

o        More visitors become buyers

v      Increases merchant  sales & profits

o        10.6% avg. conversion & sales lift

o        14% avg. increase in repeat buyers

v      FREE solution for online merchants

o        Makes it risk-free to try & use

The Company:

v      Over 4 billion – # of views of the buySAFE Seal online

v      Over 30 million – $ invested in buySAFE, Inc.

v      Over 20 million – # of purchases bonded

v      Over 3000 – # of websites using buySAFE

 

3. How it Works: 
buySAFE is a two-part trust solution, proven to be highly effective at increasing website conversion and sales for ecommerce merchants.

v      The buySAFE Seal provides an explicit 3^rd party endorsement of a merchant’s quality and reliability, thereby eliminating consumer uncertainty.  The buySAFE Seal reassures shoppers that the business behind the website is stable, reliable, trustworthy and able to deliver on the promises made.

v      The buySAFE bond option in checkout, provides shoppers an option – at their choice – to purchase a bond that provides two valued benefits:

        - A full guarantee of the transaction terms of sale up to $25,000 and

        - Thirty days of identity theft protection everywhere, thereby completely addressing the two sources of consumer uncertainty (information security and merchant reliability).

The dual benefits of the bond option provide uncertain shoppers an added level of confidence which in turn, makes them more likely to buy.  Here's an example of the buySAFE Seal and bond option at work in a merchant's shopping cart - they both increase website conversion.

 

 

4.  The Benefits - Increased Website Conversion and Buyer Loyalty

 

A.  buySAFE Increases Website Conversion by over 10%

buySAFE’s value to online buyers and merchants is reflected in increased website conversion and repeat buyer rates seen by buySAFE Merchants. 

v      buySAFE’s average conversion lift over the last three years is over 10% and the impact has been steadily increasing over time.

B. Increases Repeat Buyers by up to 20%

buySAFE increases repeats buyer rates by as much as 20%.  By providing a better buying experience, buyers reward merchants with increased loyalty and repeat purchasing.  

v      As a free service for online merchants, buySAFE is a virtual necessity for every online merchant serious about growing their business.

 

       

        Finally, check back next week as buySAFE will be releasing the results of two in-depth studies on the Conversion & Repeat Buyer Impacts seen by buySAFE Merchants.  This will both be released on this blog within the next two weeks!

Who can you trust these days? Eddie Bauer Holdings Inc. is the latest big name retail brand to file for bankruptcy.

Eddie Bauer now joins Circuit City Stores, Sharper Image, The Parent Co., Tweeter, Fortunoff, Myer Emco, KB Toys Inc., Mervyn’s, Steve & Barry’s, Goody’s, Gottschalk’s, Lenox, Home Décor Products and countless other retailers in going bankrupt in the last year or so...

 

You can see more about the Eddie Bauer bankruptcy filing here courtesy of InternetRetailer.com  http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=30842

 

Eddie Bauer, No. 80 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.  The retailer also announced that subject to court approval and an auction it will sell its assets...

 

Jeff

Steve Woda, Founder and Chairman of buySAFE, Pursues New Entrepreneurial Ventures

Today, I want to personally share with you the news that Steve Woda, buySAFE’s Founder, Chairman, and Senior VP - Product & Strategy, has decided to leave the company to pursue new entrepreneurial interests. Steve has also joined buySAFE’s Board of Advisors so that the company can continue to benefit from his guidance and deep insights into eCommerce and Internet trust and safety.

Steve announced his decision on his blog today at http://www.stevewoda.com/2009/03/thank-you-buysafe.html, and he shared this quote...

”After almost nine years of building buySAFE, I am leaving the Company in very capable hands, with fresh funding, and the brightest future that the Company has ever had. It has been a deeply satisfying experience to create something valuable, and I want to sincerely thank our customers, our partners, my colleagues and the many investors who made buySAFE possible. I am obviously looking forward to my next adventure, but I am also very much looking forward to buySAFE’s continued success over the coming months and years.”

Steve founded buySAFE and developed its early business/technology plans and management team. He combined his background in surety bonding with his expertise in online markets to develop the first mass retail application of surety bonds to protect online purchasers while simultaneously driving up revenue for online merchants.

This innovation has benefited both consumers, who rely on third-party validation to know whom to trust, and merchants, who experience increased sales and profits when they increase buyer confidence. Since Steve founded buySAFE, it has bonded over 19 million online transactions, protected millions of online shoppers, and created tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue for thousands of eCommerce merchants. Today, the buySAFE Seal™ is viewed over 100 million times every month.

While Steve has been engaged in and managed virtually every aspect of the business operations, his most important contributions have been to buySAFE’s product development. He led the Product Team which developed all of the Company’s core products, including the buySAFE Seal™, website bonding, the Safe Shopping Rating™ and most recently buySAFE Shopping Advisor™, which integrates the Safe Shopping Rating™ into all popular search engine results.

Without Steve there would be no buySAFE. His creativity, imagination and persistence gave birth to the concept, the company, and the products that have changed the face of eCommerce. It’s been an honor to work with him.

Jeff Grass
buySAFE CEO & President

Shopping Advisor Blows Past Milestone of 100,000 downloads...

Servers Smoking! Shoppers Buying! Merchants Hearing Ka-Ching!

What do you get when you offer online shoppers a downloadable application that:

1. Marks up a shopper's search results to show each merchant with a four-point Safe Shopping Rating;
2. Directs shoppers to a shopping portal with relevant results from EVERY buySAFE merchant;
3. Tells that shopper that they can hit the BUY NOW button with confidence because they’re protected by dealing with only the best merchants on the web; and
4. Is FREE and EASY TO USE?

Answer: 100,000 DOWNLOADS since January 1. Wow! And the pace is accelerating.

Of course we’re delighted that a GROWING MOB of online shoppers is grabbing Shopping Advisor off our servers and installing it in their desktops. It works with IE, Firefox, and almost every other browser.  

But here’s the great thing about getting Shopping Advisor on the desktops of so many shoppers:  These are shoppers who:

• Want to buy;
• Want to buy from a merchant they can trust;
• Want a tool that helps them answer that question: whom can I trust online?
• Make their purchase from those merchants that rate well in our Safe Shopping Rating.

And so the GOOD NEWS is that buySAFE MERCHANTS now have a growing self-identified customer base that is LOOKING FOR THEM...and has a tool that literally points the way for shoppers to find buySAFE Merchants.  

And, hey, it works: the holiday season shows that merchants who used buySAFE boosted their sales by a range of 10 to 20%!  

Think about it:  10 to 20% increase in gross sales.  
And ask yourself: What merchant can ignore this impact in the tough retail environment today?   

Interested? Please check out Shopping Advisor – to see how shoppers can find Merchants – at buysafe.com.

The equation is simple: Shopper + Shopping Advisor =  Buyer!

Shopping Advisor approved by Mozilla for Firefox

After two months of testing in Mozilla's developmental sandbox, Mozilla approved the buySAFE Shopping Advisor for public distribution via the Firefox Add-on site starting this week.

If you aren't already using Shopping Advisor with your Firefox browser, you should install it as an add-on today.  You can check it out on the official Mozilla Firefox Add-on site here... https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/9009

We are obviously excited about this big milestone, and we hope you will continue to provide us with your feedback, insights and ideas on Shopping Advisor over the coming weeks and months.

Have fun, and happy new year!

Steve Woda

A Holiday Gift from buySAFE... Shopping Advisor 3.0!

As you may have noticed, we just released a new version of Shopping Advisor for Internet Explorer!

Before giving you the highlights of this release, we want you to know that you will not need to re-install Shopping Advisor. This upgrade automatically occurred when you started your browser (If you haven't yet received the upgrade, you will the next time you start your browser).

What is new? As many of you know, we have been receiving lots of terrific feedback from you over the last several months, and based on that feedback, we have modified several key features to provide you with a better experience as follows:

• More risk-free Shopping
  You no longer need to be logged into your buySAFE account in order to receive full protection for the purchases you make through Shopping Advisor.
  
  If you purchase items from Bonded Merchants via the Safe Shopping Portal, we will automatically issue a bond guarantee (up to $25,000) for your purchase and as well as complimentary ID theft protection for 30 days.  You can then access your buySAFE account to get more details about your protection.

• Product Recommendations at your fingertips
  Product recommendations from the Safe Shopping Portal will automatically appear at the top of the search results pages on Google, Yahoo and MSN / Live, so that you can have immediate access to millions of products from the most trusted merchants on the Internet. 

• Better search results
  We have improved the Safe Shopping Portal results to give you more product selection.

• Instant access to Safe Shopping Ratings
  Click on the Rating button and you can immediately check the rating of any online store.

Try out these new features and please, keep on sending us your feedback and your ideas on how to better serve online shoppers!  We really love to hear from you.

Steve

Merchant Shows 22.2% Lift in Conversion Rates with buySAFE Seal

buySAFE Case Study Preview

We’re going to publish a new case study soon that shows how a computer hardware and software store CompSource demonstrated a 22.2% lift in conversion rate after extensive test of buySAFE Seal™. We’re previewing a draft of this on the blog right now as a courtesy to our merchant readers who want to generate more sales during this critical shopping period. Our thanks to our friends at CompSource for cooperating with this test and case study.  

[Case Study #9  — DRAFT]

The CompSource Question

CompSource is a well-regarded online merchant specializing in name-brand computer hardware and software products. CompSource’s large sales volume enables it to offer super-competitive pricing. Ranked among the top 500 companies in the current Internet Retailer 500 Rankings and a CNET-certified merchant, CompSource receives over 3500 unique visitors daily to its website, www.compsource.com, and looks for innovative ways to convert these visitors to buyers.

To boost that conversion rate, CompSource undertook to evaluate the buySAFE Seal. The buySAFE Seal allows shoppers to guarantee their purchases with buySAFE bond up to $25,000, and lets shoppers know that they are dealing with a buySAFE merchant.

CompSource recently participated in a extensive test that placed the buySAFE Seal™ on half of its merchandise to answer the question:  Will the presence of the buySAFE Seal turn more shoppers into buyers at the CompSource website?

The Test

In order to test the impact of the buySAFE Seal™, CompSource worked with buySAFE to allow the buySAFE Seal™  to be placed on about 50% of the items on the web site during the summer … a so-called “A/B Test”. The items of merchandise WITH Seals (A’s) and those WITHOUT Seals (B’s) were chosen randomly – so that the presence of the Seal was the only variable between the two sets. The test conformed to statistically rigorous standards and was professionally administered. Over 360,000 shoppers visited the site during the testing period.

And the Results?   

The test results established that those CompSource shoppers who saw the buySAFE Seal were 22.2% more likely to make a purchase than those shoppers who did not. There are several conclusions and implications to these results:

1. The obvious one is that when consumers see the buySAFE Seal they are much more likely to buy than when there is no seal — from the SAME merchant.
2. That out of every 100 shoppers, there are differing priorities as to what factor will close the sale.  For some, it may be purely low price; for others, it may be credible messaging around risk-free shopping.  No merchant can afford to ignore that finding without hurting its conversion rate.
3. Even a very successful IR500 Merchant, which also has benefit of a CNET certification, enjoyed dramatic lift in its conversion rate … suggesting that size and reputation alone are not sufficient to resolve all shopper concerns:  the buySAFE Seal ™ adds value even to this class of merchant.
4. That for those shoppers who are especially looking for a safe shopping experience – no hassles -- low price alone is not sufficient to compel the purchase.
5. That those shoppers who are risk-averse may also have a higher propensity to purchase once their confidence threshold had been met …in fact, they plainly weigh the value of the safety promise more heavily than additional price discounts in making the purchase decision.    

The Bottom Line for Online Merchants

Consumer confidence at the point of sale matters. The presence of the buySAFE Seal™ has been proven with high statistical validity to cause a higher percentage of shoppers to buy WITH the Seal present than WITHOUT IT. Any merchant who decides NOT to use the buySAFE Seal is foregoing customers and revenue.  

Resources: CompSource Website

Don't Get Tricked by Tough Market; Key to Success Is Converting Scared Shoppers into Confident Buyers

It’s Halloween. But that’s not what’s scary. What’s scary are the headlines you see every day:

• “Consumer Confidence Hits New Lows”
• “Retail Faces Grim Season”
• “Online Not Immune from Economic Woes”

So how can YOU fight the trend, and make money precisely because of the widespread anxiety about the economy?

Two answers that drive your revenue NOW:

1. buySAFE takes the risk out of shopping online. Consumers know this and 17 million safe transactions prove it. Now, with the buySAFE Shopping Advisor™, buySAFE Merchants have a huge advantage – Safe Shopping Ratings are displayed right in the Shoppers' search results: It’s like a traffic cop directing shoppers TOWARDS the buySAFE merchants, AWAY from the rest!
   • If you’re a buySAFE merchant, then you’re already benefiting from this. Check it out for yourself by searching for yourself with Shopping Advisor here.
   • If you’re not yet a buySAFE Merchant, then apply now at www.buySAFE.com. It costs nothing to apply or enroll.
2. Tell your customers about the buySAFE Shopping Advisor. This helps you two ways:
   • The message reinforces that shoppers can buy from YOU this shopping season with no worries … because you are a buySAFE merchant. Whenever they search for something you sell, the search results will highlight that you are a buySAFE Merchant.
   • For each of your customers that installs Shopping Advisor, we pay you $4. It’s that easy. Click here to enroll in the Shopping Advisor Referral Program.  Everything you need to be paid for referring your customers is right there, including marketing info.*  Do it now: your customers will thank you and we will pay you!

Remember: A shopper + confidence = a buyer

> You CANNOT afford to fool around this holiday shopping season.
> Confidence-proof your store today with buySAFE!

Thanks for applying to be a buySAFE Merchant, and for joining the Shopping Advisor Referral Program today,

Travis Brown
Vice President, buySAFE, Inc.

* The full terms and conditions of the Referral Program are at http://www.buysafe.com/shoppingadvisor/referral.html; the $4 payment is a promotion that may be changed at any time.

Free Webinar - How to Gain Customers and Customer Loyalty During the Holidays

Special Announcement

buySAFE to Co-Host Webinar to Focus on Ways to Boost YOUR Online Sales in the Holiday Season.

buySAFE and MerchantAdvantage will together give you practical, actionable advice that WILL impact your bottom line in this challenging retail environment.

Webinar Program 
Title: How to Gain Customers and Customer Loyalty During the Holidays
Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM Eastern / 11:00 AM Pacific
Enroll: Click here to enroll for this FREE Webinar. Space is Limited.

Even during difficult economic times, consumers still shop online. In fact, that will probably be the place they will shop most in an effort to save money rather than going to the "brick and mortar" stores. Therefore, it is important to reach these customers cost-effectively and then build long-term relationships with them so that you maximize the ROI on your marketing spend.

During this 45 minute Webinar, buySAFE and MerchantAdvantage will provide precise steps any online retailer can take to reach and convert those consumers that are most likely to become a repeat customer during the Holiday season and beyond.

Online shopping, whether on a laptop or mobile device, continues to be the preferred way to reach new customers, build your brand, and gain customer loyalty. As part of MerchantAdvantage’s A.M.M.O for 2008 series, October’s Webinar with co-host buySAFE will:

• Show online retailers how to stay ahead of the competition by identifying, targeting and converting the most valuable Internet shoppers
• Outline 4 phases using the "right" marketing channels to reach high-value shoppers during the Holidays to increase sales
• Show online retailers how they can present their e-commerce products in front of millions of shoppers
• Prove and show how any online retailer can afford to implement alternative, multi-channel marketing methods
• Highlight a Case Study by buySAFE: "How buySAFE Increases Sales, Order Size, and Profitability"

Join us for this insightful 45 minute MerchantAdvantage Webinar presented by Chip Arndt, EVP & Co-founder of MerchantAdvantage with Tim Woda, Vice President, Business Development & Sales, of buySAFE.

	Presenter:		Co-Host:
	Chip Arndt Executive VP & Co-founder		Tim Woda Vice President, Business Development & Sales

This Webinar will arm you with information you need to make smart, cost-effective marketing decisions in the online retail and mobile commerce world for the Holidays.

Merchants cannot afford to miss this FREE Webinar!

Webinar Details
Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM Eastern / 11:00 AM Pacific
Enroll: Click here to enroll

Don’t miss this opportunity. Space is Limited

(Enroll URL: http://www.merchantadvantage.com/webinar08/10162008/index.cfm?p=BSWEB)

buySAFE Announces Several Key Syndication Partnerships to Reach More Merchants and Buyers

In September, buySAFE announced the launch of several new partnerships, extending its position as the leading ecommerce trust and safety company and the exclusive provider of risk-free, bonded shopping.

Long recognized as one of the premier Yahoo! Store Developers, Solid Cactus, Inc. offers successful retailers a variety of other services including FeedPerfect — a hosted product data syndication solution. Last month FeedPerfect became the latest product syndication partner providing support for the buySAFE Bonded Shopping Network (BSN), our performance-based advertising network launched earlier this year. FeedPerfect provides merchants with a seamless way to send their product inventory to dozens of the top shopping channels and effectively measure their results to better manage their ROI.

Other buySAFE product syndication partners include MerchantAdvantage, Channel Intelligence , Mercent and SingleFeed.

Last month, both UltraCart and Flashecom integrated buySAFE into their ecommerce platforms.  Now, thousands of additional merchants are able to add the buySAFE Seal and bonding option to their retail websites in minutes — free of charge.  Merchants using either shopping cart also have the ability to participate in the buySAFE Bonded Shopping Network (BSN). UltraCart merchants are in the unique position of being able to submit their product data feeds to the BSN directly from their shopping cart application — a first among buySAFE’s integrated shopping cart partners.

We're obviously thrilled to be working with all three of these fantastic new partners and to be in a position to provide our services to their merchants.

— Tim Woda, buySAFE, Inc. VP of Sales and Business Development

How Safe is Paid Search?

Today’s buySAFE Blog is contributed by Michael Beveridge, VP of Business Intelligence and Optimization. Michael has turned his formidable quantitative powers to a question that any on-line consumer – and merchant – should ask:  Are the results in paid search any safer than those you see in natural search results?

The Question

buySAFE recently conducted an in-depth study to understand whether online stores who use paid search are more or less safe shopping alternatives than those stores that a shopper would find using only natural search.

What is Paid Search?

Paid search simply allows a merchant to pay the search engine to elevate that merchant in the display of any search results. It is like any advertising: paying for the placement of the merchant’s name in a certain context. Paid search provides an incremental revenue stream for search engine providers — a revenue stream they optimize by allowing advertisers to bid for preferential placement. Advertisers are advantaged as they can precisely promote their products in search results to those shoppers who are looking to buy such products.  For consumers, there is expansion of product choice as paid search opens up a full second stream of responses above and beyond the "natural results" otherwise provided by the search engine. Given the search engine's ability to micro-segment and to provide real time market-clearing pricing, paid search is an efficient mechanism to provide relevant AND economically efficient choice to consumers.

But how does merchant safety compare in natural vs. paid search? When searching for a product, and faced with the option of engaging with a merchant encountered through organic search, vs. paid search, where can a buyer feel more confident that they will be dealing with the most reputable on-line seller, who is following best practices, and is most likely to follow through on their sales terms and conditions?

Forces that May Make Paid Search More or Less Safe than Organic Search

Moral Hazard — or advertising incents bad guys to disguise themselves as good guys.
The web  provides ample opportunity for less reputable sellers to use the anonymity of the web to disguise themselves as market leaders. There is ample evidence and examples of market actors attempting to manipulate their feedback rating, scores, customer feedback, etc. in order to provide buyers a sense of comfort dis-proportionate to the seller’s true track record and commitment to fulfillment. Paid search provides broad reach to a small, un-established seller, who would not typically show up prevalently in natural search. As it is very difficult, a priori, to distinguish the highly reputable small sellers from his disreputable look-alike, there is strong incentive for marginal players to leverage paid search.

Marginal Economics — or it’s cheaper to sell when  you don’t honor a guarantee. Reputation and the financial and operating investments required to run a reputable franchise are expensive. Building the security, compliance, privacy policy, product guarantee, customer services and dispute resolution process one would expect from a reputable seller are significant elements of the seller’s cost structure. Bad actors, by comparison, gain a significant cost  advantage by ignoring such expected best practices. By extension, the ROI decision for a bad actor is advantaged relative to a reputable seller, as both face market driven CPC or CPA rates for customer (click) acquisition.

The Economics of Advertising —or advertising signals institutional permanence.
Conversely, there is a well-established literature in economics that market leaders advertise as a way to signal financial stability and institutional longevity. A well- established player, while interested in advertising spends that are NPV positive, may also recognize that an advertising campaign will continuously establish them as market leaders. A reputable market leader may also have the incentive to establish a search advertising strategy that prevents competitors and/or less reputable predators from gaining a foothold on its natural sales arena.

buySAFE’s Findings on the Trustworthiness of Paid Search

Over the last several months, buySAFE has conducted an analysis to assess the relative ‘trustworthiness’ of merchants who show up in natural vs. paid search. By trustworthy, we applied a fully objective standard, the buySAFE Shopping Advisor. The buySAFE Shopping Advisor systematically examines online sellers and assesses them against a four point objective framework – Simply put, is the merchant following  best practices for online sellers:

• SSL Encryption: Is a valid SSL in use to ensure secure data transmission?
• Website Security: Is the merchant's website regularly inspected for security vulnerabilities?
• Privacy:  Is there a published privacy policy describing how the merchant will protect personal information?
• Bonded Shopping: Is the merchant bonded so the shopper can trust the merchant will perform as promised and that the purchase will be fully guaranteed?

buySAFE performed online searches for the 290 most popular consumer products, as measured and published by ebay pulse (http://pulse.ebay.com). We then compared the average buySAFE Safe Shopping Rating for search results for these common products provided by Google, MSN and Yahoo and compared the average results for natural and paid search.

In short, across the three major search engines – Google, Yahoo and MSN, the average Safe Shopping Rating for paid search was consistently higher than natural search.

So What Does this Mean?

At a macro level, this demonstrates that merchants using paid search results tend to be marginally safer, and adopt at higher rates the best practices of on-line selling. On the surface, this would suggest that the incentive for less reputable players to steal share is trumped by incumbents’ ability to finance ad campaigns and defend their natural turf.

However, the impact is only marginal. If a buyer were looking for a sure-fire way to find fully reputable merchants, paid search is not the entire answer. Put another way, paid search   gives the consumer higher odds of finding reputable merchants, but she is still not 100% guaranteed to find one.

And that’s part of the problem for the online shopper – you are either safe, or you are not safe – and, as with bungee jumping, you don’t find out until it’s too late to cancel. And if you are marginally more safe with paid search – you are still not 100% safe.

And that is where the buySAFE Shopping Advisor as a consumer tool comes in. By installing the buySAFE shopping Advisor, the consumer will know, real time, and at the point of sale, which seller (via natural OR paid search) is following which best practices, and can make an informed purchase decision EVEN BEFORE GOING TO THE MERCHANT’S SITE. No more guesswork, no more playing the odds.

But How Do I – the Individual Consumer - Benefit from the buySAFE Shopping Advisor?

Thanks for asking! It’s incredibly easy, quick and free (both to download and to use). Just click here to try Shopping Advisor.

— Michael Beveridge, buySAFE, Inc., VP of Business Intelligence and Optimization