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Reseller Newsletter - April 2006

Welcome to the first Authorize.Net Reseller Newsletter of 2006. We are truly excited about the year ahead and the opportunities we have to continue to strengthen our relationships with our valued reseller partners. Throughout the year we'll be announcing new products and solutions as well as upgrades to existing products, designed to save you and your merchants' time and money while enhancing security and generating new revenue streams. We're pleased to be able to share our success with you, our trusted partners—read on to learn more about Authorize.Net and how we can help you to achieve even greater success in 2006.

ETA News - Visit Us at Booth #925

It's that time of year, and we're excited to see and catch up with many of you at the 2006 Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) Annual Meeting and Expo, taking place April 18-20 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in sunny Las Vegas. Be sure to stop by our booth to visit with us and view demos of many of our value-adding products and upcoming releases, including Multiple User Accounts. We are also anxious to hear your thoughts on our payment gateway services and to discuss the pertinent issues and challenges that have emerged in the industry over the past year. We'll see you soon!

Practical eCommerce Magazine

Practical eCommerce is an outstanding new periodical (first edition July 2005) that targets small- to medium-sized e-commerce businesses, providing them with relevant and timely articles and editorials. "As I read through the premier issue, I was impressed with its unique and valuable content," said Authorize.Net President Roy Banks. "Covering must-read topics such as Web marketing, search engine optimization, blogging, and more, Practical eCommerce should be part of every merchant's business."

Authorize.Net recently partnered with Practical eCommerce to distribute the April 2006 edition, "The Payments Issue," to tens of thousands of our merchants. We have also negotiated an advantageous subscription rate for both our merchants and resellers. To subscribe, simply log into the Reseller Interface and click on the Practical eCommerce Subscription Offer link.

Articles in the April issue include:

  • Credit Card Transactions: Follow The Money
  • Payment Processing: Choose the System That Fits
  • Ecommerce Fraud: Build A Human Firewall
  • Shopping Carts: Features to Consider
  • Accept Checks Online with ACH Payment Processing
  • Ecommerce Sales Enter the Mainstream

There's also an extensive interview with the president of Authorize.Net, Roy Banks, that we know you won't want to miss! Complementary copies of the April edition of Practical eCommerce will be available at ETA. Be sure to stop by our booth #925, to pick one up! You can learn more about Practical eCommerce at http://www.practicalecommerce.com.

Authorize.Net Virtual Point of Sale

In response to heavy demand, we are pleased to announce the release of the Authorize.Net branded Virtual Point of Sale (VPOS)! VPOS is an innovative and smart solution for retail businesses that have an Internet-connected computer and need simple, fast, and reliable point-of-sale payment processing. VPOS is an ideal processing solution for Card Present (CP) retail merchants due to low up-front costs and ease of implementation. To use VPOS, merchants simply need an Authorize.Net CP account, a CP merchant account, a computer with Windows Internet Explorer, and an inexpensive MagTek® USB HID swipe card reader.

VPOS maintains Authorize.Net's commitment to vigilant data security. Not only does it assure that sensitive cardholder data is never stored on merchants' computers, but it provides a level of security not offered by other products; VPOS locks communication between the MagTek swipe card reader and the merchant's browser, preventing other applications from accessing the swipe card reader.

For more information about how you can start signing up merchants for Authorize.Net VPOS, contact Reseller Support at resellersupport@authorize.net or 888-437-0481.

Reseller Training and Rewards Program

We are excited to announce the launch of our new Reseller Training and Rewards Program (RTRP). This program is designed to strengthen your Authorize.Net reselling initiatives and capabilities by providing extensive education and training on a range of Authorize.Net Payment Gateway services. It is our goal that by taking full advantage of the courses and services offered as a part of the RTRP, that you will maximize your existing revenue streams while attracting promising new merchants. In addition, the program will include valuable incentives and rewards for the completion of trainings and other program requirements.

Look for more information coming soon and be sure to ask about the RTRP at ETA or email us at training@authorize.net.

Multiple User Accounts

Multiple User Accounts capabilities for the Merchant Interface will be released to new merchants on May 8, 2006. This new standard feature will benefit merchants by providing stronger security for account access, including the ability to establish multiple, customizable, user accounts.

The implementation of this new and highly requested feature includes administrative changes to the Reseller Interface and possible changes to your business practices.

  • The use of merchant login IDs will be discontinued – Because this feature requires each individual user of a payment gateway account to have his or her own secure login ID, merchant login IDs will no longer be used for merchant identification. As a result existing merchant login IDs will be removed from the Reseller Interface and from all reports. The merchant's Authorize.Net ID will be renamed the Payment Gateway ID, and will be the primary value for identifying merchants. Please be aware that this change will NOT affect your merchants' ability to process transactions.

    If you are still using Authorize.Net login IDs to manage merchants in your business management systems, you must update your systems to use the merchant Authorize.Net ID, or Payment Gateway ID, prior to May 8, 2006. Failure to do so may result in a broken integration of Reseller Interface reports with your merchant management systems.
  • The Add Merchant process will no longer include creating a merchant login ID – Instead of creating a login ID for the merchant, an automatic welcome email is sent to the merchant including a dynamic link and activation code. When the merchant clicks the link, he or she will be directed to the Merchant Interface activation pages where he or she will create a new and individual user login ID.
  • Login IDs will no longer be a criteria for merchant searches – Following the release of the Multiple User Accounts feature, you may search for merchants in the Reseller Interface by Payment Gateway ID, Name, or User Login ID.

To view a demo of specific changes to the Reseller Interface as a result of the release of Multiple User Accounts, please visit http://www.authorize.net/demos/RINTdemo.htm.

Authorize.Net will begin enabling the Multiple User Accounts feature for existing merchants systematically by reseller beginning May 15, 2006. For additional information about the Multiple User Accounts feature, please see the Reseller Guide to Multiple User Accounts.

Save on Security with a Comodo SSL Certificate

Authorize.Net is always looking for new opportunities to provide our merchants with ways to enhance their business, including providing tools to save money.

In this spirit, Authorize.Net has teamed up with Comodo, Inc., a leading Certification Authority with over 200,000 customers, to offer Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates to Authorize.Net merchants and resellers at a discounted price. Comodo SSL certificates are available in two levels: InstantSSL and PremiumSSL. At only a fraction of the price of comparable certificates from other companies, these certificates are by far the most cost-effective 128-bit SSL certificates available today.

To learn more about Comodo SSL certificates offered through Authorize.Net, please visit http://www.authorize.net/sslcertificates.

eCheck.Net®

Authorize.Net is proud of the residual payments we provide to our reseller partners. We strongly believe in our channel distribution model and continually work to find ways to enhance your revenue streams. That's why we hope you'll seriously consider eCheck.Net®, Authorize.Net's exclusive electronic check service.

eCheck.Net can provide you with a powerful new revenue stream while presenting your merchants with a flexible, secure, and reliable option for processing electronic check transactions. With great options such as new lower buy rates, volume-based pricing, and the ability to set your own sell rates and offer price incentives to preferred merchants, we've specifically built eCheck.Net to assist you in improving your bottom line. In addition, resellers now have the ability to initiate and track the status of the merchant setup process in the Authorize.Net Reseller Interface.

To learn more about how eCheck.Net can benefit your merchants, stop by to our booth at ETA, visit our Web site at www.authorize.net/echecknet or contact Reseller Support at 888-437-0481.

2006 Survey Results

Each year Authorize.Net surveys its merchants and resellers to get your input on what we're doing well, how we can improve, and what you're thinking about the industry. Our recently completed 2006 surveys generated more responses than ever! As we review and analyze the data, we will be sharing findings and insights from resellers and merchants, and searching for ways to incorporate the feedback into the products and services we provide. In the meantime, here is some information from our preliminary analysis.

Fraud
Among the Authorize.Net merchants who responded to the survey, 29% reported that their business had been impacted by fraud in the last 12 months. Clearly fraud prevention will continue to be critical for our merchants. We hope you'll join us in encouraging your merchants to take advantage of standard payment gateway features such as the Address Verification Service and Card Code Verification, as well our advanced tool the Fraud Detection Suite™ (FDS). In the next month we'll be announcing important changes to our FDS pricing structure to make it even easier for merchants to protect themselves with this important fraud prevention tool and thus strengthen your merchant base. Look for more information arriving soon after ETA.

Customer Support
In 2005, Authorize.Net Customer Support logged over 329,000 calls, and over 82% of our merchants indicated satisfaction with their overall level of support. The number was even higher for resellers at 86%. These figures represent significant increases over the 2005 ratings of 66% and 79%, respectively.

PayPal
PayPal continues to be a hot topic among merchants and resellers. Nearly three-quarters of you (72%) indicated that you are at least "Somewhat" concerned with PayPal's move into a merchant account business for non-auction transactions, an increase from 63% in 2005. In terms of addressing the threat of PayPal, many of you cited plans to educate your merchants about the advantages of a traditional merchant account.

Authorize.Net is your staunch ally in this endeavor. We have taken an aggressive stand regarding PayPal's approach to the payments industry. If you haven't yet read our thoughts regarding PayPal, please go to the Resource Center on the Reseller Interface and read the article, "Are You Protecting Your Merchants and Business from PayPal?"

For more information on reaching your merchants about the essential benefits of a full merchant account and the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway, stop by to talk with us at ETA or contact Reseller Support at 888-437-0481.

Thank you to all who participated in the survey!

QuickBooks

In late 2005, Authorize.Net was pleased to introduce the standard QuickBooks report and download feature in the Merchant Interface. This feature is designed to help merchants using QuickBooks enhance their transaction management capabilities.

QuickBooks functionality is a standard feature of your merchants' payment gateway account and is available at no additional cost. To learn more about this new feature, please see the What's New Guide - Merchants.

Pressure's On Tobacco Merchants

As you are well aware, being a member of the payments industry involves daily evaluation of risk when providing many different types of merchants with financial services. As e-commerce opportunities continue to explode for a variety of merchant markets, merchants selling products and services that require legal regulation by state and federal entities are coming under increased scrutiny.

At the present time, merchants selling tobacco products online are particularly under fire. We are doing all we can to negotiate conditions and compliance requirements that will work to preserve our mutual ability to provide services to these merchants and others with a similar level of risk.

As you know, Authorize.Net is extremely careful to provide payment processing services only to merchants who operate their businesses legally. We will continue to investigate and implement practices that will allow us to provide services to high risk merchants whose intentions are to conduct business appropriately and lawfully. We will also be sure to keep you apprised of these types of concerns regarding tobacco merchants and other high risk merchant industries as they develop.

Thank You!
We want to say thank you for helping us get off to a fantastic start in 2006. March was our best month ever and we're looking forward to continued success throughout the year. The fact that you choose to resell the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway means a lot to us. We will continue to earn your trust and business and exceed your expectations in every way possible.

 
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