(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Earlier this week, payment processing startup UpClick (www.upclick.com) launched what it termed “the industry’s first free payment processing solution for online merchants,” setting out to provide online merchants – albeit a limited selection of merchants - with an alternative to per-transaction processing fees.
According to the FAQ on the UpClick website, the company’s service is currently limited to the sale of digitally delivered software and ebooks.
UpClick says its processing is free on transactions of up to $40. On larger transactions, it charges a 6.9 percent processing fee on the amount in excess of $40, comparable to the percentage charged for the whole transaction by many payment processors.
“High costs put online merchants such as software companies in a difficult position – by conservative estimates, they are essentially writing off a tenth of their revenues,” says Daniel Assouline, UpClick’s CEO and co-founder, quoted in the press release. “Alternative payment options such as PayPal, Google Checkout and Amazon Payments have emerged with attractive promotions, but they provide only a subset of services that software merchants need and have failed to permanently address the costly strain on a merchant’s bottom line.”
The free processing, says UpClick is supported by an affiliate marketing network, through “cross-selling,” a process by which the company offers “complementary, non-competitive offers” at the point of checkout. Merchants choose from their own products, and those offered by other companies, and offer them for sale after the sale of their own product has closed. The free transactions are funded by the aggregate sales across the service’s affiliate network.
The company’s website includes a rate calculator designed to determine the potential savings generated by using the service in comparison to competing offerings.
Early adopters of the UpClick platform, says the company, include Avanquest, Sunbelt Software, Ashampoo and Uniblue. Software merchants can also build the UpClick service into the “free trial” functions of their software.
Payment for products sold through the UpClick service is delivered via check, wire transfer or direct deposit, made bi-weekly based on a minimum payment of $100.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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