Green Sheet

mid projections for a banner holiday shopping season in 2004, especially in the area of online purchases, Authorize.Net Corp. announced on Dec. 20, 2004 it had reached a major milestone.

The payment gateway provider processed over 1 million transactions in a 24-hour period, reflecting not only the company's capacity for supporting a high volume of transactions and strong market presence, but the increasing number of people opting to shop on the Internet as well.

The National Retail Federation projected that in 2004, 86 million people would do at least some of their holiday shopping online and that e-commerce sales would reach $21.6 billion in November and December.

Also, between Dec. 13 - 17, 2004, online retail sales shot up 49% compared with the same period the previous year. Other factors, including shorter shipping times and improved options to buy merchandise online and pick it up at brick-and-mortar locations, contributed to this increase.

Authorize.Net processes payment transactions for more than 108,000 merchants in almost every category of e-commerce, so it's likely that some shoppers' purchases were made possible by Authorize.Net technology this holiday season, the company said.

As e-commerce continues to grow, Authorize.Net will leverage its reputation for stability and reliability to maintain its role as a vital piece of the Internet e-commerce infrastructure. Data indicate that 30% of the U.S. population has made online purchases; that could increase to 50% of Americans spending $230 billion online by 2008.

In November, we reported on expectations for e-commerce for the 2004 holiday season and overall (see "On Every Merchant's Holiday Wish List: E-commerce," The Green Sheet, Nov. 22, 2004, issue 04:11:02). By the end of the year, shoppers will have spent $144 billion online.

The growth of e-commerce, as well as Authorize.Net's foothold in the market attracted the attention of Lightbridge Inc., a company that provides a wide range of e-business solutions. Authorize.Net was founded in 1996 and was acquired by Lightbridge in April 2004.