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California-based
E-Commerce Exchange (ECX) now offers merchants a complete e-commerce
package. In addition to offering credit card and check payment processing,
ECX now provides small business owners with a total online storefront
through www.ecxstores.com. ecxstores.com
is an online community of small businesses. An ecxstores.com technician
will design a fully operational Web page for the merchant at no additional
cost. Merchants can also create their own coupons for customers. A typical
ecxstore.com customer account includes a Web site, hosting, product and
service descriptions, shopping cart, special promotions, and site updates.
Pricing depends on the number of products a merchant has, but a store with
up to 50 items costs $89.00 per month. According
to Michael Mattos, Director of Business Development, “The most
compelling aspect of ecxstores.com is the ability to help merchants who
not only need credit card processing, but also require an Internet
storefront. Before ecxstores.com, ECX would refer merchants to another
company for the Web site creation and run the risk of losing the sale.” “Twenty
percent of ECX leads are merchants who do not yet have a Web site, and
choose to create one through ecxstores.com. In addition, eighty percent
are merchants who have an existing site, and choose to participate into
ECX’s stores community. The financial benefits of offering a complete
e-commerce package are obvious,” Mattos said. Small
Beginnings to Millions ECX
understands the difficulties small businesses face. In 1989, Darrin and
Heather Ginsberg started the company out of their garage. Today, ECX has
blossomed into a nationwide credit card processing company with more than
200 employees and 17 independently-owned offices nationwide. ECX
offers their services primarily to Internet-based merchants, home-based
businesses, entrepreneurs with limited credit, and businesses
traditionally considered non-conventional and high risk by banks. Merchant
account application approval is nearly 95 percent; most accounts are
established within 5 to 7 business days. QuickCommerce™
is ECX’s flagship, real-time payment processing solution. QuickCommerce™
allows merchants to process transactions through its Virtual Terminal. A
merchant accesses Virtual Terminal online, enters the credit card
information, and the transaction is authorized and processed within
seconds. Alternatively, merchants may link their Web sites to Virtual
Terminal so that consumers can buy products day or night. A
$30M Investment Last
October, Summit Partners, a private equity and venture capital investment
firm, made a $30 million equity investment in ECX. Summit Partners is one
of the largest venture capital and private equity capital partnerships in
the United States with over $3.3 billion under management. In
April, ECX formed a strategic alliance with Leasecomm Corporation, to
offer LeasecommDirect, an Internet-based lease and finance application
processing product to ECX customers. Web stores can lease ECX’s
QuickCommerce™ software online. No
human intervention is required during the application process, and a
credit decision is returned within minutes.
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