CyberCash and NetGravity Create Online InstaBuys

CyberCash, Inc. (Nasdaq: CYCH) and NetGravity, Inc. (Nasdaq: NETG) have created a new online advertising process that aims to enable online sales to be completed within an ad banner, eliminating the need for the Web surfer to connect to the advertiser’s Web site to close a deal.

NetGravity has adapted its AdServer online interactive advertising service to work with CyberCash’s InstaBuy program. The system simplfies the shopping experience for consumers, who can make an impulse buy quickly anytime they see a banner ad with a product they want, the companies claim.

How It Works

The new banner ad buying process can improve an online merchant’s close rate by removing several steps between discovering a product and completing the purchase. The multiple steps involved in online purchasing have been a significant concern for online merchants in recent months — as they look for ways to increase online sales to consumers.

Increased attention to the issue has precipitated such developments as ECML coding, a technology that creates data “wallets” that store a shopper’s credit card and shipping information. The consumer’s information can then be inserted into an online purchase form with the click of a button.

CyberCash and NetGravity use “wallet” information to complete purchases within their new one-step ad banners. The purchase process is as follows: The user clicks on the banner, types in a password that gives the merchant access to the shopper’s stored “wallet” information, and then clicks “purchase” to end the transaction. The solution is available free to NetGravity and InstaBuy customers.

Other Benefits

Besides helping online merchants close sales and making consumers’ shopping lives easier, CyberCash and NetGravity argue their new service has benefits for ad agencies and Web publishers too. Transaction-enabled banners “create opportunities for advertising agencies by providing a highly accountable method for quickly demonstrating Internet advertising return on investment,” the companies say.

For Web publishers, the one-step purchase banners mean consumers surfing the Web do not have to leave the initial Web site to make purchases, and then find their way back to the site afterward.

Company Background

NetGravity is an online advertising and direct marketing service provider, founded in 1995 in San Mateo, California. The company serves more than 360 customers worldwide. CyberCash creates e-commerce technologies and services to enable secure transactions and other e-commerce functions.