New Products/Services Roundup

Hoping to offer one stop shopping for customers anxious to develop a Web presence, San Francisco, California-based Wells Fargo announced eStore Business Solutions, which will provide an end-to-end e-commerce solution for mid-sized (companies with revenues between $10 and $250 million US$) companies.

Not only will the eStore Business Solution provide online services such as hosting, transaction processing, and custom-built online catalogs, it will also provide offline services such as 24-hour customer support and warehousing and fulfillment capabilities. Wells Fargo says that by utilizing eStore Business Solutions, companies can have a secure and sales-ready Internet platform in as little as four to six weeks.

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New York based InterWorld (Nasdaq: INTW) and Waterloo, Ontario based Descartes have formed their own alliance to provide an end-to-end order management and fulfillment infrastructure. Targeted at both business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) companies, the alliance will provide merchandising, order management, real-time order visibility and delivery optimization software. The customizable solution is aimed at online retailers, brick-and-mortar retailers, distributors selling to resellers, and manufacturers selling over the Internet.

In a separate announcement, InterWorld announced a strategic marketing and technology alliance with Commerce One, Inc. to support business-to-business trading through Commerce One’s B2B portal MarketSite Global Trading Portal.

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Gomez Advisers and Rebound both announced plans for new eMarketplaces aimed at cashing in on what Forrester Research predicts to be a $2.7 trillion B2B e-commerce market by 2004.

GomezPro.com from Lincoln, Massachusetts-based Gomez Advisors is a B2B e-commerce portal aimed at helping Internet professionals build their e-businesses, acquire customers and measure success. GomezPro.com offers coverage to 25 vertical markets including banking, travel, retail, and health. Services provided include performance measurement tools and advisory services.

Aiming to sell off the $350 billion world of excess inventory, Rebound opened its doors as a virtual marketplace for excess goods. Through a veiled auction system, buyers can bid on pre-qualified first quality inventory from vendors who have excess stock due to order cancellations or production overruns. Headquartered in Hong Kong and San Francisco, “Rebound creates a fair and open exchange that allows the market (buyers and sellers) to negotiate directly, saving everybody time and money, and making transactions of all sizes more efficient,” according to Jeremy Tang, chief executive officer and co-founder.

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Go2Net’s Authorize.net Corporation, out of Provo, Utah, and Planet Payment have banded together to create an end-to-end payment solution for online merchants located outside of the United States and U.S.-based merchants who wish to implement a non-U.S. or multi-currency Internet payment solution. The new product will allow online merchants to accept credit card payments in more than 140 currencies.

This new product will allow companies to take advantage of the shift away from U.S. dominance in e-commerce. A report by eMarketer showed that in 1999 the U.S. share of e-commerce approached 75 percent but by 2003, U.S. sales will account for only 53 percent of overall global revenues.