Microsoft to Unveil 'Wallet' Technology
For Web Shopping Via Passport Service
By DON CLARK
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
REDMOND, Wash.-- Microsoft Corp. on Monday will introduce an electronic purchasing service, sometimes called "wallet" technology, and says more than 50 merchants plan to use it.
Company Profile: Microsoft
Wallets let consumers enter and manage the data commonly required for electronic shopping, such as credit-card numbers and shipping addresses, so they won't have to keep entering it each time they buy something over the Web. Numerous companies have developed wallet software that stores such data on the consumer's PCs, including America Online Inc. and International Business Machines Corp., as well as Microsoft.
Microsoft's new offering stores the information on one of its Web sites, as part of a service that the company calls Passport. The advantage of the approach is it allows consumers to shop more efficiently from multiple computers, said Josh Herst, a Microsoft group product manager.
Participating merchants have agreed to put a link to Passport on their sites that users can call up when they are ready to purchase an item. They can call up the Microsoft site and selectively transfer their stored information to the merchant.
Besides Microsoft's own sites, the initial group of merchants include Barnes & Noble Inc., Costco Wholesale Corp. and SkyMall Inc. Carl Rosendorf, a senior vice president associated with Barnes & Noble's Internet operations, said the Microsoft technology was his company's first wallet adoption but might not be its last. "We are keeping an open mind" about forthcoming technologies, he said.
Microsoft has in the past discussed getting a cut of transaction fees associated with e-commerce software and services. In this case, however, Mr. Herst said the company is asking only a "nominal" upfront fee from merchants to speed the adoption of the technology.
|
