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Venda.com
Online trading is a lucrative business. Around 100,000 companies have an e-commerce site, while another 400,000 are seen as potential users. And according to technology research company Forrester, UK online business trade looks set to hit £300 billion in 2005 and e-marketplaces will facilitate 41 per cent of these transactions. In addition, e-business trade is on track to top euro 2.2 trillion in 2006, with the UK, France and Germany accounting for 64 per cent of Europe’s online trade.
‘A key benefit of online trading is the convenience,’ says Dan Wagner, chief executive of Venda, one of the UK’s most ambitious e-commerce companies. ‘Online trading is an important sales channel that every retailer, wholesaler and manufacturer should be leveraging. Not using the internet as a marketing sales channel would be an opportunity lost because more and more people find the speed and simplicity of buying online very attractive.
‘With e-commerce now moving through every aspect of modern business, it’s crucial not to ignore the importance of this channel’s markets either,’ Wagner adds. ‘E-commerce represents a real opportunity for businesses to find new markets and serve existing customers more efficiently.’
One of Venda’s strategic partners is BT. ‘We employ BT as an internet payment gateway provider,’ explains Wagner. ‘BT’s Buynet service authenticates credit cards, identifies whether or not they are genuine and authorises transactions to ensure there are enough funds to cover payments. It also reduces the risk of fraud and allows our customers to shop secure in the knowledge that no one will compromise their credit details.’
Venda designs, hosts and runs e-commerce systems, both business to business and business to consumer, for a wide range of companies. Provided as a fully managed service, there are no upfront costs – customers simply pay a moderate monthly fee for the service and everything is handled for them including site design, implementation, service equipment, hosting, bandwidth and transaction activity.
The majority of Venda’s customers are companies looking to improve their e-business performance and save money, rather than e-commerce novices. And since commencing sales activity in 2002, the firm has acquired an impressive list of customers, including Ted Baker, Xerox and BBC Worldwide, as a look at its website www.venda.com will confirm.
‘Buynet gives customers access to the same card payment infrastructure that BT uses to process its own card payments,’ explains BT Accurate product manager Jonathan Jensen. ‘Buynet’s commitment to implementing the latest online security ensures that our customer’s transaction data is safely transmitted to their bank. Our customers can get on with selling their products knowing that Buynet is managing their payment security.’
Wagner confirms this: ‘The main benefits that Buynet has brought us are speed and the comfort of knowing that everything is being handled properly and professionally. Every time we win new customers, it increases the volume of traffic, and that alongside existing customers means our traffic volumes increase further. Such organic growth is the way of the web and it means we will look to BT and Buynet for continued support now and in the future.’
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