NetCash added its first group of merchants in November 2006 and now boasts an expanding roster of adult and mainstream merchant partners. Its adult clients include YanksCash, Atlas Multimedia (PornStarDollars), CuriousCash, Sex On The Side, Real Sex Cash, ARS and Blazing Bucks.
“I think all types of consumers are worried about Internet transactions,” NetCash CEO Peter Shapiro told XBIZ. “There’s ID theft, and on the adult side there are anonymity concerns. Plus, who wants to fill out long forms and give out credit card information to numerous websites? By using NetCash, consumers can feel safe knowing that their transactions are safe, secure and anonymous.”
NetCash works in a fashion similar to a debit card. Consumers can purchase NetCash at retail locations in increments of $25 (with a maximum of $100), or online in amounts from $5 to $100, which gets them an access code and PIN number that can be used on NetCash’s merchants’ join pages. If the consumer signs up for a paysite with recurring billing and their NetCash balance doesn’t cover the total cost of the transaction, the consumer’s credit card on file with NetCash will be charged until their NetCash account is replenished.
Shapiro points out that what he believes sets NetCash apart from the competition is the payment solution’s availability at more than 52,000 retail locations. While NetCash is not a physical card, online shoppers can print out a confirmation page from the NetCash website, bring it to a participating retailer, pay cash for NetCash and their accounts are activated instantly.
Consumers can enter their Zip code on the NetCash site to find their closest participating retailer including certain 7-Eleven, CVS, Kmart, Ralphs and Vons locations.
“I think our competition misses the boat by not having a consumer-facing product that people can use and understand easily,” Shapiro said. “We set out to design an easy product with an easy-to-remember name that is easy for merchants to add to their sites. Because of security and privacy issues, conversion rates are low. If one out of every 100 clicks results in a sale, that’s pretty good, but what about the other 99? If we can get just one more out of those 99, we just doubled our merchants’ business. We don’t believe in creating barriers for purchasers.”
On the NetCash consumer-side interface, customers can manage all their payments, debits and recurring transactions in one window. NetCash supports all types of billing platforms, including single purchases, subscriptions, trial offers and recurring billing. NetCash customers also can cancel their recurring billing accounts through the interface to avoid confusing cancellation instructions, Shapiro said.
NetCash is free to consumers and makes its money by charging merchants a sliding fee per transaction.
The principals of NetCash have their roots in online business. Shapiro was part of Interactive Search Holdings, which was comprised of iWon.com; advertising network MaxOnline.com; MyWay.com; Excite.com; and SmileyCentral.com. Interactive Search Holdings was sold to AskJeeves.com (now Ask.com) for $500 million.