iMALL Inc. and First Data Merchant Services Corp., a
subsidiary of First Data Corp., signed an agreement with SmartAge Corp. to deliver e-commerce
services to about 250,000 existing members as well as its new business
customers.
As a result, SmartAge customers will be able to build commerce-enabled Web
storefronts or add e-commerce features to their existing Web sites. Financial
arrangements were not disclosed.
SmartAge, a Web services company focused on small and growing businesses,
will privately label the joint iMALL/First Data e-commerce offering and begin
marketing the solution through its Web site within the next 60 days.
The iMALL/First Data solution offered by SmartAge will include browser-based
store building tools; hosting services; e-commerce components including a
virtual cash register, shopping cart, sales tax calculation and shipping
coordination; merchant accounts via an Internet application integrated
payment gateway; and the imall.com and stuff.com shopping portals.
“Rather than try to market our e-commerce technology directly to small and
medium size businesses, we believe that it is much more efficient and
cost-effective to establish strategic alliances with companies such as
SmartAge that have existing customer bases and then
have them market our e-commerce solution to their customers,” said Richard Rosenblatt, iMALL’s chairman and chief executive officer.
“Our members will now be able to conduct full-scale electronic commerce with a best-of-breed set of tools,” said SmartAge CEO William Lohse.