Here's a look at what some of the industry biggies are doing to lure customers into the e-shopping arena. One of the major developments is in digital wallets. E-wallets are evolving from rote paperwork helpers into sophisticated personal assistants. Basic e-wallets store cardholder information such as account number, name and address, and spill it onto the charge and delivery forms that cyber shops require at checkout. This eliminates the need for buyers to type in the same information at every store.
Wallets go to work Several of the biggest card issuers are putting digital wallets to work.
Providian Financial , MBNA , Wells Fargo and Capital One all have teamed with a California e-commerce company, Brodia , to make the wallet the hub of the shopping experience. Brodia's wallet is a comparison shopper, record keeper, junk mail guard dog and product search expert. The wallet stores information for multiple credit cards and users don't have to be a customer of one of Brodia's partner banks to use it. You can download the wallet from Capital One, for example, and use a competitor's credit card. The wallet incorporates a technology that lets customers search for and compare products based on criteria such as product features, merchant choices and price.