Paid News

Recent upgrades expand support for all carrier services, fees, adds international destinations

Boston, MA — Paid, Inc. has upgraded its AuctionInc™ ShopCart™ shopping cart software and its array of related enterprise and retail software products, which include patented online shipping calculation technology.  The updates help ensure that the AuctionInc family of products maintains its standing as the most accurate of any online shipping calculator software.  The enhancements will enable Internet retailers to further increase productivity, reduce costs and enhance customer satisfaction related to shipping and fulfillment.

“E-commerce growth has slowed and vendors are seeking to maximize efficiencies and boost sales,” noted Richard Rotman, COO of Paid, Inc. “ShopCart’s sophisticated and highly configurable shipping engine has been proven time after time to reduce the human resources needed to coordinate shipping, provide highly accurate rates that account for a wide variety of shipping situations, and greatly simplify post-sale communications between retailer and customer.  Many sellers who moved to using our cart had previously discovered that hidden costs, such as packaging, special handling, delivery confirmation or oversize shipping charges were not being passed on to the customer and were eating into their profits. AuctionInc’s ShopCart solves these problems while, at the same time, not resulting in overcharging customers for shipping, something that customers are very sensitive about.”

Rotman further noted, “Another major advantage is that AuctionInc’s advanced ‘Packaging Engine’ intelligently determines how to package all items in your shipment into the appropriate number of packages, taking into account carrier limits and account configuration settings, encouraging your customers to purchase more items in the same order and take advantage of reduced shipping costs.” 

The Paid AuctionInc software product line is available in multiple formats to meet the needs of the broadest array on Internet retailers ranging from major enterprise and multi-merchant organizations to online auction sellers.  All retailers can benefit from the system’s ease and speed of integration while maximizing cost efficiencies, enhancing customer perception and reducing ecommerce abandonment. 

ShopCart provides real-time comparative shipping rates, recalculating automatically when items are added or removed, by using the country/zip code as a destination location indicator.   In addition to calculating base charges for the full range of services from carriers including the US Postal Service, FedEx, UPS and DHL, a major asset is its granular accounting of additional item characteristics, such as packaging weight, item dimensions, special handling requirements, discounts/promotional offers, state taxes and shipping insurance costs.  Administrator access allows highly detailed control and visibility of information such as customized carrier discounts, fixed rate alternatives, fuel and other surcharges, multiple ship origins and many more, based on independent, client-driven account settings.

At a time when consumers may be more price-sensitive than ever, consumers will appreciate retailers’ efforts to provide shipping charges that reflect the actual costs of shipping the products.  Savvy online shoppers usually recognize that ecommerce sites providing free shipping often hide the cost in increased product prices resulting in higher overall costs, particularly for multi-item orders. ShopCart fosters additional sales by showing that shipping costs increase minimally and often not at all with the purchase of additional items. 

ShopCart’s features include:
• Supports unlimited coupons based on order subtotal threshold
• Coupons can be applied to all items or selected item groups
• Cart page can be tailored to match the look and feel of your site
• Encrypted “Add to Cart” HTML can be generated
• Wide variety of custom “Add to Cart” / “View Cart” buttons available
• Unlimited item “attribute” feature allows you to pass on item features such as size, color, etc
• “Shipping Inspector” provided for detailed view of shipping rate components for authorized users
• Checkout to PayPal, which accepts all major credit cards
• PayPal supports mailing label generation for UPS and USPS
 
Recent upgrades to ShopCart’s shipping calculation functionality include:
• Support for FedEx international priority flat rate pricing using their packaging – reviews flat rate and calculated rate and displays whichever is less expensive.
• Supports dimensional rates for all carriers
• Supports wide variety of accessorial fees for special carrier services such as special handling, delivery confirmation, etc.
• UPS discounted “shipment pricing” supported for international deliveries
• Country-specific weight and dimension limitations for each service supported.
• Supports drop-shipping from unlimited locations within the same shipment
• Sophisticated support for fixed rates as well as calculated rates. Differential fixed rates can be offered based on carrier service, geographical destination, and quantity of items. Multiple fixed rates can be offered for various service levels.
• Support for customer pickup and local delivery
• Support for USPS flat rate packages and envelopes.
• Differential supplemental item handling fee codes can be configured based on carrier service and/of geographical destination
• Shipping discounts can be configured based on item subtotal thresholds

Paid’s shipping calculation technology is already in use by hundreds of companies, ranging from small online auction sellers to large enterprise systems, as well as and running within numerous e-commerce sites hosted and managed by Paid, Inc.   Paid is continuing to seek software licensing agreements with all sizes of companies for its products, as well as well as explore other business relationships surrounding its patented technology.  

Paid’s ShopCart™ API is hosted on a standard XML platform for ease of integration into the customer’s custom or open source cart or product, and is available for both single seller (SS version) and multiple seller (XS version) scenarios.  In real time, ShopCart™ users and their online customers procure accurate rates from all major shipping carriers while administrative users can gain direct access to multiple data levels for inspection of shipping rate components and packaging detail.

Complete information on Paid’s entire AuctionInc™ product line is available at www.AuctionInc.com.  For additional information, contact Doug Sherman, Paid Inc., doug@paid.com, (866) 323-8833.

About Paid, Inc.:
Paid, Inc. operates a diversified set of businesses, including its celebrity services and AuctionInc ecommerce technology businesses. Using proprietary patented technology, Paid's innovative AuctionInc brand shipping calculation and auction management software and services are utilized to streamline online auctions, ecommerce and web site development and hosting. Paid, Inc.’s celebrity services provides celebrities and organizations with official Web sites and fan club services that include e-commerce storefronts, ticketing and fan experience packages and web site content to attract tens of thousands of visitors daily. The Company's common stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol PAYD. 

Forward Looking Statements:
This Press Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are based upon current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events, including matters related to the Company's operations, profitability, business development efforts, and expectations about celebrity programs and fan club activities, technologies, and services. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements and the assumptions upon which they are based are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations and assumptions will prove to have been correct. The reader is cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, as these statements are subject to numerous factors and uncertainties.  In addition, other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are discussed in the Company's most recent filings, including Form 10-QSB with the Securities and Exchange Commission.    

CONTACT: 
Media Inquiries: Julie Shepherd of Accentuate PR, +1-815-479-1833, Julie@Paid.com

Shipping Calculation Software Sales: Doug Sherman, Paid Inc., doug@paid.com, (866) 323-8833