Online shopping has started to come of age in China with the launch of an e-commerce website which for the first time can accept credit or debit cards from most banks.
Established by Shanghai Huateng Software Systems Co Ltd, On-Line Nanjing Road is named after one of the country’s most famous shopping avenues. Billed as China’s first Cybermall, it offers a variety of bank card payment options through a single payment gateway. It uses the Shanghai developer’s proprietary software to connect the cybermall to China’s Golden Card network at the Shanghai Bank Card Network Service Center(SNET), the new nationwide financial clearinghouse. It is also the first system built in China to implement the global standard Secure Electronic Transfer Protocol.
Previously, in order to accept cards from multiple banks, businesses were required to connect to each individual bank’s payment structure, which added to costs and the processing time.
Currently the gateway is capable of accepting a wide range of local credit cards and will soon accept local debit cards as well as international credit cards.
The new cybermall will also allow business anywhere in the world process local Chinese bank cards online. Businesses with existing web sites also may use the web site, or the payment portal, to process payments from China from sales at their own site.
On-Line Nanjing Road has nearly 100 merchants from the actual Nanjing Road in Shanghai, and will be anchored initially by four merchants: No. 1 Drugstore, New World Department Store, Yangzhou Restaurant and Mei Li Hua Stationary Company.
