LONDON, June 15, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Sage Pay, the UK's fastest growing payment provider (PSP) launches it's E-Business Benchmark Report, -- a study representing the views and opinions of over 2,000 online businesses currently operating in the UK.

Split into four categories - marketing, influencing a purchase, making it easy for people to pay, and security and fraud- the report combines statistics and case studies from real businesses including Graze.com and Hawes and Curtis.

"As the ecommerce market matures, e-businesses need to do more to make the most of their potential" comments Simon Black, Managing director at Sage Pay. "The stats show that merchants are pretty good at getting shoppers to their site but at the crucial point they are letting customers slip away. Our report identifies what successful businesses are doing to get customers buying and provides those doing business on the net with an opportunity to benchmark their e-business."

As well as useful tips and advice for online businesses of all sizes, other key findings in the report include -

    
    - Providing on-site reassurance such as a security policy and money back
      guarantee helps with checkout success

    - E-businesses with fewer checkout pages convert more sales

    - Social media drives loyalty and helps to convert sales

    - Successful e-businesses customise their payment pages (97%)

Of particular interest to banks and industry bodies will be the findings associated with 3D Secure and card data security. Although around 65% of e-businesses agree that Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) is important, a third of respondents collecting, storing or transferring card data don't know whether they are compliant or not. These results correlate with earlier studies conducted by Sage Pay and show that e-businesses are still struggling to understand regulations.

To download a complimentary copy of The E-Business Benchmark Report, visit - http://www.benchmarkyourebusiness.com.

Notes to editor:

About The E-Business Benchmark Report

In March 2010, Sage Pay carried out a survey among its UK customers, as well as non-customers, with the aim of benchmarking what factors were contributing to above average performance in ecommerce terms. The results of the survey have been incorporated into The E-Business Benchmark Report. To download a complimentary copy of the findings, please visit - http://www.benchmarkyourebusiness.com

About Sage Pay

Sage Pay is a division of FTSE 100 business software company Sage. It is the UK's fastest growing independent payment service provider (PSP) and is one of the most trusted e-commerce brands. Sage Pay processes millions of secure payments for its 30,000 customers each year and makes the process of accepting payments simpler, faster, safer and more profitable for businesses of all sizes.

For more information, please visit http://www.sagepay.com