TORONTO - Canadians used their Visas to ring up $772 million in online sales during the 2002 holiday season, according to Visa Canada. This figure translates into 6.4 million transactions and an increase of 103 per cent over last Christmas.

"Retailers with attractive online presence have seen impressive increases in sales, as Canadians enthusiastically vote for Internet shopping," Susan MacKeown, Director e-Visa said. "But the vast majority of shoppers in Canada remain reluctant to make online purchases, in large part because they are worried about Internet security."

These latest figures, while high, represent only 15 per cent of Visa customers. The remaining 85 per cent who didn't shop online, cited security concerns as their main reason for doing all of their shopping off line.

In an attempt to ease this resistance Visa is introducing a new service, "Verified by Visa" later this year. Customers will be able to make online transactions through a password secured format. Their credit card information will be sent to their bank, and once it is verified they will be prompted for a password. Visa expects the new service to reduce merchant chargeback disputes by over 50 per cent. As of April 2003, participating online vendors will not be held responsible should any transactions turn out to be fraudulent.

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