Pioneering Internet Connectivity for Retail Merchants
In the nascent days of the internet few retailers had the wherewithal to leverage it for their businesses.
In 2000 Ascension strategic consultants worked with Hypercom Corporation to develop and commercialize a new system called EPIC. The acronym stood for Electronic Point of Sale Info Commerce.
The EPIC system was designed to embed point-of-sale credit/debit card payment terminals with browser software and internet functionality.
The system connected small and mid-sized merchants to the internet thereby creating a new, low cost recurring revenue business model for Hypercom while empowering retailers to use the internet as a productivity and commerce tool.
Low cost monthly internet access subscriptions were sold by Hypercom to augment the company’s established credit/debit card swipe terminal equipment revenue stream.
Ascension consultants led research to better understand retailer business interest in and usage of the internet. Resulting insights were used to created bundled EPIC internet service offerings including:
- UPS/FedEx shipment confirmations
- Retailer connectivity to web stores
- Retailer to customer email
The pioneering EPIC program was unquestionably ahead of its time. It sought to create a new market by enabling the millions of small/mid-sized retail merchants around the USA to leverage the internet as a business building tool.
