After successful completion of a pilot program started in June 1997, the new storefronts service was launched in March 1998.

Fleet has moved from offering secure Internet transaction processing only, to adding a full service to set merchants up starting with the merchant account, and walking them through establishing digital certificates, and building a store using templates, and publishing and maintaining the store.

The service is provided as part of the Small Business and Entrepreneurial Group at Fleet. It was launched at Internet Commerce Expo and has been extremely well received in the press and with the public, who have been applying to the service by the dozens.

The product features an interactive management and merchant application and setup process that is managed by a technical support representative at Fleet. It offers a selection of display options and the pricing is based on the complexity of the store design (for the setup fee) and the number of products (for the monthly recurring fee). All payments are taken by credit cards, with automatic tax and shipping calculations. Fulfillment is currently done by sending email to the merchant.

Additional design, data management, and fulfillment options will be added in subsequent releases. Further automation of the sign-up process and certificate management will be supplied as required by increased demand. Business-to-business and community services will be rolled out this summer.

This product was developed with a custom template builder, on the Netscape ECXpert platform, with an Oracle database, CyberCash, and Taxware. Certification of the security of the site is provided by ICSA.