Customers shop online because they find it convenient, increasing their choice and helping them to hunt for lower prices. Retailers on the other hand sell online to reach more customers, to sell around the clock and to increase their operations, efficiency and overall competitive advantage. Fear of fraud, privacy and security concerns and lack of trust in on-line shopping, however, are acting as a drag on the growth of internet shopping.

Many of these concerns can be removed by using so-called shopping accounts. A shopping account introduces a layer of defence: first the account is created in a trusted environment. With the creation, the consumer provides his personal and payment details such as name, address, credit card. Once created, these details no longer need to be transmitted via the net. Moreover, the details do not need to be provided to the merchants website and hence cannot be stolen.

An online shopping account is a place where a repository of information is maintained
containing:

• Name of the credit card holder;
• Number of the credit card, Expiry date, CVV code, etc.

This information can be maintained for more credit cards or can contain banking information or PayPal (or alike) account numbers and passwords. In case a consumer buys a product online and gets referred to the check out service, the consumer only has to select the payment method, enter his online shopping account and authorise the use of the information behind the account with a secure digital ID. The rest will be taken care of by the check out service. The flow would be as shown below.

The advantages for the consumer are clear: he no longer needs to transmit personal details to less-trusted websites. The advantage for the merchants is that a buying history and payment track record of the consumer can be built. This not only allows a better evaluation of the purchase risk, it also allows much more targeted marketing to the consumer. PKI Plus may well be a significant enabler for the "shopping account" because of its inherent security mechanisms.