ECommpack.net breaks banking hold on Internet sites

“In photo at right–Deshore Dickerson-Sears, Founder and CEO of eCommpack.net. (Photo by Bonnie West) A couple of years ago, Deshore Dickerson-Sears, who knew the ins and outs of brick and mortar businesses, was introduced to what was then a new concept: e-commerce. When he saw that the hands-on product he sold for a living could be adapted to the Internet, his inner vision kicked in and he founded eCommpack.net, Inc. At the end of 1997, Dickerson-Sears, who is 24, was selling point of sales equipment machines that merchants run shopper’s credit cards through. The familiar machines are in retail establishments where they’ve set up merchant accounts with banks to be able to process the cards.Twenty-months ago, Dickerson-Sears sold one of the machines to a web design company and stayed to chat with the owner.He was my first introduction to e-commerce, Dickerson-Sears said. He said he had to send the clients he designed web sites for to the bank, or outsource them as it’s called, to set up an account and a virtual terminal so they could make financial transactions on the web. That’s when we started talking about possible e-commerce solutions to that fact. The solution he came up with is a company he is founder and CEO of, eCommpack.net, Inc., which makes it possible for web design companies and ISP’s to offer their clients in-house banking abilities. ECommpack.net is their gateway to all the services only the banks offered before. All the money went to the bank–from start-up fees to monthly charges–and other than a fee from the merchant to design a web page, the web site designer made no extra money.Web design companies missed out on $1,200-2,000 dollars or higher per client by outsourcing their clients to go get their virtual terminals through a bank, Dickerson-Sears said. At eCommpack.net we set up everything for them. We license web site and ISP firms a customized SSL encrypted gateway entrance to develop e-commerce enabled connections to do order processing online with credit cards and checks. The web site companies and merchants can set up merchant accounts for themselves and will have control over buy rates and can collect residuals for Internet transaction processes. Every time the ISP or web site designer’s client does a transaction, they will be able to collect a fee for the transaction and collect for the use of the gateway as well.It’s a hardcore B2B (business to business) service and we provide all the e-commerce tools they need, from the gateway to the shopping cart, Dickerson-Sears said. A side benefit for the web site designer is increased production time designing and completing a client’s site, rather than waiting for the bank to approve the merchant’s credit before being able to complete the web site work.Word has gotten around fast about the availability of the concept, and e-Commpack.net, which just recently launched the service, already has 26 clients.The interchange certified company has nine owners, from a design officer to an operations officer, and is headed by a chairman.Dickerson-Sears grew up in California and graduated from Tacoma’s Foss High School and DeVry Technical Institute in Atlanta. He said he was always interested in the inner-workings of corporations and the mechanics that drive them.But when I found out about e-commerce, I wanted to get involved with it, he said. Credit cards have been around for thirty years. This is new, and I wanted to be at the beginning of something.He is serious about being an Internet financial success story. He said older family members thought he was in over his head with his concept and he’s a long way from the career his friends always thought he’d end up with when he used to tell them at the age of 11 that he was going to be a CEO someday. They thought I’d end up as a stand-up comic, he said. Now I AM a CEO. It’s coming around.He said his role models are millionaires Like Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam Records and Darien Dash with DME Interactive, and he keeps track of their successes. But locally, the millionaire I take to is Scott Bourne, of Scott Bourne Consulting Group, he said. He’s really, really sharp and understands business concepts.As much as he looks outside of his realm for inspiration, Dickerson-Sears isn’t through with keeping a steady gaze on his inner visions. He is already developing other new technology concepts. I’m a creative entrepreneur, he said, seventy percent creative and thirty percent business. I don’t go by the tech books, I color outside the lines and explore other possibilities. But my biggest focus, he emphasized, will always be customer service.ECommpack.net, located at 1326 Tacoma Ave., Tacoma, can be contacted at 253/779-5303. “