The opportunity for companies to become profitable in the marketplace by selling intangible goods over the Internet is definitely growing at a rapid rate, and will undoubtedly continue to grow in the near future. For these companies, micropayments and electronic wallets are attractive means by which to collect fees from consumers, considering that most of this content will be sold at relatively low prices.

However, before a company implements micropayments as its type of payment system for certain content, it has many issues to consider before taking steps to adopt it. The company’s most important decision is whether this type of technology fits with the level of pricing for its products. Micropayments are only cost effective for products priced under $20, so a company has to determine what the product’s value is to the consumer, both now and in the future. If its products are priced over $20, traditional methods of credit card payment may be a more viable alternative.

Another concern for the company is which type of software or micropayment program to implement. According to David Strom of Computer World Magazine, one of the biggest drawbacks to micropayment systems is the fact that many of them do not have the critical mass in the marketplace in terms of how many sites with which they have partnered their technology. This causes a convenience problem for consumers, as they now have to open multiple accounts with multiple systems to order content from different sites. The issues of ease of use and one-time, convenience shopping were some of the governing issues that micropayment systems were intended to cure. However, it seems that the critical mass problem may be a major hindrance to their grand implementation ("E-Wallets: Not the right solution for E-shopping", www.computerworld.com). A company may want to perform consumer research to see what consumers of similar products are using as their micropayment system, in order to attract the same types of customers and enable them to order without having to enter their personal information multiple times.

A third, and vital, consideration is the type of technology on which any given wallet or micropayment system is operated. At this point in history, most consumers are still quite apprehensive about ordering products on the Internet, and are concerned about the security and convenience of on-line ordering. The most damaging scenario for a company would be if the technology didn't work, and either disallowed a transaction or erased a monetary account. Although this is not a scenario that happens very often, the choice of technology is still an important criteria.