Melinda Mason is contemplating entering cyberspace. Her flower shop in Manhattan’s upper West Side has been in the family for three generations. Over the years the business has carefully cultivated a large number of regular customers. Lately many of these customers have asked her when Mason’s Flower Shop will have a web site. They told her that they would like the ease of ordering on-line and hoped that they would have the option of ordering and paying for flowers on-line. Many of her customers order elaborate arrangements on a periodic basis. One, like Mr. Schliermann, likes to buy a single red rose for his wife each Tuesday.

In addition to these customers, Melinda also realizes that a web site for ordering and paying for flowers would be appealing to the increasingly large number of customers who winter in South Florida, but who send flowers to their friends and family in New York City. Plus she has read that being a "brick and click" can open your business to customers around the globe. Naturally this is very appealing to her.

Melinda has hired you to explore the options for on-line payment. In particular, she has been hearing about Mondex from her friends, and she wonders if she should make this a payment option. She is not sure how Mondex compares to such electronic cash options as e-cash (digicash) or cybercash. Finally, she has heard about iTransact from the shopkeeper next door and wonders if this is the best payment option for her.

Melinda would like you to evaluate these options and make a recommendation to her about the on-line payment option(s) that she should adopt. She wants an approach that is easy for her and her customers to use, but that is a good value in terms of cost. Her steady customers in Florida must be able to pay on-line and it would be nice if the payment approach also could appeal to customers around the globe. Most of the on-line orders will be over $25, though she would also like to have an option that purchasers of a single rose could use.