20(a) Provide the name and full description of the community that the applicant is committing to serve

Prototypical answer:

The community for the .SHOP will be for eCommerce Operators - For the purpose of this application we are defining our community as eCommerce operators that directly sell to the general public on the internet.

This community is basically a B2C site that utilizes credit card processing requiring them to abide by PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards) to operate.

We chose this community because fraud is a serious issue to both credit card processors as well as the community all the way down to the end customer. We all pay for fraud, and if our TLD can help minimize this fraud while at the same time be intuitive and instill more confidence in eCommerce, then everyone wins.

For nearly 12 years we have engaged with (and continue to represent) this community because we believe our gTLD string and its corresponding patent-pending verification process for transactions will significantly impact standards of excellence and offer real world solutions to reduce fraud online. We also believe that the gTLD string, .SHOP, offers a new “findability” factor for online shoppers. They will know and understand how to complete on their purchases with speed, security, and successful search resolution. Fraud remains one of the most serious issues to both credit card processors as well as the eCommerce community, affecting all levels of e-commerce, down to the shopper. All online shoppers pay for fraud and we believe that our TLD can minimize this fraud while, at the same time, instill more confidence in eCommerce practices.

This community is easily identified as websites that have shopping cart programs that utilize SSL (Secured Socket Layer) certificates (required under PCI DSS) to process their transactions. Studies have been performed to help identify these website operators and we have a 95% confidence that we have a clear and defined subset of the internet. We have received over 1,100 personal recommendations and support of Commercial Connect’s application for .SHOP from these e-commerce operators, representing in excess of $667 Trillion USD in annual sales last year alone.

As the multi-channel approach to retail and e-tailing evolves, we realize that the definition of eCommerce will continue to expand and involve more participants. Our main goal here is to define our core community, as well as provide proof that we educate, engage, and represent this community. We will continue to be transparent in our communications and exercise outreach on the value proposition of eCommerce to online businesses and brands today. We also guide best practices and policies leading to a better shopping experience and will directly give back, through our revenue generation, to institutions involved in social entrepreneurship and worldwide concerns in the areas of health, and feeding and educating the poor; we expect that our giving could exceed $1 million annually. By association, ICANN will be identified as a concerned stakeholder and solution provider for global eCommerce.

While we can state with confidence that we represent eCommerce in general with a much broader number of members, our main goal here is to define a community, provide proof of involvement and representation, and clearly show how we will be of benefit to that community.

Over the past twelve (12) years we feel confident that we have been engaged and have acquired the support required to represent this community. With an excess 1000+ physical contact affirmations and letters of support from companies that represent in excess of $667 trillion USD in sales annually.

For Question
1A - Delineation - .SHOP has a clearly delineated organized and pre-existing community.
1B - Extension - .SHOP has a community of considerable size and longevity.
2A - Nexus - .SHOP matches the name of the community and is well known in many languages.
2B - Uniqeness - .SHOP has no other significant meaning than eCommerce.
3A - Eligability - .SHOP will be restricted to eCommerce Users.
3B - Name Selection - .SHOPʹs policies include name selection rules consistent with the articulated community-based purpose of eCommerce.
3C - Content and Use - .SHOPʹs policies include rules for content and use consistent with the articulated community-based purpose of eCommerce.
3D - Enforcement - .SHOPʹs policies include specific enforcement measures constituting a coherent set with appropriate appeal mechanisms.
4A - Support - .SHOP has documented support from the community and can provide aditional upon request.
4B - Opposition - .SHOP has not received any formal opposition in the 12 years we have been working on this TLD application from any eCommerce entity.

Commercial Connect LLC has been present for the entire process of community definitions and while we have not influenced the selection and criteria, we do qualify with a strong score of 16 in these areas.

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