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Category: Credit card Processing

December 19th, 2013 by Elma Jane

10 Great Ecommerce & Mcommerce Ideas

 

Address Commonly-asked Questions

Instead of hiding commonly asked questions on an FAQ page somewhere on your site, display these answers in plain sight. Include your service agreement on every page, and provide frequent updates on orders in the mail, because one of the quickest ways to lose shoppers and sales is to make it difficult for them to do business with you.

Connect with Pinterest Influencers

Connect with the Pinterest influencers…accounts or boards with large followings…that relate to your product category. Ask for a pin here and there for a product you believe they would like. You’ll get large amounts of traffic, sales, and repins from their large followings. This method is repeatable and much quicker and cheaper than building a large following yourself.

Don’t Forget Comparison Shopping Engines

You’ve got a great ecommerce website. But is it hard to get traffic? Comparison shopping engines (CSEs)…like Google Shopping, Shopzilla, NexTag, Pronto, and Bing…deliver millions of shoppers to product pages every day. You list your items on the CSEs where purchase-ready shoppers will see them and click through to your site to complete the transaction. CSEs typically have a pay-per-click pricing model, and many merchants find it’s worth the cost.

Emphasize Product Photography

Whether you use high-quality renderings or actual product photography, make sure you take the time to present your products in the best possible manner. With the proliferation of product and photo sharing sites like Pinterest, The Fancy, Instagram, and OpenSky, having a beautiful product shot is imperative. Lifestyle shots of your product in use could also significantly increase conversion rates.

Make Research Easy for Prospective Buyers

Research (for buying decisions) is a massive resource cost to businesses around the world. It is also a primary reason for lost deals. Were you to provide comprehensive information that was easy to find and on which a buying decision can be made, then your close rate would substantially improve. Add to this, an easy purchasing process and, rather than scouring the web, a buyer would see your site as a preferred source.

Mimic the Brick-and-mortar Experience

Regardless of what channel they may be using to shop, online consumers are demanding the quality of the brick-and-mortar experience. They want to zoom in on a product, rotate it, change its colors…in short, they want to interact with the item as though they were physically in the same room with it. Retailers with rich interactive media that can offer this in omnichannel have a significant competitive advantage during the holiday season and can convert at rates of 30 percent higher than those that don’t.

Offer Support via Social Media

Nielson research discovered that in 2012 one-third of social media users prefer to contact a company via social media than by phone. On your support pages, provide links to your social media profiles. Set up notifications in the social media accounts so you know when someone contacts you. This way you provide timely customer support to those who want it…in the way they want it.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

“It doesn’t take a lot of time for cutting-edge to become old hat. Keep researching to be aware of the latest tools and technology. If you stay still, you will find that your competitors will quickly surpass you.

Take the ‘E’ out of ‘Ecommerce’

Retailers need to realize that the lines of commerce have been, as John Donahoe, CEO of eBay, said, obliterated. It’s no longer a world of online and offline commerce. It’s just commerce. Retailers are competing on a global scale with everyone, everywhere. You need to give shoppers a compelling reason to buy from you. Find a way to differentiate and make sure you can grab shoppers attention and keep them coming back.

Think Like a Shopper

Keep your site’s design simple and clean, make calls-to-action clear, and focus on the product. Go through the flows of your site: search, browse, and buy a product, or have a friend do it and watch him without helping. Pay attention to areas where anything is confusing, doesn’t work the way it should, or takes too many steps. Then make adjustments.

Posted in Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 19th, 2013 by Elma Jane

NTC’s BIG DATA

Improving Collection and Analytics tools to Create Value from Relevant Data.

Big data is a popular term used to describe the exponential growth and availability of data, both structured and unstructured. And big data may be as important to business…and society… as the Internet has become. Why? More data may lead to more accurate analyses. More accurate analyses may lead to more confident decision making, and better decisions can mean greater operational efficiencies, cost reductions and reduced risk.

With NTC Virtual Merchant product, it captures email addresses at the Point-of-Sale (POS) into a database to assist merchants and consumer stay connected, and for future Marketing.

In understanding Big Data For Merchants, NTC’s President Mark Fravel, provided a general overview of how online merchants can use Big Data. Large amounts of seemingly random data from many sources…can be used to create competitive advantages.

Necessity of Analytical Tools

Collecting Big Data is the easy part. Storing, organizing, and analyzing it is much more complex. One seam of data that several experts identify as a particularly rich, emerging source of information can be as diverse as CRM software, AdWords, and your own website. Mobile communications, including text messages and social media posts such as Facebook and Twitter. Making sense of it can be overwhelming without analytical tools. These tools facilitate the examination of large amounts of different types of data to reveal hidden patterns and correlations that are not otherwise easily discernible.

A good example is NTC, they could analyze data on visitor browsing patterns, login counts, phone calls, and responses to promotions…they can monitor to eliminate what isn’t working and focus on what does. Some of the off-the-shelf analytic solutions are so finely tuned, they can tell a vendor whether it needs to offer a 25 percent discount or if a 15 percent discount will suffice for a particular customer.

Association rule learning is another analytics method that is a good fit with Big Data. This could be, for example, a shopping cart analysis, in which a merchant can determine which products are frequently bought together and use this information for marketing purposes.

Uses of Big Data Analytics:

Big Data can be most useful in analyzing a customer’s shopping and purchasing experience, which can help a merchant in the following four ways.

Become more efficient by alerting you to merchandising efforts that are ineffective, and products that are not selling.

Encourage more purchases by presenting existing customers with complementary items to what they’ve purchased previously.

Enhance inventory management by eliminating slow-moving items and increasing the supply of fast-moving merchandise.

Example: A top marketing executive at a sizable U.S. retailer recently found herself perplexed by the sales reports she was getting. A major competitor was steadily gaining market share across a range of profitable segments. Despite a counterpunch that combined online promotions with merchandising improvements, her company kept losing ground….The competitor had made massive investments in its ability to collect, integrate, and analyze data from each store and every sales unit and had used this ability to run myriad real-world experiments. At the same time, it had linked this information to suppliers’ databases, making it possible to adjust prices in real time, to reorder hot-selling items automatically, and to shift items from store to store easily. By constantly testing, bundling, synthesizing, and making information instantly available across the organization…the rival company had become a different, far nimbler type of business.

Increase conversion rates by better identification of successful sales transactions.

Is Big Data Analysis Affordable?

NTC Data Storage is also a good alternative for small ecommerce merchants because it is relatively inexpensive and is scalable it can expand as data requirements grow.

Relying on data-driven decision-making is crucial in industries in which profit margins are slim. Amazon, which earns increasingly thin profit margins, is one of the most effective users of data analytics. As more Big Data solutions for small online businesses come to market and more online merchants incorporate Big Data into their business tool set, employing Big Data will become a necessity for all Merchants.

Using data wisely has the potential to boost margins and increase conversions for online merchants, and investors are banking on it.

This is Big Data for NTC we know WHO, WHAT,WHEN, AND WHERE a purchase took place. 

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 16th, 2013 by Elma Jane

1. Account Updater (Visa)

Incorrect billing information leads to declined credit cards, loss of sales and unhappy customers.

Visa touts its Account Updater as an easier way to keep customer data current. The tool appends all card data with up-to-date customer info so businesses can avoid difficulties over address changes, name changes, expired cards and more.

The tool can benefit any business that bills customers on a recurring basis.

It eliminates the need for manual administration, so it can lower your business’s operational costs and customer-service expenses. And by saving your clients the hassle of a declined payment, you can boost customer satisfaction and overall sales.

2. Netswipe

Paying online is convenient for customers, but keying in an unwieldy credit card number is still a pain.

Netswipe from Jumio gives customers an easier way: The tool lets users pay by snapping a photo of their credit card; it’s almost as easy as swiping your card through a traditional card reader.

According to Jumio, customers can use their smartphone or tablet to scan a card in as little as 5 seconds, whereas traditional key entry takes 60 seconds or more, on average. Having a quick and convenient way to pay could help contribute to a positive buying experience and encourage repeat business.

The system is compatible with any iOS or Android mobile device, as well as with any computer with a webcam.

3. Netverify

Jumio’s fraud-scrubbing tool helps you determine if your customers are who they say they are.

Net verify allows customers to snap a picture of their driver’s license or other identification using a smartphone, tablet or PC webcam. Once the image is taken, the tool can verify the authenticity of the documentation in as little as 60 seconds.

That’s much faster and more convenient than asking a customer to fax or mail a copy of their ID in the middle of a transaction.

The tool can verify identifying documents from more than 60 countries…including passports, ID cards and driver’s licenses, and even bank statements and utility bills. Jumio says its software is smart enough to automatically reject nonauthentic documents.

And customers can rest easy knowing that all submitted information is protected with 256-bit encryption to prevent identity theft.

Online merchants embed Netverify into their websites as part of the checkout process.

4. Payment Gateway

Payment Gateway service does all the heavy lifting of routing and managing credit card transactions online.

Portals like this one benefit small businesses by providing a fast and secure transmission of credit card data between your website and the major payment networks. It works a lot like a traditional credit card reader, but uses the Internet to process transactions instead of a phone line.

Payment Gateway also offers built-in fraud-prevention tools and supports a range of payment options, including all major credit cards and debit cards.

5. PayPal Here

Mobile credit card processing services like PayPal Here  make it easy to accept credit cards in person using a smartphone or tablet.

PayPal Here and other similar services send you a dongle that attaches directly to your iPhone, iPad or Android device, allowing you to swipe physical credit cards wherever you are.

One major benefit of mobile credit card readers is that they work with the devices you already own. That means there’s no need to carry around additional hardware, aside from the reader add-on itself. Most credit card readers attach to your device via the headphone jack or charger port, and are small enough to fit in your pocket.

The smallest businesses have the most to gain by opting for mobile credit card readers, which are cheaper and far more portable than traditional options.

6. Virtual Terminal

If you do business online, your website needs the infrastructure to accept credit card information.

Web-based applications like virtual terminal offer the basic processing functionality of a physical point-of-sale system, and are easy to install on your business’s website.

The system allows merchants to collect orders straight from the Web, or take orders via phone or mail and before initiating card authorizations online.

It also includes extensive transaction history to help you manage payment data, split shipments, back orders and reversals. Business owners can even receive a daily email report of all credit card transaction activity from the prior day.

 

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Mail Order Telephone Order, Merchant Cash Advance, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale, Smartphone, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 12th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Virtual Merchant Processing Gateway

Virtual Merchant Processing Gateway

Virtual Merchant

A virtual merchant is a website that sells goods and services to the public via online transactions with debit and credit card processing. The end result is a fully online experience where consumers can virtually visit a store to browse goods, purchase them fully online and receive them in the mail several days later, all from the comfort of your personal computer.

Virtual Merchant Element

Virtual merchants are made up of multiple features that basically make a website into an online store. Online stores provide e-commerce capabilities in the form of processing payments for orders and then shipping the goods or services either digitally or physically. Some brick and mortar companies may create a Web presence that only describes the store or displays the goods it sells, but they may not sell anything online.

Virtual merchants are a different breed from simple informational websites, utilizing a merchant account to create a secure online storefront. Merchant accounts create a contract between the store and online credit card processing companies. As part of this merchant account agreement, the virtual merchant pays the processor vendor a percentage of each transaction made via the online store. In some cases, this fee comes out to a monthly rate with a set per-transaction fee.

Virtual Merchant Services

Many virtual merchant services exist that cater to both online and offline business presences, though many that specialize in online retail offer more features and functionalities. These service providers offer virtual terminals to create a fully-functional payment gateway for processing purchases and creating a fluid shopping experience. Companies like National Transaction Corporation stand out as among the most popular of options due to their low merchant account fees and comprehensive virtual merchant services.

Benefits of Virtual Merchant

Virtual merchants expand the functionality of a website beyond a simple informational resource into a usable storefront. As is the case with most any type of online service, a virtual merchant service will help reduce overall work and costs associated with creating an online storefront, freeing you up to run your business as it was meant to be.

Using virtual merchant services for your website can benefit business in the following ways:

1. Easily integrates with your existing website for brand continuity

2. Facilitates more positive sales experiences

3. Improves customer service levels

4. Reduces administration and maintenance times for online retail websites

5. Removes geographic barrier from consumers, allowing for national and international sales

Secure information

Making each transaction as secure as possible becomes a main selling point of any company trying to build credibility through a Web presence. Virtual merchant services become an ideal solution as they offer all the necessary security measures to protect and keep private each buyer’s payment information.

The end result becomes that the payment process is protected through secured-socket layering (SSL) encryption to prevent data interception during an order, and account information is stored in multi-tiered firewall protection.

Straightforward online ordering

The most important part of any online purchasing experience is the ease of the ordering process. Through the use of features like a shopping cart, purchasing all items in the cart and creating an account to remember purchasing information all contributes to customer retention. When a consumer chooses to buy their goods online, a typical order processing form will entail entering credit card and billing address information as well as a shipping address and shipping options.

Each of these functionalities is ultimately governed through virtual merchant software to ensure a seamless and painless experience. The software is often available in one of two formats, either hosted or in-house. As a hosted solution, the virtual merchant service maintains the payment portal and allows you to edit its look and essentially create your store on their servers and databases. As an in-house solution, you install the software onto your own website servers and integrate the merchant application into the existing website. Both offer inherent benefits from customization to reliable management, but it ultimately depends on a company’s overall needs.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Point of Sale Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 9th, 2013 by Elma Jane

Credit Cards accepted on the American Express network will be offered by U.S. Bank. in the fall of 2014.

U.S. Bank becomes another major bank to form a partnership with American Express. As previously reported in August, Wells Fargo began issuing new credit cards accepted on the American Express network on a limited basis this year, with a full scale launch planned for the first half of 2014.

Pam Joseph, Vice Chairman of U.S. Bank, said in a statement, We believe that the American Express network provides a combination of benefits and services that many of our customers want.

The cards will be available to bank customers in the 3,088 branches of U.S. Bank, as well as online and by phone. U.S. Bank customers will also have a choice of obtaining a Visa or MasterCard.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Financial Services, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,

December 5th, 2013 by Elma Jane

Recently, Consumer Reports reviewed 26 different prepaid cards and evaluated them based on different factors. The cards Consumer Reports considered to be the best scored well in each of these four factors:

  1. Clarity of Fees — How well the fees are disclosed.
  2. Convenience — Availability of in-network ATMs, bill pay features and how widely the card network brand is accepted.
  3. Safety — Whether funds are protected with FDIC deposit insurance.
  4. Value — How much they cost to use.

This is the first time Consumer Reports has evaluated and ranked prepaid cards, revealing a shift in the market for prepaid. As prepaid cards continue to grow in popularity, consumers are going to become savvier about which prepaid cards they purchase. Consider taking a closer look at this Consumer Report to determine how your financial institution’s (FI’s) prepaid offering measures up.

Highest ranked cards are those like the ATIRA suite of prepaid cards TMG’s clients issue. They have fewer fees and make it easier for consumers to avoid them, carry FDIC insurance for each cardholder, offer features comparable to traditional checking accounts and do a better job of disclosing fees.

Not surprisingly, the worst prepaid cards reviewed scored poorly in at least one, and sometimes several, of the above categories. All of the lowest ranked cards have high, unavoidable fees, including activation and monthly fees. Additionally, the lower scoring cards fail to make their fees clear and easy for consumers to access and understand.

Specifically, the report found some prepaid cards fail to provide clear explanations of how to use features such as electronic payments, text alerts and mobile remote deposit capture, and the fees that may be charged for them. Further, while all of the cards reviewed claim to offer some form of protection for consumers, the report found in these policies are often not clearly defined.

Consumer Reports also found it problematic that although issuers provide safeguards voluntarily, they can cancel them at any time. Additionally, according to the report, fee information is often hard to find and difficult to understand. The report states this problem is compounded by the lack of consistency  with fee names and descriptions” from card to card, making it challenging for consumers to compare fees and costs. Consumer Reports also found that prepaid cards offered by some of the big banks are not necessarily less expensive than other prepaid cards. Also, these big bank offerings may be less attractive to consumers because they often don’t provide the option of making both electronic payments and payment by paper check.

 

Posted in Credit card Processing, Financial Services Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 2nd, 2013 by Elma Jane

Post Office launches new payments service to help small businesses make more money.

The Post Office in partnership with WorldPay, has launched a new card payment service to help sole traders and small businesses. The Post office which services around four million small businesses, will offer them a range of ways to take secure card payments made in-store, online, via mail or telephone order, or on the move, which it hopes will plug a 20 per cent revenue gap between firms that accept card payments and those that don’t. According to new WorldPay research, 87 per cent of customers are likely to spend more money per transaction when paying with a debit or credit card, as opposed to cash.

The study also showed during the past year, one in five of UK consumers has had to abandon a purchase due to a small business or sole trader not accepting cards or because they weren’t carrying enough cash to pay. The service includes card machines for in-store payments or those made via mail or telephone order, and online payment pages for websites.

There is also a Pay As You Go option for sole traders and mobile businesses, like hairdressers or beauty therapists, who can sign up to take secure Chip and PIN card payments.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Mail Order Telephone Order Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 15th, 2013 by Elma Jane

November 7, 2013 –  Payment Card Industry (PCI) Council’s recent acceptance of the world’s first Point-To-Point Encryption-validated solution is great news for both acquirers and merchants, and will aid in reducing merchant scope and increasing business security worldwide. If your P2PE know-how is a little spotty, here are the basics.

What is P2PE?

Point-To-Point Encryption (P2PE) is the combination of hardware and processes that encrypts customer credit/debit card data from the point of interaction until it reaches a merchant solution provider’s environment for processing. Because card data is immediately encrypted as the card is swiped (or dipped), it prevents clear-text information from residing on the payment environment. Encrypted card data is then transferred to, decrypted by, and processed through the solution provider processor who is the sole holder of the decryption key.

In a POS environment, merchants often store decryption keys on their backend servers. Bad idea. If a cybercriminal hacks into that environment, they not only have access to the encrypted card numbers, but the decryption key as well. Hacker jackpot. Many question the difference between P2PE and typical point of sale (POS) encryption.

The reason P2PE is arguably the most secure way to process is because merchants don’t have access to decryption keys. If a hacker breaches a merchant using a validated P2PE solution, he/she will only recover a long string of useless encrypted card numbers with no way to decode them.

Why use P2PE?

Basically, P2PE increases data security and has the ability to make a merchant’s job of reaching PCI compliance easier. The main point of using a P2PE-valiated solution is to significantly lessen the scope of security efforts through PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) requirement and P2PE Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) reduction. Compared to the 80+ questions required of mainstream merchant SAQs, the P2PE-HW SAQ only requires merchants to answer 18 questions.

Are all P2PE solutions created equal?

Answer is no. Many P2PE solution vendors claim their solution reduces scope, but in order for a merchant to qualify, they must select only P2PE-validated solutions listed on the PCI Council’s website.

To get P2PE solutions and applications listed on the approved website, solution provider processors must go through a rigorous testing process performed by a qualified P2PE Qualified Security Assessor (QSA). P2PE QSAs help entities thorough the 210-page document of P2PE requirements, testing procedures, and controls required to keep cardholder data secure – a task which only a few companies in the world can do.

As of this post, the only P2PE hardware solution approved by the PCI Council is European Payment Services’ (EPS) Total Care P2PE solution, validated by P2PE QSA SecurityMetrics. A number of other P2PE solutions are currently undergoing the review process and will be added to the list once approved.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Electronic Payments, Merchant Services Account, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Point of Sale, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 14th, 2013 by Elma Jane

Los Angeles-based company Verifi, providing antifraud and risk-management services recently secured a patent for its dispute-resolution technology that enables merchants to avoid chargebacks by turning them into refunds earlier in the process. According to the patent abstract, the patent covers “receiving, at the partner platform, an inquiry/dispute event notification,” and “refunding the transaction or canceling future or recurring charges associated with the transaction.”

Verifi noted in the patent application, consumers are increasingly contacting their issuing bank first in the case of a disputed credit or debit card charge, cutting the merchant out until later in the process. The patent in question, in addition to streamlining the process for issuers engaged in the dispute process, helps recurring merchants by removing cardholders from the recurring payment program during the resolution process so additional charges will not come into question until the original dispute is settled.

 

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 12th, 2013 by Elma Jane

Since Medical Transcriptions is one of the product and services by National Transaction Corporation under National Transcription Corporation I just want to share this topic.

The abuse of the medical credit card system is growing by the day because many doctors are making these cards appear like an in-house payment program. Most patients are inclined to pay their doctor for their services directly, but they are more hesitant when a credit card is involved. Some medical professionals are masking the true source of their lending services and thus putting their clients at risk.

An example of this form of abuse can be seen by a company called CareCredit. Nearly 90% of New Yorkers in the CareCredit program opted for a program with no interest if the amount was paid in full. A quarter of them ended up paying 26.99% interest on their accounts instead. CareCredit has more than seven million cardholders nationwide, and it is currently the defendant in a variety of civil lawsuits.

If you are offered a chance to take to a credit card to cover your medical expenses, you should fully research the card before signing on the dotted line. Fully understand the terms of the card before agreeing to anything so you don’t end up in heavy debt.

Medical credit cards are designed to help people pay for procedures they may not be able to afford on their own. These cards give patients a chance to undergo the procedures their insurance may not pay for, as well as giving the doctor the opportunity to get their money right away.

While this may seem like a great setup, most patients are pressured into getting medical credit cards without knowing the excessive costs sometimes associated with them. They can fall into a debt trap very quickly.

 

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Medical Healthcare Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,