Category: e-commerce & m-commerce
December 20th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Third-party Cookies vs. Consumer Privacy
Some interesting tools that consumers and businesses should be aware of. As consumers, we will likely see more opportunities to opt out of online activities that collect data about our behaviors. We could also see more tools that allow consumers to provide more accurate information.
The Drive to Personalize
Most every ecommerce merchant uses data to personalize shoppers’ experiences. Some common personalization tactics are:
Present upsell and cross-sell offers.
Online merchants use first-party information from their own databases and cookies to track shopping behaviors. They also purchase third-party databases that help predict behavior and products that will appeal to a specific target shopper. Similar methods have been used with offline direct marketing for years. Online tools like third-party cookies…i.e. cookies left by a domain other than the one a user is visiting…and deep data mining have made the practice easier.
Retarget shoppers who have visited a store but did not make a purchase; Segment and personalize merchandising offers in your online store. Target emails at selected consumers who are more likely to buy a certain product;
When used properly with ad networks and ecommerce personalization and recommendation engines, third-party databases increase conversion rates and average order values. They also increase customer loyalty by providing a better customer experience.
Data Collection
Most of the data is now collected with third-party cookies or other means that consumers have opted into, even if they did not necessarily think of it that way. Every time you agree to a license agreement, for example, it’s likely that you are agreeing to share your data in aggregate and anonymously with third parties. Most companies put that in their agreements to protect themselves in the future, regardless of whether they collect the data now.
If third-party cookies are eventually eliminated, there will likely be some type of replacement system that will provide similar functionality. In fact, there’s already a scarier method of tracking consumer behaviors…using digital fingerprinting techniques that profile your computer.
This technique is virtually impossible to block as other devices can see things like your operating system, browser type, your fonts, screen size and depth, time zone, cookie settings, browser plugins, and http header information. The good news is that the use of fingerprinting is relatively small. But, some observers believe this will be a future alternative to third-party cookies.
Tools for Consumers
Axciom, one of the larger data providers, is now offering a tool at AboutTheData.com that allows consumers to see information that Axciom has collected about them and actually correct it if they choose. The bad news is that you have to provide Axciom with even more information than it already has to view the information it has on file. However, you can also choose to opt out of its databases.
You will need to create a login and answer a series of questions to verify your identity. Once that is done, you can review your data, which is broken into several categories.
You may be surprised by the amount of information Axciom maintains. Realize that this is just one of many databases that have information about you that is used in online and offline applications.
Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments Tagged with: anonymously, average, browser, cookies, customer, data, data mining, databases, digital, domain, ecommerce, fingerprinting, identity, license agreement, loyalty, offline, online, operating system, opted, order, privacy, purchase, Rates, shoppers, values
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: brick and mortar, buying, channel, consumers, conversion, convert, customer support, e-commerce, ecommerce, interactive, m-commerce, mcommerce, media, omnichannel, online, orders, photo, product, profile, purchasing, retailers, sales, shopping, site, social media, transaction
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: analyses, analytic, big data, communications, competitive, consumer, cost, database, decision, ecommerce, email, internet, marketing, Merchant's, mobile, monitor, ntc, online, orgainizing, patterns, point of sale, POS, profit margins, promotions, risk, scalable, solutions, storing, text messages, virtual merchant, website
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: account, Android, authenticity, card data, card reader, checkout, checkout process, credit card number, credit card transactions, debit cards, declined payment, expired, fraud, id, iOS, mail, mobile device, nonauthentic, online, online merchants, passports, payment data, payment gateway, payment options, phone, point of sale, recurring, smartphone, tablet, verify, visa, webcam
December 12th, 2013 by Elma Jane
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: credit card processing, debit and credit card processing, digitally, e-commerce, hosted, low merchant account fees, merchant account, online retail websites, online transactions, payment gateway, payment process, per-transaction, processing payments, processing purchases, processor, secure, store, storefront, transaction, virtual merchant, virtual terminals, virtually, website
December 3rd, 2013 by Elma Jane
De-clutter
A messy workplace is annoying, distracting, and can get out of hand. Keep clutter at bay by regularly tidying up.
Clutter can also exist inside the mind. Having piles of paper on your desk can keep you from finding a pen, having too many thoughts can curb your focus.
Fix this by de-cluttering your mind. Use a mind-mapping tool to organize all the ideas, tasks, or worries in your head.
Eat your Frog Early
When you arrive in the office every morning, do you dive right into your biggest task or do you get the minor stuff out of the way first? Author and personal development coach Brian Tracy says that the former is more effective in terms of productivity.
In his book Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Tracy cited a famous Mark Twain quote, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
He used frog eating as a metaphor for task completion, in which the frog “is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.” Finish that task as early as possible, and you can spend the rest of the day knowing that you’ve accomplished a big goal.
Resist the urge to complete smaller jobs first. Doing so will only feed your procrastination and won’t take you any further towards completing your big tasks.
When deciding on what to prioritize in your business, always put your highest-impact goals at the top of your to-do list. What step can you take today that will have the biggest effect on your company? Start with that, and either delegate or hold-off on the low-level tasks. This tough to do.
Follow the 80-20 Rule
The 80-20 rule, developed by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto states that for many situations, about 80 percent of the effects or outcomes come from just 20 percent of the causes.
In business, the 80-20 rule comes into play when 80 percent of a company’s clients are generated from 20 percent of its sales staff, or when 80 percent of returns come from 20 percent of its customers.
Determine how the 80-20 principle applies to your business, then address that 20 percent so you can generate more results, or eliminate problems.
For instance, if you discover that 80 percent of your profits come from 20 percent of your customers, then nurture your relationships with those customers and reward them for their loyalty. Or perhaps you notice that 20 percent of your online marketing efforts are bringing in 80 percent of your site traffic. Stop spending resources on the low-performing strategies, and focus your efforts on the channels that work.
Have a Meeting Policy
If you must hold meetings in your company, keep them brief. Always have an agenda and a clear purpose for the meeting.
You may also want to consider having company-wide policies that tell people when and how to set-up meetings. Some companies for example, always hold meetings on the same day and time each week…e.g., Monday mornings, Thursday afternoons. This schedule enables people to plan their days and weeks more effectively.
Optimize your Relationships with Vendors
You optimize your site for speed and user-friendliness. Why not do the same for your suppliers and service providers?
Check with your vendors to ensure you’re working efficiently. Ask if there’s anything you can do to make their jobs easier, or recommend any improvements that they can implement. Don’t view your relationship as a service provider and client. Instead, treat your vendors as your partners.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Environmentally Green, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale Tagged with: agenda, business, ecommerce, loyalty, marketing, mind-mapping, online, optimize, organize, policies, prioritize, procrastinate, procrastinating, procrastination, spending, strategies, suppliers, task
November 22nd, 2013 by Admin
As we move to smartphones and tablets as payment methods security and privacy concerns are a real issue. With recent NSA leaks shedding light on our data and the access others have to it, we have to consider security, privacy and health implications. This year alone e-commerce transactions on smartphones and tablets during the holiday season are set to grow by 15%. Although tablets, not smartphones will drive the bulk of that growth, smartphones are set to overtake mobile-commerce payments over the next 5 years. Tablet payments in the U.S. alone are expecting to reach $26 billion in transactions. Currently tablets are more convenient for m-commerce due to their size, but as far as the future of electronic payment processing, smartphones are where it’s at.
The smart merchant sees this coming and realizes frictionless transactions increase sales. The more comfortable and less complicated a transaction is for a customer, the better. Smartphones, tablets, PCs, laptops and more can already process electronic transactions from credit and debit cards, gift cards, electronic checks and more. Money movement is easier than ever and more convenient than cash. Cash is king however in situations where internet connectivity and power are an issue. In India for example, a poor electric grid makes power outages a common occurrence. During natural disasters, when resources are badly needed, power outages or severed internet communications mean no electronic transactions can be processed. So physical currency remains a must, in the future we may see payment technology evolve to where digital money like crypto currency (BitCoin) may be stored on the device itself similar to having cash. As these electronic payment systems evolve, merchants need to position themselves to accept what their market prefers to transact with.
The smart citizen also sees this coming and has concerns that things like a National ID program being established may compromise their privacy.
As an extreme example of electronic transactions, a nightclub in Spain used subdermally implanted RFID chips in a woman that allowed patrons to pay for food and beverages without a credit card.
Posted in e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Check Services, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Merchant Services Account, Near Field Communication, Smartphone Tagged with: bitcoin, cash, connectivity, credit, crypto currency, currency, debit cards, digital money, e-commerce, electronic, electronic checks, frictionless, Gift Cards, health, internet, laptops, leaks, m-commerce, Merchant's, mobile-commerce payments, money, national id, nsa, pay, payment methods, payment processing, PCs, privacy, processed, RFID, Security, smartphone, tablets, technology, transact, transactions
October 25th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Some brands have managed to pull themselves together to mobilize their online sites…that’s design them to be visually friendly to mobile users.
Earlier this month the quick-service restaurant debuted a new item on its menu…the Smoke Brisket Sandwich…with a campaign that involved a number of social media components. Included among those were a game that awards points based on a customer’s tweets, the online challenges he or she wins and the photos uploaded to Instagram.
It starts with a purchase of the sandwich at an Arby’s outlet. When the customers receives her receipt she takes a picture of it and uploads it to mobile site PunchTab created for the campaign.
What sets this campaign apart from many others is that it is coordinated at the point of sale.
For this campaign, PunchTab created mobile Web onto which Arby’s customers upload a receipt. When users make a purchase, they can take a picture of their receipt and submit it via the mobile website. From there, points are dispersed, the players advance…and hopefully, return to Arby’s for more purchases, err, points.
Helping Business
There’s definitely been a trend in the POS and payments industry to add value offerings by helping businesses better understand their customers. This trend is built on the wealth of transactional data being collected by POS and payments companies, and the goal is to present simplified consumer behavior analyses that can be used by merchants to generate more revenue.
Looking ahead, more and more retailers will understand the value that capturing this customer data can unlock for this business, and will put the software in place to tap into a customer’s purchase history and thus their preferences.
Now the focus is on salespeople delivering a personalized experience to customers. The next stage, will focus on extending to individual customers the inside track on new products that will appeal to them and complement or replace things they have previously purchased.
Pimping Out The POS
Engaging with the customer at the point of sale is hardly a new idea. It certainly is an established practice in traditional brick and mortar operations…think credit card solicitations and offers for loyalty points and cards…as we all as e-commerce sites, where a customer is usually presented with several offers before the checkout is complete.
Now CRM is making its way into the mobile POS and customers are finding that there are a number of unique benefits to the model.
In the case of PunchTab, it ties the receipt-scanning functionality that doesn’t require an app…not to mention several other benefits to the system.
For example, Marketers get greater insight into purchasing behavior because a receipt is usually involved. Consumers are right there and thinking about the campaign…which they wouldn’t necessarily be when they got home to go online, and it is relatively easy system to set up.
Arby’s for example, has 40 POS systems and because it is a franchise, it requires coordinating with multiple owners. For them, mobile is the best and easiest way to engage with customers at the point of sale.
Real-Time Offers
Other companies…such as Groupon with its Breadcrumb mobile app…are adding even more advanced CRM capabilities, such as reporting at the mobile point of sale.
It is a growing trend for all mobile applications and most especially apps in the mobile POS to bring more CRM capabilities into their service platform.
Eventually, some of these CRM-infused mobile POS systems will be able to make offers in real time to customers based on their purchase at the moment and accumulated knowledge about the preferences of other customers that make similar purchases. Example it might be noted that in 20 percent of all purchases of a particular type of coffee the customer also purchase a biscotti, then the server can offer up the option as a reminder for purchase/order.
The example assumes the mobile POS system has access to customer data about purchase and preferences…which is somewhat rare now, but a trend gaining momentum.
Posted in Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale Tagged with: app, awards, brick and mortar, crm, customers, data, design, franchise, functionality, mobile, mobile pos, mobilize, online, payments, payments industry, point of sale, points, POS, purchase/order, purchases, receipt, receipt-scanning, restaurant, retailers, revenue, social media, transactional, uploaded, users, web, website
October 24th, 2013 by Elma Jane
Reflecting recent research that concludes mobile payment adoption remains low, Total System Services Inc. (TSYS) issued results from a survey that confirm consumers prefer banking applications other than payments for their mobile devices.
While reinforcing the dominance of debit and credit cards as payment mechanisms, the TSYS 2013 Consumer Payment Choice Study revealed that mobile devices are used as a tool for ancillary financial services, such as checking account balances and accessing discounts and rewards.
“For now, the hype largely remains hope for mobile from a payments standpoint,” the survey said. “On a relative basis, consumers would overwhelmingly prefer to have the ability to use their smartphone to monitor transaction activity or prevent fraud versus using their mobile phone as a form factor in a transaction.”
Columbus, Georgia-based processor TSYS found in its third annual survey that, out of 1,000 consumers surveyed online in the summer of 2013, 40 percent of respondents were interested in using mobile devices to instantly stop illegitimate transactions. Additionally, 37 percent indicated that the ability to view in real-time the transactions made with debit and credit cards was also an important feature.
Receiving instant offers and promotions from stores being visited (33 percent); temporarily blocking and unblocking purchases using certain bankcards (29 percent); and paying for purchases using reward/loyalty points (28 percent) rounded out the top payment-related uses for smartphones.
At the bottom of the scale was to pay for purchases with mobile wallets (25 percent) and to use credit or debit card-funded prepaid accounts for the same purpose (22 percent). “Industry observers regard mobile payments as an assumed eventuality,” TSYS stated. “Our survey results indicate that consumers are presently more interested in increased non-payment functionality on their mobile device.”
But the processor remains optimistic about the promise of mobile payments. “We believe that as the infrastructure matures and the ability to use mobile payments becomes more widespread, this trend will change,” TSYS said.
Prepaid undermarketed?
In addressing the role of prepaid cards in the payment mix, TSYS expressed surprise that prepaid cards are apparently not being marketed aggressively by financial institutions. The processor noted that major banks jumped into the prepaid card industry in 2012 to offer general-purpose reloadable (GPR) prepaid cards as checking account alternatives.
But TSYS found that just over 10 percent of survey respondents indicated they had received GPR card offers from their banks. TSYS attributed that low percentage to the fact that the survey respondents were by default credit and debit card users, while GPR cards are primarily targeted to individuals without access to credit or debit cards.
Regardless, survey respondents aged 35 and younger accounted for 64 percent of those who had received such offers. “It could be that the younger demographic on average represents a less profitable checking relationship for banks, or that banks perceive them to be more receptive to the offering,” TSYS said.
Steady goes debit and credit
Consumer payment preferences in 2013 remain relatively unchanged from previous years, according to TSYS. Debit still trumps credit as the preferred payment instrument overall, with both methods being favored by every eight of 10 survey respondents. Debit is still the clear winner when it comes to supermarket shopping and gas purchasing, while credit is preferred when dining out and shopping in department stores. But when it comes to fast food cravings, cash is still king.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, and also consistent with TSYS’ 2012 report, only 11 percent of respondents said being able to set up text message alerts for account balances and transactions was most valuable, and a mere 6 percent valued the ability to register payment cards in mobile wallets.
However, credit tops debit for online purchases, TSYS said. Further of note is that PayPal Inc.’s digital wallet service rivals debit online, with both payment methods favored by roughly one-fifth of respondents. But for small-dollar purchases, like coffee and donuts, cash remains the preferred payment vehicle, despite innovative mobile schemes offered by companies like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Internet Payment Gateway, Mail Order Telephone Order, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: account, adoption, applications, banking, checking, consumers, credit cards, debit, devices, discounts, financial services, form factor, general-purpose, gpr, infrastructure, low percentage, mechanisms, mobile, mobile wallets, non-payment, offers, online, payment, payment related, phone, prepaid, processor, profitable, promotions, real-time, reloadable, reward/loyalty, rewards, smartphone, transaction, tsys
October 24th, 2013 by Elma Jane
You will be happy to learn that these days there is less hassle when setting up credit card payments online. In the past, companies were required to open a merchant account through a bank in order to be able to accept credit cards. Today, several services enable you to accept credit cards online without opening your own merchant account.
With more than 50 million users worldwide, Paypal is probably the most widely used such service. The company’s Payflow service is a turn-key solution with several added advantages such as recurring billing and fraud protection.
If you still want to take actual credit card payments online, a merchant account service is your best option. To open an Internet merchant account, you must fill in a merchant application and provide support documents. First, you must supply proof that you established a checking account for your Internet business.
If you have sole proprietorship or a micro business, you can open either a personal checking account or business checking account. If you opt for a personal checking account, the account must be in the name of the sole proprietor. If your internet business is a corporation, you must set up a corporate checking account.
This account will be used to deposit sales generated through your internet merchant account, but also to withdraw fees such as online payment gateway fees.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: accept, application, checking account, companies, credit-card, deposit, fraud protection, internet business, merchant account, merchant account service, micro business, online, payment gateway fees, payments, PayPal, recurring billing, sales, support, turn-key, worldwide
