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Apple Pay is a revolutionary mobile payment and digital wallet service developed by Apple Inc., designed to provide users with a seamless, secure, and convenient way to make payments using their Apple devices. Launched in 2014, Apple Pay has rapidly gained popularity, transforming how people shop and transact in physical stores, within apps, and online. This comprehensive article delves into the intricacies of Apple Pay, its working mechanisms, benefits, security features, and its integration across the Apple ecosystem.
Understanding Apple Pay
Apple Pay allows users to store their credit, debit, and prepaid card information securely on their Apple devices. Instead of carrying physical cards, users can simply use their iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Mac to make payments at compatible point-of-sale terminals or within apps. The technology utilizes Near Field Communication (NFC) for contactless payments at physical stores, while in-app and online payments are facilitated through secure tokens and biometric authentication.
How Apple Pay Works
- Adding Cards: Users can easily add their card information to Apple Pay through the Wallet app by either manually entering the details or using the device’s camera to scan the card.
- Authentication: For security, Apple Pay requires users to authenticate their identity using Touch ID, Face ID, or a passcode before completing a transaction.
- Contactless Payments: At NFC-enabled terminals, users simply hold their device near the reader, and the transaction is processed instantly.
- In-App and Online Payments: When shopping within apps or on websites that support Apple Pay, users can choose Apple Pay as their payment method and authorize the transaction using biometrics or a passcode.
Benefits of Apple Pay
Apple Pay offers numerous advantages for both consumers and businesses:
- Convenience: Eliminates the need to carry physical cards, making payments quicker and easier.
- Security: Employs tokenization and biometric authentication, ensuring that card details are not shared with merchants, reducing the risk of fraud.
- Speed: Transactions are processed rapidly, improving the checkout experience.
- Acceptance: Widely accepted at millions of locations worldwide and in numerous apps and websites.
- Rewards: Users can still earn rewards and benefits associated with their credit cards when using Apple Pay.
Apple Pay and the Apple Ecosystem
Apple Pay seamlessly integrates across the Apple ecosystem, enhancing its usability and convenience:
- iPhone and iPad: Users can make payments at physical stores, within apps, and on websites.
- Apple Watch: Offers a convenient way to make payments on the go without having to take out a phone.
- Mac: Allows users to make secure online purchases in Safari.
- Business Integration: Apple Pay can be integrated into various business solutions, including point-of-sale systems and e-commerce platforms.
Security Measures
Apple Pay prioritizes security by implementing several layers of protection:
- Tokenization: Replaces actual card numbers with unique tokens, safeguarding sensitive card data.
- Biometric Authentication: Uses Touch ID or Face ID to verify the user’s identity.
- Device-Specific Cryptography: Encrypts payment information and securely stores it within the device’s Secure Element.
- No Data Storage: Apple does not store or share transaction details with merchants.
Apple Pay has revolutionized mobile payments, providing a convenient, secure, and efficient way to transact using Apple devices. Its seamless integration across the Apple ecosystem and robust security measures have made it a popular choice for consumers and businesses alike. As technology continues to evolve, Apple Pay is expected to further expand its reach and capabilities, solidifying its position as a leading player in the mobile payment industry.
Posted in Uncategorized
March 29th, 2023 by Elma Jane
Protect your business from the risk of fraudulent activities with Payment Card Industry / Digital Security Standards (PCI/DSS). With this service, you can ensure that your business meets all the PCI/DSS requirements. Requirements differ depending on your transaction volume.
This service is important especially when you’re offering various payment methods for your customers. Keep in mind that even with PCI compliance, a data breach is still possible. You’ll need to pay for this breach to be fixed.
As an NTC client, it’s advisable to reach out if you happen to experience a data breach. In some cases, you may need to work with forensic experts to identify the main culprit of the breach. Most of the cost associated with the breach may be incurred by the service provider depending on your compliance.
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March 14th, 2023 by Admin
Be with NTC & enjoy the full benefits of our Merchant Credit Card Processing Services with high levels of service and security. You can enjoy from e-commerce payment gateways to retail and restaurant solutions, business-to-business processing capabilities to electronic invoicing, NTC is offering an appropriate cost-effective merchant credit card processing services that are very fast, secure and easy to integrate. We honor getting your small business up and running smoothly. NTC always helps you get the lowest rates, so that you can save your money safely. Read more of this article »
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: Credit Card Processing Services, e-commerce, Merchant Credit Card, payment gateways
February 8th, 2023 by Admin
The credit card processing industry is about to experience an infrastructure shift. The terminology reads like alphabet soup so we’ll start with a list of the (not so) new technologies. Essentially magnetic swipe readers are going to be phased out and new Chip & PIN cards or chip-based payment cards will slowly replace them over the next few years. The key date on the radar is October 2015. Read more of this article »
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: EuroPay, MasterCard, Near Field Communication, Visa MasterCard American Express
January 3rd, 2023 by Admin
Yet another payment solution on the horizon is the MCE initiative for smartphones and tablets. The new solution is being led by 7-eleven, BestBuy, CVS Pharmacy, Darden Restaurants, Lowes, Publix, Sears, Shell Oil, Sunoco, Target, Dunkin’ Donuts, Bed Bath & Beyond and WalMart. According to their website, “Development of the mobile application is underway, with an initial focus on a flexible solution that will offer merchants a customizable platform with the features and functionality needed to best meet consumers’ needs.” The company intends to make their application available on all major smartphone platforms.
This latest solution is a mobile wallet that has serious potential to change the way consumers fulfill their mobile payments. The mobile app links a customers smartphone directly to their bank account allowing merchants to accept non-cash payment without involving credit card processing fees.
Though this is a significant shift from other mobile digital wallet schemes, the biggest difference might be in Loyalty Card programs used to entice existing customers to stop and shop. The creative potential for these types of programs go well beyond gift card processing and extend to e-mail and social networking. Customers could receive special offers based on the word of mouth, social sharing they do for the large retailers.
This mobile payment solution is initially just for the big boys though. They are catering to their own needs currently and there is no future consideration for small to medium size business in their digital wallet. With how fast things change in the mobile payment industry, this too could change and usher in new currencies for universal digital wallet payments.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: Digital Wallet, Merchant Customer, mobile payment, mobile wallet, payments, smartphone, tablet
February 9th, 2022 by Admin
John Stewart
January 17, 2022
https://www.digitaltransactions.net/trends-like-open-banking-and-bnpl-will-sustain-e-commerces-hot-streak-a-report-says/
Open banking, single-click checkout wallets, and the hot buy now, pay later trend will all help drive e-commerce volume worldwide in the coming five years, predicts Juniper Research in a report released Monday. This momentum is likely to push online sales long after the short-term impetus from the pandemic subsides, Juniper says.
E-commerce volume totaled $4.9 trillion globally in 2021, a figure the United Kingdom-based research firm forecasts will reach $7.5 trillion in 2026, when China will control a 37% share. Wider availability of multiple e-commerce channels, including mobile devices, will propel the overall growth worldwide, Juniper says. But along with the boom in e-commerce will come a corresponding growth in fraud via identity theft, account takeovers, and fraudulent chargebacks, the report warns. China, for example, will account for more than 40% of fraud losses worldwide in 2025, at more than $12 billion, Juniper forecasts.
Open banking is a trend by which fintechs can verify balances in consumers’ accounts and transfer funds to pay for online purchases. As standards bodies work to promulgate standards for this business, e-commerce payment providers “should … partner with specialists in … specific emerging payment areas to keep pace with changing merchant expectations around acceptance types,” the research firm says in its release, referring to digital wallets and crypto as well as open banking.
Open banking has taken on a higher profile in the global payments market with efforts by both of the global card networks to acquire firms that specialize in this area. Visa Inc. has acquired Tink AB, while Mastercard Inc. bought Aiia and Finicity Corp.
Physical goods will continue to dominate e-commerce spending, the report says, accounting for 82% of payment value by 2026. To tap into the trend, Juniper advises, payments providers should support buy now, pay later plans, which allow consumers to split purchases into four equal installments paid over a six-week period at no interest. BNPL is becoming more controversial, however, as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched an investigation of the option and as reports emerge that consumers with multiple accounts are more likely to miss a payment.
While still a big trend, e-commerce sales in the U.S. market cooled significantly last year as the pandemic effect lost some of its force. Third-quarter sales in 2021 reached $214.6 billion, up 6.6% year-over-year, according to the Census Bureau, which tracks retail sales. That follows an 8.9% rise in the second quarter and three straight quarters with increases of 32% or more. Fourth-quarter 2021 results are not yet available.
Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Financial Services, Mail Order Telephone Order, Merchant Account Services News Articles, Merchant Services Account, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Point of Sale, Small Business Improvement, Smartphone, Uncategorized, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: banking and e-commerce, e-commerce, e-commerce businesses, e-commerce merchants, e-commerce processor, e-commerce transactions, ecommerce, ecommerce merchant, ecommerce merchants, ecommerce sites, mobile commerce payment, mobile payment, Mobile Payments, mobile processing transactions, mobile transactions, mobile wallet, mobile wallet transactions, mobile wallets, mobile-commerce payments, online transactions, point-of-sale transactions, transaction processing, transactions, wallet
January 14th, 2022 by Admin
Visa Acceptance Cloud (VAC), is set to revolutionize the way businesses accept payments from their customers. Read the full article here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220112006011/en/
The Future of the Point of Sale Is Here: Visa Pioneers Cloud-based Payment Acceptance
- Visa Acceptance Cloud creates more seamless, affordable point of sale opportunities for small businesses, retailers, fintechs, and the businesses that support them
January 13, 2022 09:15 AM Eastern Standard Time
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today Visa (NYSE: V) announced a new platform, Visa Acceptance Cloud (VAC), set to revolutionize the way businesses accept payments from their customers. Following the success of the company’s popular “Tap to Phone” solution, VAC will let acquirers, payment service providers, point of sale (POS) manufacturers, and Internet of Things (IoT) players move payment processing software from being embedded in each hardware device to being universally accessible in the cloud.
“NOBAL‘s intelligent mirror in partnership with VAC from Visa provides payment experiences on our mirror without the expense and expertise required for embedded hardware modules, helping us push the future of retail in new ways.”Tweet this
Already live across six geographies, VAC will help innovators transform almost any device into a cloud-connected payment terminal, while providing seamless, cloud-based software updates, robust analytics, and network services from Visa. Since VAC runs on Visa’s data centers, it also offers leading data security capabilities.
“Cloud acceptance is the future of payments,” said Mary Kay Bowman, senior vice president and global head of payment and platform products, Visa. “Cloud-connected POS lets sellers accept payments across a range of devices quickly, simply, and safely, whether at an unattended kiosk in a hotel, a mirror in a high-end retail store or virtual in-home gym, or a smart phone in the hands of a small seller with a roadside newsstand.”
In January 2020, Visa first showcased the power of “Tap to Phone,” an industry-first solution that transforms current generation Android smartphones and tablets into contactless point of sale terminals. Tap to Phone was Visa’s first offering that let sellers accept payments on the devices they already own, just by downloading an app. As of December 2021, there were more than 300,000 devices across 54 countries using Tap to Phone.
Expanding beyond phones, Visa Acceptance Cloud enables any POS or connected device to seamlessly accept payments and to incorporate a range of added services, including buy now, pay later, fraud management, Rapid Seller Onboarding, and advanced data analytics. The ongoing pilots in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia cater to a variety of use cases, including retailers and restaurants in Australia through Visa’s work with U.S.-based fintech, Bleu, NOBAL Technologies’ smart mirror and public trains in Brazil.
“Bleu is working with Visa to bring seamless payments to businesses across Australia for the very first time,” said Sesie Bonsi, President & CEO, Bleu. “While the average business owner can spend as much as $1,000 on POS devices, plus countless hours and more money on time consuming certification processes, moving to Visa Acceptance Cloud removes the barriers of traditional hardware and burdens of device-bound kernel certifications, making it easier for the independent business that we serve to deliver touchless payment options to their customers through any connected device.”
“Retailers are looking to enhance their in-store customer experience to meet the speed and convenience of the online and in-store checkout experiences,” says Bill Roberts, CEO, NOBAL Technologies. “NOBAL‘s intelligent mirror in partnership with VAC from Visa provides payment experiences on our mirror without the expense and expertise required for embedded hardware modules, helping us push the future of retail in new ways.”
“VAC is a universal platform that helps open up acceptance for all – by freeing our leading technology partners to innovate. On one end of the spectrum, cloud acceptance helps drive inclusion for more small sellers who want to offer digital payments. On the other end, Visa Acceptance Cloud enables advanced shopping and buying experiences that will be central to the future of retail for businesses of all shapes and sizes,” continued Bowman. “Moving acceptance to the cloud opens up the possibility of so much innovation from the entire payments ecosystem. This is only the beginning.”
To learn more about VAC, please visit our website or contact visaacceptancecloud@visa.com.
About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating more than 215 billion payments transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories each year. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.
Contacts
Media Contact:
Emily Scheer
Press@visa.com
Posted in Uncategorized
January 14th, 2022 by Admin
M-commerce. As smartphones and tablets take over our lives brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce sites are gearing up for the upcoming surge in shoppers to provide the ‘omni channel’ experience. Today shoppers use their smartphone and tablet devices to research their purchases, read reviews and ask about items others have purchased on social networking sites. This holiday season will see a rise in spending over previous years and mobile commerce alone is expected to rise to $17 Trillion by 2017. So what are retailers doing to upgrade their customers experience? One avenue is mobile point of sale that let’s a company extend it’s sales force with global reach. Tablets are mainly used, although smartphones will work as well, and access to the company’s entire inventory can be accessed anywhere on the planet. To close the sale, electronic payments can be processed at the point of sale with a credit card swipe reader. For larger companies with a local presence, new services are allowing that omni channel shopping experience with in store pickups, returns and exchanges.
Walmart for example now ships 10 percent of its orders from the store to the door. In store pickup is big this holiday season as well. Walmart and Target are set to facilitate in store pickups for e-commerce shoppers allowing them to bypass long checkout lines and take advantage of last minute sales. Much of this is in response to e-commerce giant Amazon. Amazon has many distribution centers but even with those, they can only ship in advance of Christmas. In store pickup can facilitate Christmas eve purchases that online e-commerce purchases cannot.
Much has to be done for smaller merchants to rise to that level of delivery. Software is needed to combine in store inventory with that of online inventory available. Stores also need equipment and space to give packing employees room to work orders. Sales staff need training to help shoppers place orders and even merchandising is typically brought in house where brick and mortar stores and e-commerce buying has been separate.
Posted in Uncategorized
January 7th, 2021 by Admin
Technology can be your friend
Technology can be scary, so can change. When you combine the two most people run. Technology can be extremely helpful in growing your business. From Omni Commerce merchant accounts, where you can combine all your processing into one merchant account, to social media marketing where you can reach a larger audience, and even expanding to online sales without a website. Having the right team to help you navigate and keep you up to date on all these new trends is crucial. Here are some tips to help you learn these new techniques and stay ahead to the trend.
Be Proactive, Notify Customers of Issues
Streaming data can be analyzed from multiple sources in real-time, to enable proactive customer service. This could include data from the website, such as a customer’s clicks, as well as mobile app clicks and shipment information. Specialized tools called complex event processing systems are often used to correlate all the data in real-time, analyze it based on the rules defined in the tool and take actions to notify the customer, another application, or someone internal to the business. Retailers can use these systems to reduce call volumes and resolve issues resulting in happier shoppers and higher revenue.
Create Service-level Targets
For the retailer’s customer service to be stellar, targets need to be defined for all key operations such as wait times, same customer calling within a specific period of time and time for one call. These targets can also define service level agreements, where appropriate. These targets should be linked with automated alerts that get triggered when they are not met and used to notify the appropriate staff to resolve. This will help maintain the desired service levels. Most customer service solutions, have a feature to create automated alerts, though not every retailer enables this feature. It is not that difficult if a step-by-step approach is used: (1) Define the appropriate targets and (2) create alerts to resolve the issues quickly.
360 Degree View of Customers
The concept of obtaining visibility to all the customer interactions and taking action based on that has been around for several years, but still it has not been widely adopted. The goal is not only to align customer interactions in different systems like campaigns, recommendations and social networks, but also to correlate this data to determine the next best action to serve the customer. If a retailer knows these activities about a customer, the benefits such as product recommendations are huge. For small retailers, this can be accomplished by first integrating the different systems in their environment and gradually building the correlations to get a full view of the customer.
Empower Reps to Resolve Issues
The customer should not be transferred from one rep to the next to resolve the issue. The reps need to be empowered to resolve the issue. This typically requires providing access to the reps to different parts of the system. The reps need to have the power to refund money up to a certain limit, give away free products or services or issue a one-time savings, such as free shipping or 25 percent off on the next order.
Enhanced Search
Customer service representatives usually search a customer’s history before working on the issue. In most cases, the search is limited to past interactions with service reps. It is important however, to search through all customer communication, including audio files for phone calls, chat interactions and any email communications. Without this enhanced search, the reps are getting an incomplete view of the issue, leaving the customer frustrated. Speech recognition tools enable voice files to be searched or they can be tagged with the relevant keywords manually when the rep is working on the issue over the phone. Software solutions are available for searching through audio files and some come bundled with customer-relationship and ticketing solutions.
Facilitate Feedback
Great customer service can only be improved if it incorporates improvements based on shopper feedback. It is therefore important to make it as easy as possible to gather feedback positive and negative from customers and visitors. If a retailer uses a support ticket system, then the customer should be able to provide feedback on the ticket, just like they would review a product after purchase.
Improve Speed of Response
Most of us have heard a customer service representative say that his systems are running slow, resulting in increased wait time. If this problem is so common, why are retailers not taking action to fix it? It requires an investment for sure. But the money saved by serving more customers in the same amount of time or increased revenue because the customers get answers faster, could make it worthwhile. The easiest technical option to improve the speed of response is to move data that is accessed most frequently, such as customer profile information, product catalog and return policies into an in-memory system to reduce the data access time. Additionally, if a rep has to assemble information from multiple systems (i.e., billing, fulfillment, order data) before answering a customer’s question, consider assembling and loading that information into the in-memory system to make processing of queries faster.
Keep Reps Aware of Updates
Retailers should always ensure that customer service personnel knows about important changes to the business, such as site design updates, new features, new products, and new campaigns, as well as temporary issues, such as shipping delays. The reps need to see the release notes and understand what is being changed in the environment before they start receiving questions from shoppers.
Monitor Social Networks
A negative post on a social network can do serious damage to a retailer’s brand. Consumers know that. Hence customer service teams cannot ignore social networks. They must maintain a live feed dashboard that shows the sentiments on different social networks and what is trending. Based on this, action needs to be taken. Retailers can track this using sentiment analysis that is available in several products.
Up-to-date Knowledge Base
Many retailers track customer queries by creating tickets. These tickets are sometimes handled manually bad, sometimes in an Excel spreadsheet still bad and sometimes in an online ticketing system good. The objective is not only to resolve the customer issue, but also to avoid spending time responding to the same issue later. This can be achieved if the resolutions are updated in the online ticketing system and made available to the customer in a knowledge base. Customers scan search for the issue and if they do not find the resolution they can contact customer service.
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