Jul
15
2014
July 15th, 2014 by Elma Jane

Businesses only stand to benefit by making themselves accessible via mobile devices. With a mobile website or mobile app, businesses can boost sales, retain loyal customers and expand their reach. The question is, which type of mobile presence is best for your business Or should you have both? Both mobile websites and mobile apps let customers find and access your business from devices they use the most, but a mobile website and mobile app are not the same thing. To help you decide, check out the differences between the two and how they can benefit your business.

Mobile App – is a smartphone or tablet application. Unlike a mobile website, a mobile app must be downloaded and installed, typically from an app marketplace, such as the Apple App Store or Android’s Google Play store.

Mobile Website – is designed specifically for the smaller screens and touch-screen capabilities of smartphones and tablets. It can be accessed using any mobile devices Web browser, like Safari on iOS and Chrome on Android. Users simply type in the URL or click on a link to your website, and the website automatically detects the mobile device and redirects the viewer to the mobile version of your website.

Mobile website’s benefits

The primary benefit of a mobile website is that it makes regular websites more accessible for mobile users. It can have all the same elements as the regular version of the website, such as its look and feel, pages, images and other content, but it features a mobile-friendly layout that offers improved readability and functionality when viewed on a smartphone or tablet. By having a mobile website, customers can access your website anytime, anywhere using any device, without compromising the user experience.

Mobile app’s benefits

Although a mobile app functions a lot like a mobile website, a mobile app gives businesses the advantage of having their own corner on a customer’s device, because users have to download and install the app, businesses have more control over their presence on a device than they would with a mobile website. For instance, a mobile app can be closed or inactive, but still work in the background to send geo-targeted push notifications and gather data about customer’s preferences and behaviors. Moreover, mobile apps make it easy to deploy loyalty programs and use mobile payments using a single platform. It’s also much easier to access a mobile app than a mobile website all it takes is one tap, versus having to open a Web browser then type in a URL.

Mobile website and Mobile app features

Although mobile websites and mobile apps aren’t the same thing, they generally offer the same features that can help grow your business by making it easier for customers to find and reach you.

Features include the following:

Click-to-map: Users can use their devices’ GPS to locate your business and instantly get directions, without having to manually input your address.

Mobile commerce: Take your online store mobile with e-commerce-capable mobile websites and apps, such as with Buy Now buttons and mobile carts.

One-click calling: Users can call your business simply by tapping on your phone number from your website or app.

Social sharing: This feature integrates social media apps and websites to enable users to easily share content with friends and followers.

Mobile marketing: This lets users sign up for marketing lists and loyalty programs while enabling businesses to easily launch location-based text-message marketing and email marketing campaigns.

How to build a mobile app

Just like the options available for building a mobile website, businesses can either hire an app developer to build a mobile app or take the budget-friendly DIY mobile app maker route.

How to build a mobile website

To build a mobile website, one option is to hire a mobile Web developer to create one from scratch or convert an existing website into a mobile-friendly one. A more affordable option is to build one yourself with a free DIY mobile website builder, which uses a drag-and-drop platform that doesn’t require programming or Web design skills.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun
20
2014
June 20th, 2014 by Elma Jane

A recent survey said, 82 percent of e-commerce merchants who currently do not employ a consumer authentication solution are afraid that such solutions will scare off online shoppers, but with more and more fraud expected to migrate online in the coming years, the payments industry needs to do a better job of informing merchants why authentication in the card-not-present realm is crucial to data security.

While a majority of payment service companies employ some type of 3-D Secure online authentication, and most large merchants do likewise, the rest of the merchant population, especially in North America, apparently do not. 55 percent of merchants surveyed, a majority of which are U.S.-based, do not use online authentication, noting that North America is the only world region where less than half of merchants use the technology. The reason so many U.S. merchants eschew consumer authentication is they see it as a sales killer.

The main reason appears to be fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) about how consumer authentication will impact sales conversion and user experience, 43 percent of merchant respondents are FUD-preoccupied, with 20 percent concerned about the effect of the technology on sales conversion, 13 percent worried about changing the user experience and 10 percent simply want nothing to do with consumer authentication. Beyond the FUD concerns, there is also a very real perception with merchants and service providers that integration is long and difficult, adding that 21 percent of merchants who do not employ authentication, citing the time and/or cost of integration as the barrier.

End to FUD

The solution to merchant adoption of some form of 3-D Secure technology is apparently education. Many FUD concerns are related to a hangover effect caused by bad experiences with previous iterations of consumer authentication. But the report provides evidence that the FUD factor can be overcome because of the happiness factor that authentication-using merchants express. 81 percent of merchant respondents showing satisfaction with the solutions they have employed.

The report said nearly half of merchants surveyed said authentication had no effect on sales conversion, either positive or negative; however, almost 20 percent believe it has had a positive effect on sales. The positive result seems to be related to merchants who use authentication selectively, on specific transactions rather than on all of them. Additionally, the technology results in many merchants experiencing lower numbers of chargebacks. Amongst merchants, 59 percent overall say the authentication program brought a decrease in chargebacks and this is true for more than half of merchants from each geographic region.

FYI on FUD

The adoption is very low because not many people understand it. Online verification does retard the checkout process as a second screen pops up that consumers must navigate in order to proceed with the purchase. However, these barriers can be overcome with education and simply getting people comfortable with the technology. If we had this solution from day one on all e-commerce sites today nobody would be complaining because people would be used to doing it. It is a question of achieving ubiquity rather than taking a piecemeal approach to implementation. It is a matter of if you do it at one place or every place. If you have to do it at only one location that makes that site really secure. If all sites ask the same question, you get used to it.

Consumer authentication is also something that requires buy-in from issuers, acquirers and merchants. It is a participation solution where the issuer and the acquirer have to be participating in it. If you are an e-commerce site and you are certified with Verified by Visa the card brands proprietary version of 3-D Secure, if the card issuer has not embraced that, then the security will not happen.

Increasing number and frequency of breaches is slowly eroding consumers’ trust in the safety of e-commerce It’s not good for the whole ecosystem. At some point people will come back ­­­­­­­­and say, this is too risky to do online transactions with cards. Before that point is reached, businesses should improve their online defenses, and consumer authentication is central to that defense. With the U.S. payments infrastructure in the process of transitioning to the Europay/MasterCard/Visa (EMV) chip card standard at the physical POS, fraud in the United States will sharpen its focus on the less secure online channel. EMV will do a lot of good in terms of card present security, but it does not do anything for card-not-present environments. So how are we going to contain the online fraud? We have to go to a 3-D Secure type solution

 

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun
17
2014
June 17th, 2014 by Elma Jane

BioCatch, an Israeli startup that uses behavioural biometrics to authenticate visitors to banking and e-commerce sites, has raised $10 million in a funding round. BioCatch aims to eliminate passwords and authentication dongles for online banking and shopping, replacing them with a system that recognizes users by how they physically use their computer or tablet. The firm’s technology collects and analyses over 400 bio-behavioral, cognitive and physiological parameters based on how people type and move a cursor around to create unique profiles for visitors to sites.

In addition, the system creates invisible challenges for visitors to sites. For example, when a user moves the cursor towards a button, they are deliberately knocked slightly off course and subconsciously have to correct in what the company says is a way unique to them. This, argues BioCatch, is more secure than traditional authentication methods, demonstrating an 80% reduction in false positives for detecting the same amount of fraud. It also significantly reduces friction for the customer because the system automatically kicks in when they visit a site using the technology. BioCatch says that it has signed up several unnamed banks and e-commerce sites, and that it will use the new funding to push on in North American and Europe as well as to expand R&D efforts. Funding will also allow to continue strengthening BioCatch offering and expand global reach in strategic markets, while keeping the world’s largest and most influential institutions safe and secure.

 

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, e-commerce & m-commerce Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun
12
2014
June 12th, 2014 by Elma Jane

QR:  The Bridge to the Modern World

Involvement devices have come a long way from the time of Clearinghouse mailings, where you would peel off a label and stick it onto another page before dropping it back in the mail.

Today, print’s best involvement device is the QR code. It works as a portal or bridge into the mobile online world where the cataloger’s brand lives and breathes in real time. Even better, it can lead the customer from the catalog page to the checkout button on their smartphone within minutes.

The printed catalog delivers rich colors and a personal, tactile experience still not attainable through any mobile device. In many ways, though, it is a vestige of a bygone era, and an expensive one at that. Catalogers know this. Even the U.S. Postal Service also knows this. That’s why the USPS is running a postage discount promotion for the second year in a row this summer to encourage the use of QR codes by direct mailers.

Let’s take a quick look at the way a few catalogers are using QR codes.

Anthropologie

Anthropologie’s marketing strategy is more about selling a lifestyle than selling products. That explains why making it easy for customers to move toward actually buying something doesn’t seem like such a big priority in their catalog. They did not include a QR code anywhere. The closest they came was one line next to the address: For store information, go to www.anthropologie.com. Their 800 number, they do take phone orders is printed only once in tiny type, so having no QR code seems to fit in with their attempts to play hard to get. Marketing critique aside, by not using a QR code on their catalog, they are missing the opportunity to draw customers into closer involvement with their brand, whether or not they intend to make an immediate sale.

Best Practices

With these few examples in mind, it’s time to look at best practices for using QR codes in catalogs, which can be a two-sided equation. There is the technical aspect and the branding/selling aspect. As far as the technical side goes, customers need to use their smartphone to scan the code successfully, and the destination on the other end must be optimized for mobile access. Sometimes the hardest part is organizing the resources required to execute the backend side of things, especially if the goal is to make an immediate sale.

The main thing to consider is that QR codes work as a bridge and that bridge is a smartphone, iPad, or some other tablet with all their usual constraints (screen size, internet connection, quality of camera, QR reader app, user proficiency, etc.). Also, don’t assume that everyone has a QR reader or even knows what a QR code is. Especially in catalogs, where customers have been seeing postal service barcodes for years, people may assume that the pixelated square thing is just something else for the USPS to lose money on. Instead, including a brief call to action to scan the QR code should do the trick.

Crossing the Bridge

Getting customers to scan the QR code is only half the battle. Now you need to make sure they feel it was worth their while to scan. It’s all about the next steps in your customer relationship. If you have an Apple or Android app, then that’s where to send people if you know that you can convert sales successfully on mobile devices. Sending them to your Facebook fan page is an option too, but not a big win if a majority of your customers are already fans.

Special promotions, optimized for mobile access, will certainly earn your QR its keep. If your goal is to inspire a trip to one of your stores, then do what Brookstone does and send customers to a Google map with all store locations within a hundred miles. It’s also possible to send scanners to a dedicated page, again, optimized for mobile where you give them a number of options: Facebook, shop, app, etc.

Delia’s

By appealing to fashion-hungry American teens via retail stores, web, and catalog, Delia’s sold over $220 million in 2011. In the single catalog we looked at, Delia’s had a QR code on its back cover. When scanned, the code points to Delia’s Facebook page. That’s certainly one way to build involvement with the Delia’s brand, but it may not be the best. Delia’s has an Apple app with full e-commerce capabilities, so Delia’s could be missing out on the opportunity to help the customer cut to the chase and get straight to their virtual shopping bag. Still, at least they’re using the code. 

King Schools

Unless you’re a pilot in training or know one fairly well, you have probably never heard of King Schools. They offer more than 90 flight training courses, plus all sorts of accessories for pilots-in-training. They have no retail stores, but that’s all the more reason to mention them here, retailers can learn a lot from King Schools about how to use QR codes in their catalogs.

In the one catalog, King used a QR code on the front cover and the back cover. Now, the iPad shows enormous potential for use in general and commercial aviation, so King is smart to use their QR codes to point customers directly toward their mobile apps and offerings. In fact, King Schools uses QR codes on the Take Courses on Your iPad landing page itself.

In most cases it seems counterintuitive to display a QR code on a website for people to scan. After all, they’re already there. It’s a smart use of codes in this case, for two reasons. First, the codes lead the customer directly to the Apple app store, so it actually makes sense to scan the codes even though the customer is already on their website. The customer is now just a few clicks away from buying and installing the app. Second, there is one QR code for their app store in general, and then there are unique codes for individual apps.

Technicalities

The content in a QR code tops out at 4,296 alphanumeric characters, but catalogers only need a fraction of that to get the customer to where they want them. However, even when the character count is down to a few dozen, size does matter, because QR codes with more data embedded in them are more complex visually. This means that even smartphones with the latest and greatest optics will have trouble reading densely populated codes. Make sure the QR code is big enough. Even the simplest codes will frustrate the scanning process if they are too small or if there isn’t enough white space around them. Maybe a QR code isn’t the most photogenic thing in the world, so it’s a good challenge for catalog art directors to incorporate it into the design without shrinking it into oblivion.

More sophisticated catalogers will want to use personalized QR codes. Today, even local printers are likely to have the means to print unique QR codes for each recipient in a mailing. This creates the ability to track scans back to the individual, a marketer’s dream when it comes to one-to-one marketing relationships.

Innovation can get you traction within the social media realm and that’s money in the bank. Whether you’re a major catalog player or using QR for something completely different, always consider getting the marketing and PR people involved to leverage any novelty aspects of the application.

The benefits pile up quickly to those catalogers who take the time to get smart about QR codes. Thick catalog books can be thinned down a bit if QR codes succeed in pulling customers from the page and onto their site or apps, cutting postal costs for the millions of mailings every year. And, even if the cataloger doesn’t go to the extreme of printing unique QR codes, the branding value of offering that connection from the old-style printed piece to the dynamic world of interactive mobile technology makes it well worth the effort.

The ink needed to print a QR code on a major retailer’s catalog might weigh only a fraction of an ounce, but when used right, it’s worth its weight in gold. Too bad the majority of catalogs seem to be squandering the opportunity by underutilizing the code or worse, not including any at all. In a world where an integrated multi-channel approach is a must-have for any retailer to survive, the stakes of leveraging every opportunity for interaction are higher than ever.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr
11
2014
April 11th, 2014 by Elma Jane

PCI DSS 3.0 standard, which took effect January 1st, introduces changes that extend across all 12 requirements, aimed to improve security of payment card data and reducing fraud. There will be some shakeups for many organizations when it comes to their day-to-day culture and operations. Transitioning to meet the new requirements will help e-business build a stronger, safer, lower-risk environment for their customers.

While the growing number of digital payment avenues offers convenience to customers, it also offers a larger attack surface for criminals.

As cloud technologies and e-commerce environments continue to grow, creating multiple points of access to cardholder data and online retailers will only become more appealing targets for hackers. Cybercriminals are cunning and determined. They understand payment card infrastructures as well as the engineers who designed them.

A scary proposition and it’s exactly why the payment card industry is so determined to help keep e-commerce organizations protected. Meeting the new standard, businesses will be better armed to fight evolving threats. Changes will also drive more consistency among assessors, help business reduce risk of compromise and create more transparent provider-customer relationships.

Transitioning to PCI DSS 3.0 will involve some work, but doing that work on the front end is going to save much work down the line. Adopting the new standard ultimately will drive your e-commerce business into a secure and efficient era.

Cultural Changes – One of the main themes of 3.0 is shifting from an annual compliance approach to embedding security in daily processes. Threats don’t change just once a year. They’re constantly evolving and that means e-commerce organizations must adopt a culture of vigilance. Only through a proactive business-as-usual approach to security can you achieve true DSS compliance. Realistically, this could mean the need to provide more education and build awareness with staff, partners and providers, so that everyone understands why and how new processes are in place.  

Operational Changes – The 3.0 standard addresses common vulnerabilities that probably will ring a bell with many of you. These include weak passwords and authentication procedures, as well as insufficient malware detection systems and vulnerability assessments, just to name a few. Depending on your current security controls program, this could mean you’ll need to step up in these areas by strengthening credential requirements, resolving self-detection challenges, testing and documenting your cardholder data environment and making other corrections.

Overview Changes – How much work lands on your plate will depend on your current security program. Examining your current security strategies and program is a good idea. Below are the areas requiring your attention, which this series will explore in more detail in future installments.

Service Provider Changes –  Some organizations made unsafe assumptions in the past when it comes to third-party providers. Some have paid the price, from failed audits to breaches. One reason that the new standard is designed to eliminate any confusion over compliance responsibilities. Responsibilities, specifically for management, operations, security and reporting all will need to be spelled out in detailed contracts. In addition to improved communication, an intensified focus on transparency means that you should have a clear view of your provider’s infrastructure, data storage and security controls, along with subcontractors that can impact your environment. So if your organization isn’t exactly clear on which PCI DSS requirements you manage and which ones your providers handle, prepare to get all of that hammered out.

The Compliance Rewards – The path to preparing for the 3.0 deadline in January 2015 sounds like it’s a lot of work. So to get started request your QSA’s opinion on how the changes will impact your organization, by doing the gap assessment and you’ll be able to address any shortcomings.    

Meeting the new 3.0 requirements isn’t just about passing audits. In fast paced payment IT landscape, staying smart and protected is part of our commitment to our customers. Beefing up security game not only reduce audit headaches, but also enjoy stronger brand reputation as a safe and reliable e-commerce business.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Financial Services, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Small Business Improvement, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr
07
2014
April 7th, 2014 by Elma Jane

Integrate Cloud-Based Platforms

E-commerce businesses increasingly rely on cloud-based applications, such as hosted shopping carts, analytics platforms, cloud-based accounting, customer service tools, and more.

To operating smoothly, a merchant’s cloud-based apps should integrate with each other, to save time and to otherwise prevent data loss and ensure accurate reporting.

It’s important, therefore, to have an integration mindset when choosing and using software-as-a-service solutions.

Some tips:

Ask Around

As with evaluating any vendor for your company, go beyond the company’s website. Ask the vendor about other customers. Get references. Contact those companies and ask how the platform is working. Is it easy to set-up? Does it integrate seamlessly with other apps? How long does it take to transfer data from one app to the other? These are just some of the questions you need to ask when evaluating an app. Also check social media sites for any discussions pertaining to the program. Read what people are tweeting. Check relevant LinkedIn groups.

Check the Company’s Integrations Page or API

When evaluating a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, first determine if it integrates with the platforms that you’re already using. Pre-built integrations will save much time. Alternatively, if a company has an application programming interface (API), use it to integrate the app with your existing systems.

If you can’t find the integration you need or if you want to avoid the API option, contact the vendor directly and ask if it can make its platform sync with your existing solutions. Don’t underestimate the power of reaching out to your vendors.

Use Cloud App Integration Services

Another option is to use SaaS integration services. You have plenty of choices, depending on what you need to connect. If you just need to integrate two apps, like Dropbox to Gmail, for instance, you can use (IFTTT) If This Then That –  a service that lets you assign triggers and actions to each app through a drag-and-drop interface. When one program does something, it will automatically trigger another app to perform an action. For example, you can create a recipe wherein all your Gmail attachments are automatically saved to your Dropbox folder. IFTTT is free to use, to integrate up to 80 apps.

A similar service, Zapier, lets you do the same thing, but on a larger scale. It supports more than 250 applications, including Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Xero accounting, Campaign Monitor email, and more. Zapier is free for five integrations. It also offers Basic, Business, and Business Plus plans that cost $15, $49, and $99 per month, respectively.

IFTTT and Zapier work well to integrate two cloud applications. However, if you’re running a combination of cloud and on-premise applications, or if you have an ecosystem of apps and data sources that have to connect and exchange data, you need more sophisticated options.

That’s where services such as Dell Boomi and SnapLogic come in. Like IFTTT and Zapier, these solutions use a drag-and-drop interface, but at a larger scale. They connect multiple combinations of cloud and on-premise applications.

Use Free Trials

Always test-drive your apps or integration services. Most SaaS platforms offer free trials. Take note of user-friendliness, functionality, and observe how they function with programs you already have.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Financial Services, Internet Payment Gateway, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Small Business Improvement, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apr
07
2014
April 7th, 2014 by Elma Jane

Business-to-business ecommerce describes Internet-enabled transactions between businesses, such as a manufacturer and a wholesaler, a wholesaler and a retailers, or a wholesaler and a business user. The B-to-B ecommerce market was expected to exceed $550 billion in the U.S. last year, offering great opportunities for distributors and manufacturers to streamline sales, boost profits, and engage with new customers.

Since the late 1990s, businesses have been using the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system to transfer purchase orders and similar structured information electronically, representing, if you will, a form of B-to-B ecommerce.

Separately, some B-to-B sellers have created websites on which business customers can make purchases as if they were shopping on a business-to-consumer site. This category of B-to-B ecommerce may enjoy the most growth and offer the most opportunity.

 

Important points to consider of running a B-to-B ecommerce site.

 

B-to-B Customers Are also B-to-C Customers

B-to-B sites often trail consumer sites in technology, function, capabilities, and design. Typically not good enough.

As an example, the U.S. B-to-B site for a major multinational manufacturer, which includes information for dealers in the U.S., can only be viewed on Internet Explorer, and won’t work in any other browser, including Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or Safari. And don’t even think about visiting this site on a mobile device. It just won’t work.

This is a ridiculous business decision. It forgets a fundamental fact about B-to-B ecommerce customers. They are also B-to-C ecommerce customers.

It is extremely likely that the professional shopper on an ecommerce-enabled B-to-B website has had at least some experience shopping on consumer ecommerce sites, which all have compelling product photography, good navigation, good search capabilities, and good content.

A B-to-B ecommerce site must provide the same visual and functional experience as the best B-to-C ecommerce sites.

Personalization Is Vital

B-to-B shoppers may require a greater level of personalization than B-to-C customers, since businesses may have contract prices, special payment terms, or negotiated shipping rates.

Business relationships may be very deep and complicated. It is not unusual for B-to-B ecommerce sites to require registration before showing prices or shipping rates or offering a quote. This login requirement allows the B-to-B ecommerce site to personalize almost every aspect of the transaction.

A good B-to-B ecommerce site may take a little longer to launch since the system for handling relatively complex business relationships can take some time. But once it is in place, this personalization will mean that the relationship could be longer lasting.

Sales people Are the Primary Marketing Vehicle

While it is both possible and likely that B-to-B ecommerce sites will be able to acquire new customers simply by making products easy to order online, salespeople who contact customers are probably the B-to-B ecommerce seller’s primary and best marketing channel.

Salespeople can attract new customers or deepen relationships with existing shoppers. Sometimes, it can be enough to follow up after a B-to-B sale with a call to make certain that the transaction went as expected.

Shopping Is Part of Your Customer’s Profession

One of the most significant differences between B-to-B and B-to-C ecommerce is that shopping is part of the B-to-B ecommerce customer’s daytime job.

This means that the stakes can be higher for the B-to-B seller. If the shopper has a good experience, that shopper is likely to return and reorder repeatedly – even suggesting the seller to co-workers or other divisions. But if something goes wrong, particularly something that would cause the shopper to miss deadlines at work or appear in some way to have done a poor job, that shopper will likely blame the B-to-B seller. Depending on the unhappy shopper’s influence, the B-to-B seller might lose the entire account, including many individual buyers or divisions.

This means that order handling and transactional communications must be top notch. Some B-to-B ecommerce sellers will call customers to confirm orders or shipments when the customer has ordered a large quantity, very expensive items, or requested express shipping, since these orders may represent important transactions to the customer.

What Ecommerce Can Do for your B-to-B Business

If you sell to other businesses, ecommerce should have three potential benefits for your business.

First, it may help new customers find you. Having an easy-to-find and use ecommerce site means that new customers – customers with a need – will be able to locate your business regardless of geography or prior relationships.

Second, B-to-B ecommerce may streamline sales for existing customers. Some of your current customers will appreciate the ability to order online, 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The process may also be faster than sending emails or, even worse, faxed orders.

Finally, B-to-B ecommerce may improve margins and boost profits. It may be possible to provide customers with a better ordering experience and better customer service using ecommerce while spending less on labor and order processing. Any cost savings that B-to-B ecommerce brings may drop straight to your business’s bottom line.

Posted in Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Small Business Improvement Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Mar
03
2014
March 3rd, 2014 by Elma Jane

Interchange is a word that’s talked about a lot in the payments industry. If you didn’t have to pay interchange fees, what would your business spend the money on? At its most basic, interchange is the fees businesses pay to credit card processors to swipe your credit and get paid – or the cost of moving money. Businesses are sick and tired of paying high fees and getting very little in return. Customers are sick and tired of seeing prices of items tick upwards as businesses are forced to charge more to cover the cost of interchange.

Businesses spend an exorbitant amount of money each year to accept credit cards – to the tune of $50B. Businesses could reinvest the money they’ve been spending on interchange to better connect with customers, enhance marketing initiatives and grow faster and smarter. Just imagine for a second the economic stimulus the country would get if all that money was put back into the business to drive growth, or back into the pockets of customers to lower costs.

In the past 30 years, interchange fees have mainly gone in only one direction: up. Luckily, things are starting to change, and I think we’re going to start seeing interchange being driven down. The days of a 3 -or 4-percent interchange rate are beginning to look numbered and here’s why:

Competition

There are nearly 200 players in the mobile payments space, with more entering daily. New opportunities are providing businesses with alternative payment options that are outside of Mastercard and Visa’s clutches. While there might be 1,000-plus credit card processing companies, they’re all based on the Mastercard/Visa rails, which provides a fixed floor. But not so with many of these new payment options. As such, traditional methods of payment (cash, credit cards) are facing an increasing amount of competition, and merchants are starting to pay attention.

It’s unlikely that cash and credit cards are going away anytime soon, but it only takes a small shift in volume (maybe 5 percent) for the card issuers to start paying attention. There are a number of ways for them to react, but if history is any guide, one of them will be to start lowering their prices. Alternatively, they could find ways to offer more value to their merchants. Either way, competition is offering merchants new ways to accept payments, and this will lower fees over time.

Innovation

The second thing driving down costs for merchants is rapid innovation, and like a good deal of innovation these days, much of it is centered around mobile. Mobile payments are starting to gain significant traction among consumers, accounting for $640M in 2012 and expected to have grown by an additional 234 percent in 2013.

QR codes, NFC, peer-to-peer payments, card emulation –  the list of new technologies trying to disrupt the payments space goes on and on. These new alternatives are challenging the current payments system and shedding light on the opportunities for businesses. This innovation is beneficial in two ways. The first, as discussed above is that more competition will naturally drive costs down. The second is that alternative payment options are focusing on value beyond the transaction.

There are new payment options out there that provide tangible information, such as data analytics, which help companies drive sales and increase revenues. New options are allowing small businesses access to the same technology and analytics that were previously reserved for big-box retailers or e-commerce sites only. These additional value propositions not only help businesses, they also provide new ways for payments companies to monetize, removing the need for them to make all of their money from interchange. With two (or more) revenue lines, lowering interchange is suddenly a lot more feasible.

Legislation

The Durbin Amendment is designed to introduce competition in the debit card processing network and limit fees for businesses. For all of its unintended consequences, Durbin legislation is actually helping to drive down interchange; it’s opening up competition for non-card-brand network players and lowering debit card fees. While it is certainly rife with controversy, this amendment is opening up new ways to move money that will, over time, contribute to a less expensive payment processing ecosystem.

Merchant demand

Business owners are smart and savvy. They pay attention to trends, focusing on finding new ways to set their business apart. Business owners are also conscious of ROI, and how much they’re spending to attract and retain customers. They understand there is some cost to accept payments, but are becoming more and more frustrated at the high swipe fee costs from traditional credit card processors and minimal return for those fees.

Businesses are looking to new, innovative solutions to provide more than just payment processing –  they want to understand and better connect with their customers. In short, merchants are ready for a new payments ecosystem, and where there’s this much demand from a group this big and influential, a solution can’t stay away for too long.

Interchange rates are not going away entirely in the near future, although it will happen eventually. A lot of powerful wheels are in motion to significantly reduce the interchange rates that merchants currently pay. Right now the impact might be small, but it’s growing quickly. In a few years, 3- to 4-percent interchange could be relegated to the same bit of history as $1.99 international phone calls.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Financial Services, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Internet Payment Gateway, Small Business Improvement Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Feb
21
2014
February 21st, 2014 by Elma Jane
QR Code for National Transaction Corporation

NationalTransaction.com QR Code

Emerging economies, such as the BRIC countries and the next layer of emerging markets, are seeing particularly fast growth of alternative payments, said Kevin Dallas, chief product and marketing officer for e-commerce at WorldPay. This means the complexity of the payment landscape will increase further. Merchants will need to ensure they understand diverging regional and sector trends in preferred methods of payment.

In three years alternative payments will eclipse credit card payments as the dominant way to pay online, according to a report yesterday from London-based e-commerce processor WorldPay. In Your Global Guide to Alternative Payments (Second Edition), WorldPay found card payments online, which accounted for 57 percent of transactions in 2012, will fall to 41 percent in 2017. Alternative payment methods (defined by the report as anything other than credit or debit cards including bank transfers, direct debits, e-wallets, mobile, COD and others) will rise to 59 percent of online transactions in the next three years. Part of the reason is the preferred payment methods in some of the fastest growing e-commerce markets are not cards.

The report predicts e-wallet transactions alone will equal the number of credit card transactions online at 41 percent, becoming the most popular method of paying online globally by 2017. Currently, PayPal is the most popular alternative payment method in the world with a market share of 57 percent. China’s Alipay is second at 20 percent.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Internet Payment Gateway, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Near Field Communication, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Feb
18
2014
February 18th, 2014 by Elma Jane

For Ecommerce Testing, Clarify Conversion Goals

Before you can start any testing on your ecommerce site, you need to clarify your goals. Setting the right goals is the first step to making any improvements. There’s a saying, “Whatever you measure grows.” So, make sure you measure the right thing.

Goals may seem like the obvious part. After all, you already know you want more sales, right? But there’s more to goal setting than just deciding to try and increase your sales.

The Goals Waterfall

Your goals for your conversion-optimization tests should flow from your marketing goals, which ultimately flow from the organization’s overall goals and strategy.

Business Goals – Marketing Goals – Conversation Optimization Goals.

The goals from optimization testing should follow from a company’s overall goals and strategy

Your business goals should determine your website goals, which should be prioritized to determine your leading conversion optimization goal.

The conversion optimization goal for any test should be selected based on how well it supports the website’s goals. This is often an area where there’s confusion about what are the priority metrics to improve. Don’t get off track by following website goals that don’t support marketing goals.

 

Prioritize Goals

Most sites will have several key goals, so you’ll need to prioritize them. You can do this in three steps.

Rank your goals in terms of their relative value to your business:

Assigning values to goals. The values don’t have to be absolutely accurate revenue-producing numbers to begin. Pick a median goal on your list, and assign it an arbitrary amount, and then estimate the relative value of goals above and below it.

Estimating actual goal values. Now, to get even better results, you can refine these relative numbers with whatever hard data you have, such as average order value, lifetime value of a customer, or the close rate and value your sales team sees when following up on quote requests. Don’t worry about 100 percent accuracy. It’s better to start testing with relatively firm numbers than to delay until everything’s perfect.

 Priority          Goal

1                 Product Sale

2                 Quote Request

3                 Whitepaper Download

4                 Blog Comment

5                 Social-Media Profile Activity

 Tracking Your Goals

Once you’ve identified your most important conversion goal for your experiment, make sure you track it. Goals are a crucial part of your web analytics setup. If you don’t have keys goals in place, you’re missing out on half the value of your various reports.

That means translating your testing goal into a technical goal trigger that will be tracked by the analytics and testing tools you’re using. The goal you track must be represented by a specific action the visitor takes on the website, like a button click or a visit to a page. Think about an action on the site that the visitors will do only once they have completed the goal.

The key is that it should be an action as close to revenue as possible. So, if your goal is to sell a product, you should track a post-sale thank you page as the goal trigger. (If you also accept phone orders, you may need to tackle some advanced tracking techniques to get reliable test results.)

Goals with values attached to them, as explained above, are the only way to find your most valuable visitors, they’re crucial for effective conversion optimization testing.

Be sure to set up ecommerce revenue tracking as well. Increasing average order value can be just as effective as boosting your sales conversion rate, and you’ll want to be able to include that in your results analysis.

A Single Goal

Web analytics tools can provide a ton of information, and it’s not uncommon for e-commerce sites to have a handful of key performance indicators. Example, you may track time on page and the add-to-cart rate, but when it comes to conversion optimization A/B testing, it’s important to focus on only the revenue-producing goals or goals for each test. Always make sure you are tracking revenue for each test variation. Otherwise, you could pick a conversion rate winner that inadvertently sells lower-value products.

Track revenue-producing goals for your A/B tests, but those other goals are still useful too. While not all web analytics goals are the best for A/B testing, they still may be helpful to generate hypotheses and explore new testing opportunities.

By paying attention to secondary goals, you can discover new testing avenues that help you get even more value from your ecommerce website.

Track as many goals and actions as you can with your web analytics tools so you can be free to explore your visitors’ behavior. Within web analytics is where you can do freeform exploration to generate ideas or hypotheses for your A/B tests. Then, validate those ideas through revenue-tracking controlled tests.

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Small Business Improvement Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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