May 23rd, 2014 by Elma Jane
Before making a purchase, there are several devices that consumers may use to help them make a decision: Use a specific store’s mobile app on their smartphones. Visit the store’s website on a tablet or computer, or just pick up the phone and call customer service to ask a question. Whatever the case, omnichannel is an important buzzword for merchants.
Here are ways to ensure a seamless and secure retail experience to turn browsers into loyal buyers.
Ensure Channels Work Together
Even in historically single-channel retail sectors such as grocery, more than half of customers now use two or more channels before completing a purchase, shown in a recent study. Retailers must therefore offer both traditional and digital channels. However, before investing in the latest mobile-optimized website feature or app, retailers should learn how existing online and physical channels can together enhance the customer experience. What customers value most is not the number of channels offered, but how these channels support each other.
A merchant’s website might encourage visitors to take advantage of a special event in-store, while sales assistants on the floor can use Wi-Fi enabled tablets to access additional product information.
Help Customers Find What They Want
With Internet access ubiquitous, cost-conscious customers are just a click away from being able to compare prices and find special offers. Many take out their smartphone or tablet in stores to compare prices, a trend called Showrooming.
Online retailers can take advantage of this trend by encouraging shoppers to compare prices in-store using a mobile app. In-store retailers, on the other hand, could provide greater value through targeted offers, price match guarantees, expert advice, convenient delivery choices and personalized customer care.
Optimize The Checkout Experience
Businesses must be sure to have a quick, streamlined checkout process once they have converted an online browser into a customer or else they risk facing shopping cart abandonment. This can be done in a few steps:
1. Assess how the checkout experience can be customized for its customers. Keep the mandatory information required from new or first-time online or mobile shoppers to a minimum and shorten the process for returning customers by securely storing their payment details and other personal information.
2. Develop a dedicated mobile app or other innovative functions that can increase long-term satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Test different payment methods to find those that are most convenient for customers. These payment options may include paying with reward points, using a digital wallet or providing a digital offer or coupon at checkout. There is a balance to be found between having additional payment methods to meet customer expectations and choosing methods appropriate to a merchant’s business model.
4. Establish a one-click online checkout process. Chase for example, is currently developing a Chase Wallet and Quick Checkout solution. The Chase Wallet will allow customers to store and access their Chase cards and ultimately, any branded card for a quick checkout. It will also update Chase-branded cards when a customer replaces an existing card and use tokenization to securely process payments with select merchants.
Merchants also face the challenge of ensuring that the online and in-store checkout experience is secure, while at the same time eliminating as many false positives as possible. False positives are a hindrance to any business as they may reduce sales, increase chargebacks and frustrate customers. A quick-checkout solution may help reduce false positives because customer information is automatically populated rather than manually keyed into the checkout page.
Acquirers should also work with online retailers to provide a conditional approval code for a transaction. This code allows the fulfillment process to move forward while authentication is taking place. The additional time for a thorough authentication also helps reduce the number of false positives.
Use Data to Build Loyalty
Customers will likely return to a retailer if product marketing reflects their past purchases or interests. Therefore, taking advantage of data including a customer’s purchasing history, loyalty, behavior or social media interests may help retailers to better understand their customers as well as personalize their shopping experience.
According to a study released in March 2013, Chase Paymentech found that 32 percent of merchants use their payment data to help craft their multi-channel sales strategy and 42 percent use it to improve the online customer experience. In addition, further analysis of payment methods, chargeback rates, fraud rates and authorization rates may improve the customer shopping experience and drive overall profitability.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants Tagged with: approval code, authentication, branded card, chargebacks, Chase, Chase Wallet, checkout process, computer, customer service, data, digital channels, digital offer, Digital Wallet, In-store retailers, internet access, Merchant's, merchant’s website, mobile app, mobile-optimized website, omnichannel, online retailers, payment, payment data, phone, physical channels, Quick Checkout solution, reward points, shopping cart, Showrooming, single-channel retail, Smartphones, social media, tablet, tokenization, transaction, website, Wi-Fi
April 11th, 2014 by Elma Jane
Of the 17 percent of consumers who reported having had their credit card declined during a card-not-present (CNP) transactions. As many as one-third of those declines were unnecessary. The result is consumer aggravation, increased operational costs for banks and credit card companies and as much as $40 billion in lost revenue for online retailers.
TrustInsight which helps establish trusted relationships between financial institutions, merchants and online consumers conducted study. A report and infographic detailing the findings of the study found that avoidable online credit card declines lead to loss of trust for consumers, sales for merchants and increased operational costs for credit card companies and issuing banks.
Study also revealed that consumers handle credit card declines in a variety of ways all of which carried negative economic impact to at least one party in the transaction, resulting in unnecessary operating costs for banks, decreased loyalty for the credit card company and lost revenue for all. Almost half call their issuer immediately when their card is unexpectedly declined. This is a natural response. 34 percent of consumers try again another credit card, other use a different payment method and 24 percent will skip the purchase altogether or shop at a different online retailer.
No one wants to turn away business, and no one wants their business declined. The frustration and impact of wrongful declines is a real problem especially as more and more transactions occur in non-face-to-face situations.
Impact of consumer action in the face of a decline can have real and measurable effects on all parties, including credit card companies, banks and merchants manifesting itself in lost customer loyalty, lost fees and lost revenues. Creating a standard for online trust that enables credit card companies, merchants and issuing banks to better recognize trusted digital consumers and reduce the number of wrongly declined consumers avoiding unnecessary losses.
In a world where people are increasingly reliant on a variety of Internet-connected devices for everything from banking to shopping to entertainment and media, creating friction-free customer experiences and preventing online fraud are constant business challenges.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Electronic Payments, Financial Services, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Merchant Services Account, Small Business Improvement, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: banking, consumers, credit-card, decline, declined, declines, different payment method, digital, digital consumers, financial, frustrate, internet-connected devices, issuing banks, loyalty, Merchant's, online credit card declines, online fraud, online retailers, shopping, transactions, wrongful declines, wrongly declined
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: 3.0, attack surface, authentication, breaches, businesses, cardholder data, complance, compliant, credential, cybercriminals, digital payment, DSS, e-business, e-commerce, embedding, hackers, lower-risk, online retailers, passing audits, payment card infrastructures, PCI, processes, reducing fraud, requirements, risk of compromise, security controls, security of payment card data, security program, standards
January 29th, 2014 by Elma Jane
More than 60 percent of online shoppers returned or exchanged at least one item. About 95 percent of customers will go back to an online merchant and make additional purchases after a positive return or exchange experience, making managing the process important for e-commerce success.
Exchanges and returns will shortly be a hot topic for online retailers as Christmas gift recipients contact sellers in the wake of an exceptional holiday selling season. These Christmas gift recipients will want to exchange and return unwanted gifts, items that are wrong size, or even items that may have been damaged in transit.
Returns and exchanges are important for building long term customer relationships, with some 95 percent of shoppers going back to online merchants that have offered a good exchange or return experience in the past, according to data from Endicia, an electronic postage solution provider. Conversely, about 85 percent of consumers will not return to an online shop after a poor return or exchange experience, again according to Endicia.
What follows are tips for offering a better exchange or return experience for online shoppers.
Create an Opportunity
Returns and exchanges are also an opportunity to make additional sales. As mentioned above, about 95 percent of shoppers will return to an online store and make an additional purchase after a positive return or exchange experience.
Similarly, about 45 percent of shoppers will actually recommend an ecommerce merchant, again according to Endicia, after a positive return experience, meaning that taking care of an existing customers could lead to new customers too.
Consider sending each shopper who returns or exchanges an item a follow-up email, asking for feedback about the experience. Identify ways to improve the return process, and business in general will improve too.
Know the Cost of Returning
A guitarist for a popular party and event band recently ordered a new guitar strap from a merchant on the Amazon marketplace. Unfortunately, there was an error in the shipment, and the merchant apparently sent a shorter strap than expected. When this guitarist contacted the seller about an exchange, he was told that a new strap would be shipped that day and that he could simply keep the smaller strap.
This solution was great for the customer, who did not have to repackage the strap or arrange for a carrier to pick it up. He was generally happy with the experience. This was probably also better for the merchant, who might have simply been able to order a new guitar strap from its distributor for about the same cost has having the strap returned.
To make this sort of business decision, it is important to understand the real cost of managing a customer return, including the cost of the shipping and the labor necessary for processing the return once it arrives back at the seller’s warehouse. If it cost as much or nearly as much to return the item as it would to simply purchase another one wholesale, consider letting the customer just keep it, saving everyone involved time and expense.
Provide Return Instructions or a Return Label in Every Order
Shoppers don’t want to wait for return labels. In fact, about 62 percent of online shoppers want a return label included in the initial shipment, according to Endicia. Including a return label is not difficult, and many online sellers may find that the ability to do so is either built directly into the retailer’s ecommerce platform or is available via an extension to the ecommerce platform.
A second option may be to offer shoppers a simple, self-service way to print a return label from your site. This self-service option does not require the customer to contact the shipper to get authorization or wait for an emailed label. According to the Endicia data, about 61 percent of shoppers will be happy with an easy way to print return or exchange labels.
State Return and Exchange Policies Clearly
Let customers know exactly what to expect from the return and exchange process. Post clear, simple-to-understand policies on a page of the site specifically designated for returns or shipping policies.
Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Gift & Loyalty Card Processing, Internet Payment Gateway, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: Amazon, ecommerce, gift recipients, marketplace, online merchant, online retailers, online sellers, online shoppers, return or exchange, returns and exchanges, self-service
