December 30th, 2013 by Elma Jane

Alternative Payments and Ecommerce Conversions

There’s no shortage of alternative payment choices: eBay’s PayPal, Google’s Wallet, Visa V.me, and MasterCard MasterPass, to name a few.  There is also a proliferation of alternate contenders, as mobile shopping threatens to disrupt traditional methods of payments.

Alternative payment companies each claim that their payment method increases conversions. My company, SeeWhy, performed an independent analysis and confirmed these claims.

In this study data shows significant increases in conversion compared with credit cards, peaking at a 101 percent increase on smartphones.

But this is not the whole story. While these increases are impressive, they only applied to around 15 percent of traffic, so the impact on your site’s overall conversion rate will be much less. Depending on the characteristics of your site you will probably see somewhere in the region of 5 to 10 percent improvement in your site’s overall conversion rate, which is still significant enough not to be ignored. As mobile commerce grows, then alternative payments will become ever more important.

However, before embarking on an alternative payment implementation, there are three important considerations you need to take into account.

1. How Many Alternative Payment Methods?

Choosing only one alternative payment method might be tough, so why not implement several, and cover the market more thoroughly? This may be a valid approach, but think carefully before choosing this option.

For example, RunningShoes.com has implemented PayPal, Google Wallet, and MasterPass as alternative payment options.

The problem is that offering payment choices can create four different competing calls-to-action, as you can see. Whenever consumers are faced with too much choice, indecision tends to follow.

This is also problematic when you consider the whole page. There are lots of visual distractions to the primary call to action, which in this case is the red Secure Checkout button.

Before embarking on implementing multiple calls-to-action, consider how you are going to solve this issue. One route you could consider is to suppress the alternate payment methods for returning customers if the customer always pays by credit card, for example. Or if the customer always purchases by PayPal, show the PayPal button most prominently, and hide the others under a Show alternate methods of payment  link.

2. How to Implement

Not all sites will see significant increases in conversion when implementing alternate payment methods. The main reason for this is that implementations can be done badly. One of the primary benefits of these payment methods is that they enable visitors to bypass the billing, shipping, and card entry steps on an ecommerce site. This is especially important for mobile sites, where entering these details using fingers and small screens defeats all but the most determined.

However, many sites implement these payment methods as an alternative only to entering the credit card number. You can see this here on Barnes and Noble ‘s site, where you are forced to enter shipping and billing information before being presented with the PayPal button. This may be a simpler implementation to do than providing an alternate checkout path, but it is frankly a waste of time, and surprisingly prevalent in PayPal implementations.

The correct method is to implement the alternative payment method as a button at the start of the checkout process, probably on the cart summary page. You can see a good example here of this at PacSun.com, an apparel site, but note the competing calls-to-action problem here as well.

PacSun deals with this slightly differently on mobile devices by not offering V.me. as a payment alternative. This avoids having a four choice vertical list of competing calls-to-action.

Alternative payments can undoubtedly result in higher conversions. However, to be effective they need to be implemented correctly to provide an alternative checkout flow, not simply a payment alternative to credit cards. This takes more effort to implement, but it is worth it. Implementing one payment method properly is a better route than superficially implementing multiple payment methods. This is especially true for mobile sales where the goal is to eliminate data entry as much as possible and alternate payments can do this very effectively. As mobile commerce becomes more important, so will alternative payments, for all merchants.

3. Which Payment Method?

Since there are multiple choices, the obvious route is to adopt PayPal. PayPal claims over 30 million U.S. mobile customers, and over a 100 million active accounts…which is a larger base than any of its competitors. SeeWhy found that 34 percent of U.S. consumers shopping online had PayPal accounts as of July 2013.

However, PayPal also carries some baggage. Having grown up as a payment method of choice for eBay, its reputation is not always considered positive. Some consumers are wary about PayPal, having had negative experiences in the past, probably with smaller merchants on eBay. In fact, according to SeeWhy’s analysis, two thirds of PayPal account holders state that their preferred payment method is a credit card.

Merchants selling luxury items might want to consider alternatives before implementing PayPal because of its reputation issues. Google Wallet is an alternative that is growing fast in part because of the growth of Android smartphones where a Google Wallet account is required to use the Play store, the Android equivalent of the app store. Google Wallet can also be linked to Google+ social sign on, so if you are considering implementing social sign on as well this might be a route to consider.

Both Visa’s V.me and MasterCard’s MasterPass both hold significant potential but the companies are only just beginning to roll out their service. It’s also worth noting that both Visa and MasterCard are rolling out their services through the acquiring banks. This will cause a proliferation of payment choices, leading to complexity and confusion for the shopper. You can see this already with MasterPass where having selected the Buy with MasterPass option, you are then presented with an array of different MasterPass wallets to choose from. Currently there are only six options, but what happens when there are hundreds?

Posted in e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 16th, 2013 by Elma Jane

1. Account Updater (Visa)

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

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

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

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

2. Netswipe

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

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

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

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

3. Netverify

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. Payment Gateway

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

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

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

5. PayPal Here

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

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

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

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

6. Virtual Terminal

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

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

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

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

 

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

December 9th, 2013 by Elma Jane

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

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

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

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

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

December 2nd, 2013 by Elma Jane

Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) standards. Considered safer and widely used across Europe and other nations, the chip-based cards require insertion of the card into a terminal for the duration of a transaction, a break here from our traditional swipe-and-buy behavior. That’s just one way in which EMV changes things here… but it’s not the only way, nor is it the most important way. By way of reminder, October 2015 is the date by which all restaurants and other merchants are due to have implemented these standards, or potentially be liable for counterfeit fraud, which primarily reflects a shift from magnetic-stripe credit cards to chip cards.

The main driver in the EMV migration is card-related financial fraud.  As an example, and traditionally, card fraud in the United Kingdom has always been considerably higher than here in the States, primarily because the U.K. previously used offline card authorization as opposed to the online card methodology used here. As losses due to fraud rose steadily in Europe, despite the best efforts of global law enforcement agencies to reduce it, the pressure to find a solution built around some alternative authentication strategy mounted. From this concern, EMV was born.

Is it working? Recent statistics from the European Central Bank (ECB) revealed that, despite growing card usage, fraud in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) – a mature EMV territory that includes all 28 members of the European Union,  Finland,  Iceland ,  Liechenstein,  Monaco and Norway,  – fell 7.6% between 2007 and 2011. This decline is underpinned by a slowdown in the growth of ATM fraud as well as a 24% drop in fraud carried out at point of sale terminals. The 2008 Canadian roll-out of Chip and PIN had a dramatic impact on fraud there. Card Skimming had accounted for losses totaling $142 million, but that figure dropped to $38.5 million in 2009, according to figures provided by the Interac Association. Some critics point to the fact that most of this decrease comes in the form of face-to-face card fraud, and that criminals merely shift their focus onto some other area that is less anti-fraud focused. Still, there are positive gains and as technologies improve, more successes are sure to follow.

Part of the reason why the U.S. not embraced  EMV sooner is because our  fraud problem, while significant, has typically been among the lowest rates in the world among highly developed economically mature countries. Much of that is due to the online authentication methods at work here. Here at home, our online authentication methodology permits authorizations to be done in real-time, thus thwarting a significant percentage of the fraudulent attempts at the point-of-sale, the best place to stop fraud. Our online authentication methods also incorporate multiple fraud and risk parameters as well as advanced neural networks that are ‘built-in’ to the approval process. It’s been a highly effective system that works well, when compared to most alternatives. The effectiveness of our authentication processes has helped fuel the resistance to full EMV adoption here. However, the EMV migration has gained momentum to the point where it is only a matter of time. The truth is that, despite the gains in preventing credit card fraud, and despite the best efforts of EMV’s backers to push acceptance through, global adoption of the EMV standard is still considerably less than 100%.

In England’s old offline authentication method, credit card transactions were gathered together at specific times- typically, at the end of the business day- and then batched over to the card issuers for authorization. It’s a method that gave those committing fraud a significant time lag between the transaction and the authorization, and this time lag contributed greatly to the higher levels of fraudulent activities in England. However, for Europe and for much of the rest of the world, adoption of the EMV technologies changes things dramatically, at least in terms of authentication protocols for both online and offline purchases. During an offline transaction using the EMV chip card, the payment terminal communicates with the integrated circuit chip (ICC), embedded in the payment card. This is a break from the old method which involved using telecommunications to connect with the issuing bank. The ICC / terminal connection enables real-time card authentication, cardholder verification, and payment authorization offline. Alternatively, in an online EMV transaction, the chip generates a cryptogram that is authenticated by the card issuer in real time.

Posted in Electronic Payments, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Financial Services, Near Field Communication, Payment Card Industry PCI Security, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 2nd, 2013 by Elma Jane

U.S. Bank has announced the U.S. Bank Contour Card – saying that the new card gives customers the convenience of a debit card, the control of a bank account and the freedom of cash. Giving customers innovative options to manage their finances. The Contour Card is the latest example. It’s a great tool to manage expenses by giving you the power to budget your money across multiple prepaid cards under the same account. Customers can use Contour as their primary payment card, but it is also a good fit for anyone who wants a new way to manage money.

Contour gives control over your spending in so many ways. From tracking your spending to transferring money between accounts, Contour gives customers the ability to manage it all from one location through their personal My Contour Dashboard.

Cardholders can open up to five additional card accounts that can be linked to their primary account. Cardholders can use Contour anywhere Visa Debit cards are accepted, get free cash withdrawals at any U.S. Bank or MoneyPass ATMs, and direct deposit paychecks to their accounts at no additional charge.

 

Posted in Financial Services Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 31st, 2013 by Elma Jane

While credit card processors and retailers have made strides to combat credit card fraud, it is still rampant across the U.S. In fact, credit card fraud jumped 17 percent between January, 2011, and September, 2012, according to the most recent data from the FICO Falcon Fraud Manager Consortium.

Debit cards obviously have better safeguard measures in place, since debit card fraud rose less than 1 percent between January, 2011, and September, 2012. Plus, the average fraud loss per compromised account fell by 3 percent.

Card-not-present (CNP) fraud is the biggest challenge by far, accounting for 47 percent of all credit card fraud. CNP fraud – which includes payments via the internet, mail and phone – grew 25 percent over the two-year period. So, where the problems with credit cards lie.

Unfortunately, CNP fraud may get worse before it gets better, in FICO’s Banking Analytics Blog. This problem may even intensify as the US moves away from magnetic stripe and toward EMV [chip] card technology. In other countries adopting chip-based authentication technology, we’ve seen counterfeit fraud decline, but as a counterbalance, fraudsters often ramp up efforts around CNP fraud.

However, there was a glimmer of light in the credit card fraud fiasco. While card fraud attempts rose, the average loss per compromised account dropped 10 percent. Plus, the ratio of fraud to non-fraud spending remained constant. “In other words, the volume of card fraud increased proportionally to the volume of consumer credit card spending.

Even though many retailers have implemented successful fraud prevention programs, Visa provides retailers with the warning signs for CNP fraud, including:

Multiple cards used from a single IP address. Orders made up of “big ticket” items. Orders that include several of the same item. Shipping to an international address. Transactions with similar account numbers.

Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Mail Order Telephone Order, Payment Card Industry PCI Security Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 21st, 2013 by Elma Jane

Good time for merchants to start noting how their provider is handling card company fee changes as well as any future rate and fee changes, especially if your contract will expire in 2014.

October 2013 Rate and Fee Increase Notices

Visa, MasterCard, and Discover Credit card companies generally make rate and fee changes in the April and October time frame, although they have also made changes at other times of the year. Inevitably, some banks and merchant account providers seem to take advantage of the card company changes by increasing or adding their own mark-ups and by pointing too much of the blame at the card companies for the increases. This time around isn’t much different than others and merchants have sent me some rate and fee increase notices that go well beyond any card company changes.

In understanding how your provider is handling the latest card company changes, keep in mind that there are two important changes for October 2013:

Discover introduced a .25 cent increase to all transactions.

MasterCard introduced a .25 cent increase to certain transactions.

Below are two examples of recent notices on the October changes. Understanding the above .25 cent changes, how would you rate these providers?

Notice 1: 0.02 Percent + $0.02 Increase

“MasterCard, Visa and Discover typically evaluate the Interchange rates and fees twice per year most often in April and October. Based on recent changes as well as analysis from other network providers and vendors, the following changes to your merchant account are being implemented and will be reflected in your merchant statements for transactions processed beginning in October:

 Interchange Plus Merchants: Percentage charged in excess of Interchange will increase by 2/100ths of a percent; and

Transactions Fees for all authorized transactions will increase by $0.02/transaction.”

Tiered Pricing Merchants: Qualified Rate for Visa, MasterCard and Discover will increase 2/100th of a percent;

Notice 2: 0.40 Percent Increase

“Effective October 1, 2013, the discount rates charged for your Visa, MasterCard, and Discover (as applicable) credit card and non-PIN (signature) debit card transactions will increase by 0.400%. We have increased these charges based on a variety of factors, including recent Card Organization changes and our own pricing considerations. This change will appear beginning with your October month-end statement you will receive in November.”

Your Statements Now go back to the statements you received in August and September or any notices you received via mail and read the notice your provider posted for these changes. Did the provider announce the actual change or did it state something quite differently? If it’s the latter, make sure it adjusts pricing accordingly. Also, make sure you monitor your rates, fees, and notices going forward to determine the best long-term course of action. If the provider needs you to extend your contract to correct its overcharges, then there are probably bigger pricing issues and more assertive action required by you to investigate your overall processing cost.

EMV Capable Terminals

To reduce fraud in the U.S., the card companies are introducing cards that have a chip as well as the current magnetic strip. Chip cards are prevalent outside the U.S. and EMV — Europay, MasterCard, and Visa — established the technical standards for processing them.

Brick-and-mortar merchants should understand about EMV.

Brick-and-mortar merchants should have equipment capable of processing EMV chip card transactions by October 2015 as certain fraud liability will shift from the bank that issued the card to the merchant. The equipment may be a terminal or a chip card reader attached to the terminal or POS system.

Certain credit card transactions will require a PIN number instead of a signature similar to PIN debit transactions today. Also, like the current PIN debit devices, each chip reader will need to be encrypted and the encryption code is processor specific. Therefore, if a merchant has an encrypted device, changing processors may be more costly as the encryption cannot simply be downloaded over the phone or Internet as is done with terminal reprogramming now. Instead, the encrypted device will need to go back to the provider for encryption or swapped with an encrypted device or a new encrypted device may be needed.

“EMV capable” can mean very little. In fact, if you have purchased or leased an “EMV capable” terminal it may simply mean that it has the slot or contactless connection to place the chip card and the terminal may have the capability to eventually be encrypted to actually process chip cards. However, the cost and time required to do so could be prohibited.

However, merchants should be planning to have equipment capable of processing chip card by October 2015. In fact, they should be planning to have the equipment capable of processing chip cards well ahead of the October 2015 — perhaps as early as late 2014, to ensure receiving it in time.

If a merchant’s existing terminal fails or is no longer supported, the merchant should inquire about EMV terminals as a replacement. However, ask if it comes fully encrypted and capable of actually processing an EMV transaction or if it will need the encryption later. Right now, the answer is likely that the terminal will need encryption later. If so, the merchant should obtain the time frame, process, and cost for enabling the terminal to actually process chip cards. This should be in writing. Remember, new terminals cost the provider around $150 to $250 and the encryption may be an extra $25 to $50.

Make sure you are comfortable with your provider and have negotiated the best processing cost before changing to encrypted EMV equipment.

Merchants do not need EMV terminals today and very few providers actually have terminals that can process an EMV chip card transaction right now.

 

Posted in Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, EMV EuroPay MasterCard Visa, Visa MasterCard American Express Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 10th, 2013 by Elma Jane

There are various payment processing rates that apply to credit and debit card transactions. Visa and MasterCard do not publish their rules and regulations or the payment processing standards required to get the lowest interchange rate. It’s up to credit card processing companies to understand and implement them to their merchants’ benefit. A high downgrade rate may indicate that your processor does not know the standards, or may be reluctant to implement best practices or new rules changes. The application of these rates is based on a variety of factors related to the particular circumstances of the sale and the way the payment is processed, as well as on the type of the card that was used. Typically payments processed in a card-not-present environment (e.g. online or over the phone) are assessed higher processing fees than payments processed in a face-to-face setting. Payments made with regular consumer types of cards are generally processed at lower rates than payments made with rewards, business-to-business or commercial cards. Debit cards are processed at lower interchange rates than credit cards. In order to simplify the pricing for their merchants, the majority of the processing companies have elected to use various tiered pricing models (two-tiered, three-tiered, six-tiered, etc.). There are three general classifications used in the various tiered pricing models:
Qualified Transaction (also referred to as the Swiped Rate) This is the rate charged per each transaction when the card is physically swiped through a credit card terminal. When a transaction is processed in accordance with the rules and standards established in the Payment Processing Agreement, signed by the merchant and the processing bank, and It involves a regular consumer credit card, It is processed at the most favorable rate. This rate is called a “Qualified Rate” and is set in the merchant’s Payment Processing Agreement. The Qualified Rate is set based on the way a merchant will be accepting a majority of their credit cards. For example, for an internet-based merchant, the internet interchange categories will be defined as Qualified, while for a physical retailer only transactions where cards are swiped through a terminal will be Qualified.

Mid-Qualified Transaction This is the rate charged when a transaction is manually keyed-in using AVS – Address Verification Service (card #, expiration date, address, zip code and CVV code all match). When a consumer credit card is keyed into a credit card terminal instead of being swiped or   The cardholder uses a rewards card, business-to-business or another special type of card the transaction is charged a discount rate that is less favorable than the Qualified. This rate is called a “Mid-Qualified Rate.”

Non-Qualified Transaction This is the rate charged when manually keying-in a transaction without using AVS – Address Verification Service. When a special kind of credit card is used (like a rewards card or a business card), or a payment is not processed in accordance with the rules established in the Payment Processing Agreement, or It does not comply with some applicable security requirements.
Qualified Transaction Conditions                                            

One electronic authorization request is made per transaction and the transaction/purchase date is equal to the authorization date.                                                                                                                         The authorization response data must also be included in the transaction settlement.                               The authorization transaction amount must match the settled (deposit) transaction amount.                     The card that is used is not a commercial (business) credit card                                                                 The credit/debit card is present at the time of the transaction, the card’s full magnetic stripe is read by the terminal, and a signature is obtained from the cardholder at the time of the transaction.
The transaction must be authorized and settled under a standard retail industry code.
The transaction must be electronically deposited (batch transmitted) no later than 1 day from transaction/purchase/authorization date.

Mid-Qualified Transaction Conditions
One or more of the Qualified conditions were not met

Non-Qualified Transaction Conditions
One or more of the Qualified conditions were not met, or                                                                               The card that was used was a commercial card without submitting the additional data or:
The transaction was electronically deposited (batch transmitted) greater than 1 day from the authorization date, or:
The transaction was not electronically authorized, or the authorization response data was not included in the transaction settlement.

 

 

 

Posted in Best Practices for Merchants, Credit card Processing, Electronic Payments, Financial Services, Merchant Services Account Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,