We’ve been talking about payments intelligence, the ability to capture all that payments transactions tell us about the people behind the card swipes, for some time now. Last fall my colleague shared, “The time and importance of knowing one’s consumer has never been so great,” and he couldn’t have been more right. Analytics are no longer an option, they are business critical. Customers are after more targeted and more relevant experiences from brands. If you are unable to communicate with them in a highly targeted fashion you will certainly miss opportunities. By inserting payments intelligence into the mix you can truly [...]
Last week we continued our Fundamental Friday’s series breaking down the payment processing costs for small-to-medium size businesses in the card-not-present environment. Today, let’s look at the players involved and the process that occurs in order for you to get paid. MasterCard and Visa are at the center of the transaction process, maintaining the flow of funds between issuers and acquirers. Let’s define issuer and acquirer and their roles in processing payments. Issuer: Any financial institution, bank, credit union, or company that issues plastic cards to cardholders. The issuer is responsible for the cardholder account program which encompasses nearly all aspects [...]
Tagged as:
Acquirer,
Credit card,
Interchange fee,
Issuing bank,
MasterCard,
Payment processor,
SMBs,
Visa
I recently penned an article, ““Big Data? The Big Deal Behind Payments Intelligence,” featured in Electronic Retailer Magazine and wanted to extend the conversation around Big Data and payments intelligence. We’re hearing about Big Data everywhere – referring to the vast trove of unstructured information collected online. But, the truth is, the even bigger “big deal” lies in the increasing value businesses are placing on knowledge of their customers. Analytics are no longer an option, they are business critical. But, where does the most un-mined, most valuable data available today come from? It’s found in your customer payments coming through the complexities [...]
We’re continuing our Fundamental Friday’s series with a focus on card-not-present payment processing for small-to-medium businesses. Let’s start from the beginning and talk about why your payment processing matters, especially in the card-not-present environment. The bank card processing system and the notion of guaranteed payments were established under the assumptions that the transaction is face-to-face, the card is present with the cardholder, and the cardholder has self-selected and self-fulfilled the product or service. Given these assumptions, the card brands offered guaranteed payment service if you: Checked the signature on the back of the card Checked the expiration date on the front [...]
Tagged as:
Acquiring bank,
Card not present transaction,
Credit card,
MasterCard,
Payment,
Payment processor,
Visa
Subscription based merchants face unique opportunities and challenges in the card-not-present environment. Subscriptions used to be just for newspapers and magazines, but not anymore. Changing consumer habits are moving more traditional merchants to adopt subscription based business models. But what does it take to succeed in this world? We’ve teamed up with our partner Zuora, who offers a subscription commerce and billing platform, to bring you a free white paper: “The Definitive Guide to Subscription Commerce.” Requirements of subscription commerce include everything from product and pricing strategy, to customer subscription management and subscription billing and payments. According to Zuora, [...]
Tagged as:
Address Verification System,
Billing,
Business,
Card not present transaction,
Merchant,
Subscription business model,
Zuora
We’ve been running our Fundamental Fridays series for several weeks now, covering everything from general best practices to chargebacks and interchange fees. Today, we are going to talk about advanced authorization services. While on the surface these services may not appear to be as fundamental as some of the topics we have covered in the past they should become a fundamental part of your payment processing solution. Over the last decade, the major card brands have introduced many new products targeting specific population demographics. Well-known examples include rewards cards, prepaid cards, and gift cards. These product lines have introduced significantly [...]
Tagged as:
American Express,
Authorization,
Credit card,
Fundamental Fridays,
MasterCard,
Payment,
Visa
Payment processing can be confusing. Couple that with the rapidly changing environment and a number of new innovations and you may be left wondering: What exactly does that word mean? Let’s look at 10 terms to help you spring into better payments. We’ll focus on some of the basics, essential to the core of credit card processing, and we will also look at some new terms that you are likely to be hearing a lot more of in the future. Is there a word you’re unsure about and it’s not on the list? Leave a comment and we’ll get back [...]
Tagged as:
Credit card,
Financial Services,
Merchant Services,
Mobile payment,
Payment
This week we are continuing our Fundamental Fridays series with a focus on negative option marketing. Do your customers consent in advance to purchase recurring products and/or services until they cancel? If you use this type of marketing, known as negative option or continuity marketing, especially via ecommerce, you are continually on the radar of lawmakers and government regulators, both at the state and federal level. Let’s look at practical approaches for using negative option marketing, which include regulatory considerations as well as those by the major card brands. Advertising Merchants should be able to substantiate any performance claims shown [...]
It is always a good exercise to take a look back and see what you were talking about this time last year. Is the topic still relevant? Did any predictions you make come true? What has changed since then? Yesterday, I took a look back on the Litle Blog and our headline on April 18, 2011 was “Micro-chip Embedded Credit Cards Coming to America at Long Last.” We were reporting on an article from Fast Company where Wells Fargo announced it would be testing EMV chip cards with a group of 15,000 frequent-traveling customers. And the San Francisco Chronicle reported that [...]
A few weeks ago, in our Fundamental Fridays series, we discussed recurring payments and installment billing. An important tip when using and processing recurring payments are soft billing descriptors. Soft billing descriptors are used to help cardholders identify charges on their statements. Let’s take a more in-depth look at billing descriptors and soft billing descriptors. Static Billing Descriptors To obtain better interchange rates, most card companies require that card-not-present transactions use billing descriptors with a company’s name and customer service phone number. Static billing descriptors, such as the one below, are generally sufficient for companies offering a limited number of [...]
Tagged as:
Card not present transaction,
Fundamental Fridays,
Merchant
