Archive for the ‘Merchant Services Sales’ Category

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Merchant Services Gift Cards Boost Sales

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Although we just entered into the spring season, I can’t believe I’m going to write this next line. Are you ready for the holidays? I’m talking about GIFT CARDS. And speaking from personal experience, when I receive a gfit card, I am completely elated. I now have a reason to shop at my favorite store and choose anything I want; guilt free! I love receiving gift cards and I have the tendency to shop more than the value that is posted. I know this will defeat the purpose of receiving something free however you can’t really get a new shirt without getting a new pair of pants, can you?

Allow me to provide a few statistics:

• Gift card sales will top $100 billion in 2008*
• Retail Issued card breakout: Retail $36B, Restaurant $23B and Other $14B
• 82% of U.S. consumers purchased or received a gift card last holiday season**
• 66% said they gave and received gift cards

U.S. consumers surveyed also report**:
• 12% of those surveyed purchased gift cards for their own use
• 63% planned to spend entire value in one visit
• 47% said they spent more than the value of the gift card
• 55% said they would purchase something they would not normally buy
• 63% planned to redeem the entire value of the gift cards in a single store visit
• Majority of gift cards purchased are for $50 or less (85%) **
• 12% were between $50-$100
• 3% over $100

I would recommend starting with our Gift Cards-To- Go program (100 gift cards). It’s a low cost that has potential to generate a lot of volume. (Contact one our sales reps for details). This is a great opportunity for you can connect with your customers and build your brand.

You are still in the sweet spot for placing your order for gift cards now…there won’t be a delay in receiving your product. If you wait until October, you will be too late and the holiday season may just pass you by. 

*Tower Group 2007
**Accenture 2006

Posted in Merchant Services Sales | 1 Comment »

Beware of Offers with Zero Transaction Fees

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Today I was speaking with a customer who had been shopping around and told me they thought they had a better deal.   When I asked what rate they were quoted the customer told me the rate was double the Large Corporate Pricing rate quoted by Best Merchant Rates.   Puzzled, I asked why the customer is considering the competitor.  The customer responded that the higher rate was offset because there was no transaction fee.  Not sounding quite right, I asked the customer to fax me a copy of his competitive quote. 

Once I received the quote it turned out that there was indeed no transaction fee.  However, the competitive quote was also based on the Tiered Pricing structure, with a Non-Qualified Rate that was more than 6 times Best Merchant Rates Large Corporate Pricing.    The cost of the transaction fee was transferred to the Mid-Qualified Rate and Non-Qualified Rate, costing the merchant far more than Best Merchant Rates Large Corporate Pricing.  Based on competitor’s monthly statements that we review, we estimate that over 80% of all transactions in a Tiered pricing system will be priced at the Mid-Qualified Rate or Non-Qualified Rate.

 

Large Corporate Pricing is the simplest and most cost effective pricing structure in the merchant services industry.  And remember Best Merchant Rates is the first company to offer Large Corporate Pricing to everyone.

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View Your Merchant Account Online

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

Equiping our clients towards growth has been one of my desires when it comes to credit card processing. When I first entered this world of payment processing, it was very confusing. I was fortunate to be teamed up with a great group of people that allowed me to ask any/all questions that came to mind. So for me, providing our merchants with the knowledge that I have, so they have a better understanding of the payment processing industry, is rewarding.

 

I had one of our merchants call me the other day and ask about a credit card transaction that was processed last week.  While looking for the particular transaction in question, I asked, “Do you have access to eMerchant View?”  (I already knew the answer because of the task I was conducting). The client said, “No. What is eMerchant View?”

 

eMerchant View is an internet-based tool that provides merchants access to the following:

·         Daily Deposits and Adjustments (up to 6 months)

·         Transaction Details

·         Chargebacks and Retreivals (6 months)

·         Monthly Statements (12 months)

I wanted to share this tool with our merchant because they are small business owners. I knew the importance of viewing the day-to-day activity prior to receiving the month end merchant processing statement was huge because they will be able to manage their business and balance their finances on a daily basis.

 

I received a call a few weeks later from the merchant saying eMerchant View has help them understand merchant processing a little bit more. They said having access to the transaction detail and the daily deposits made their accounting department run more smoothly.

Posted in Merchant Services Sales, Understanding Merchant Services | No Comments »

Lowest Rate Doesn’t Matter? Say What!??

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

I recently read an industry article written by another ISO.  The article was written to other ISO and Mid Level Sales (MLS) agents and its aim was to give advice on how to sell effectively.  Halfway through the article the author gives some tips, one of which is how to differentiate yourself from the competition.  To my shock and amazement, the author claims that 1. The Best Price (lowest rate); 2. The Best Service; 3. Integrity in the Marketplace; and 4. Full Disclosure are not legitimate claims to separate yourself from the competition because everyone claims these.  You see….this is the very problem with our industry.  ISOs claim all the time to have these 4 qualities when in actuality, merchants laugh and then tell you it doesn’t exist in merchant services.  Historically, the merchants are correct to think that.  And when the author of this article states these 4 claims ARE NOT legitimate differentiators, they’ve in essence blown off these qualities (which are probably the 4 most important to a merchant).  My take from this author was “since you can’t really be the best in these 4 areas, make up some other areas that no one else cares about but you, and make the merchant think they are important.”  How lame!  BestMerchantRates.com won’t ever back down from its aggressive goal to finish 1st in all these categories.  We won’t just abandon the cause because the industry is trying to water-down these important qualities.  The author may be right about one thing: ISO’s should make the claim if it’s not true.  AGREED!  So we’ll make the claim and let our growth speak for itself.  Last time I checked, the 500 new merchants we boarded last month wanted all of these qualities and we delivered.  That’s why they signed up with us.

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Benefits vs Risks

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

For those of you starter companies, you may be trying to decide whether or not to accept credit cards from your customers. What are the risks? How do you minimize these risks? What are the benefits? How do you maximize on these benefits? Well, although much can be written on these four questions alone, I will give you my quick two cents on some of the risks and benefits of credit card processing.

What is a risk?
Fraudulent Charges
How do you minimize this risk?
You may want to ask your customers for CVV codes when charging credit cards. You won’t need to do this with debit cards because debit cards require pin numbers. CVV codes are the numbers that appear on the back of the credit cards. Three digits long. They are card specific. If the CVV doesn’t match with the card…that’s a red light for you! You may also want to add the AVS feature to your credit card software or terminal. AVS stands for Address Verification Service. You can enter the street number or simply the zip code. If this information doesn’t match with the card…red light! These suggestions mostly apply to non-face-to-face transactions. If you have the customer right in front of you, just as for ID and have them sign the credit card receipt for documentation and support in case of a chargeback.

What is a benefit?
You are providing your customer with a convenience.
How do you maximize this benefit?
How many of you carry $100+ dollars in your wallet at any given time? Probably not many. Most individuals like the convenience of carrying around their debit or credit cards as opposed to cash and coins. So why not provide a service to your customers that will make them more likely to purchase a product from you for the sheer sake of convenience. If your competitor is “Cash Only” and you allow your customers the option of cash, credit, or debit who do you think they will go with? That’s right…you! You may not only want to accept MasterCard, but you may also want to accept credit cards such as Visa, American Express, or Discover to give your customer the maximum amount of options. Just make sure that when you open a merchant account, you go with a company that will take care of your needs. Merchant processing can get confusing, so go with a company who will make the process as transparent and as simple as possible.

Posted in Credit Card Processing Security, Merchant Services Sales, Understanding Merchant Services | No Comments »

Best Merchant Rates is on Your Side

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Tami-Getting your credit card processing account set up correctly from the beginning is extremely important but it’s also just as important that you as the merchant understand the parameters of the account. I recently had a merchant placed in the Risk and Security department at the processing bank for running a $10,000 transaction when she was set up with a $1,500 high ticket. The processing bank approves your merchant processing account based on a number of factors, one of which is your ability to support such a high ticket financially in the case of a chargeback (disputed charge by the customer). This merchant could not back that $10,000 if that cardholder did a chargeback so the processing bank choose to hold the funds until they could confirm the sale was correct and there would be no chargeback.
The merchant was extremely upset and wrote a complaint to the Better Business Bureau before contacting us. Once she contacted us we worked diligently with the processing bank to get her funds to her. In working with her we were able to also educate her on the process of merchant services. She feels much more knowledgeable and has confidence that she can process credit cards risk free now that she understands her personal processing parameters.
We are on your side and will make every effort to support and educate you in the business of credit card processing! Your success is our success!

Posted in Credit Card Processing Customer Service, Merchant Application, Merchant Services Sales, Understanding Merchant Services | No Comments »

The Virtual Teminal. Who Needs It and Why Would You Choose It

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

After having writers block for a good week and not coming up with anything to blog about, I started asking my fellow co-workers for ideas. My trusty tech-guy gave me the topic of VIRTUAL TERMINALS.

Now, for those of you who may not know what a virtual terminal is please allow me to define it for you. A virtual terminal allows the merchant to process a credit card transaction from any computer with an internet connection. Can you imagine using your home computer to process all of your credit card transactions? How great would that be? This is a fantastic payment processing solution for merchants who have a home business, merchants who sell products at trade shows, merchants with a website and merchants who have a shopping cart tied to their website. Here’s an example of an account that we recently set up. The merchant was opening their business in a couple weeks. She did not have a phone line however she had an internet connection. We set up her credit card processing account with a virtual terminal and she was able to open her doors without any delay.

Just also keep in mind that if you can provide a terminal for your customers to actually swipe their card, your transactions will qualify for lower categorized rates by the card companies like Visa and MasterCard.  It doesn’t change BMR’s rate, but you qualify for lower wholesale rates on the cards.  So it’s always better to provide a “card present” method whereby you can swipe the card and verify identity- this is why the rates are lower because it cuts down on fraud.  But if you have no way of swiping the card at all, consider the virtual terminal.

The process is very straight foreward and easy to set up. You simply type in the URL, enter your username and password and start accepting credit card sales.

Posted in Merchant Services Sales, Understanding Merchant Services | No Comments »

Merchant Account Application – Average Ticket

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

One of the most important figures on the merchant account application is the Average Ticket.  This represents the size of your average credit card sale.  

It is important to provide an accurate estimate of the Average Ticket when applying to accept credit cards.   At times it can be difficult to estimate this figure, especially for a new business.  If you are not completely certain about the figure than provide your best estimate.

Every bank in the merchant services industry routinely monitors the size of ticket charges as a fraud protection measure.   To ensure seamless and uninterrupted service of your account, be sure that your initial estimate is as accurate as possible.

When considering your average ticket, be sure that it makes sense for your industry. 

For example, I have seen a furniture store that stated the average ticket at $15.   There are some deep discount furniture stores out there, but I haven’t seen any furniture stores that discount quite this deep!  It turns out that $15 was the low ticket for this furniture store, and not the average ticket.

I also once saw a restaurant with an average ticket of $1500.  I like a nice meal as much as anyone, but $1500 is a bit much for an evening meal!  In this particular case, it turns out this applicant was really a caterer for large parties, and with this new information it made perfect sense.

Set yourself up for success by providing an accurate estimate of your average ticket size.

And remember that whether your average ticket is $5 or $50,000, Best Merchant Rates offers Large Corporate Pricing to everyone.  We are leading the payment processing industry to extend Large Corporate Pricing to everyone, regardless of how large or small. 

Posted in Merchant Application, Merchant Services Sales, Understanding Merchant Services | 2 Comments »

MasterCard NABU Fee

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

It’s Spring Interchange adjustment time again and for April 2009 the topic of discussion is the Mastercard NABU fee.

The NABU (Network Access and Brand Usage) fee is assessed to all sales and return transactions, processed at a US merchant, with a MasterCard Credit or Signature Debit card. Transactions from US merchants for NON US cardholders will not be accessed the NABU Fee.

Merchants should keep their eyes open from companies that may be passing this fee onto Visa and Discover transactions. Again, this fee only applies to MasterCard.

Posted in Merchant Services Sales, Understanding Merchant Services | No Comments »

Switch Credit Card Processors

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

Here is an except from a recent blogger that addresses some of the core issues that BMR is attempting to address in our industry.

It May be Time to Switch Card Processors

Written by David Taylor
April 1st, 2009

 

GuestView Columnist David Taylor is the Founder of the PCI Knowledge Base, Research Director of the PCI Alliance and a former E-Commerce and Security analyst with Gartner.
There is a lot of dissatisfaction in the merchant community with their card processors. Cost is, of course, the major concern: Many of the merchants I spoke with are trying to get their per-transaction costs as low as possible. But they are also unhappy about downgrade charges, the indecipherable bills, the lack of help from their representatives, and what they view as the coercive nature of the relationship.

The blog goes on to mainly address the importance of ensuring your processor is PCI compliant and also aware of all the issues surrounding card security.

But his quote above concerning “a lot of dissatisfaction…unhappy about downgrade charges, the indecipherable bills, the lack of help…the coercive nature” is why BMR developed the Large Corporate Pricing For Everyone campaign.  The campaign is aimed at combating these exact issues.  

I’m proud that BMR has its ear to the ground and is listening to what merchants really want in a processor.  Now we just need to keep delivering on our Campaign Promises!

Posted in Merchant Services Sales | No Comments »

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