B2B Merchant Account Service

Selling to businesses (or governments) is a different proposition than selling to consumers because the value of the average sale is so much higher — often in the tens of thousands and potentially ranging up into the millions. In the B2B world, security is at an even higher premium than normal, and cost management is of high importance as well. As a result, companies looking for B2B merchant account services need to look for certain features that consumer-facing merchants don’t necessarily need, including improved transaction security through bolstered encryption and improved transparency through level 3 data processing. 

• B2B sales require transparency and security that goes beyond standard consumer transactions due to their value and potential regulatory requirements. 
• B2B merchant account services provide businesses with improved security through P2PE and tokenization, and improved transparency through Level 3 transaction processing. 
• P2PE encrypts customer payment data from the second it’s entered, creating an unbroken chain of security from a transaction’s start to finish. 
• Tokenization replaces encryption altogether, instead, it transmits an unrelated data string that can’t be cracked even if it’s intercepted. 
• Level 2 and 3 processing collect additional transaction data, improving transparency and offering access to lowered transaction fees. 

Improved Transaction Security in B2B Merchant Account Services

Protection of customer data needs to be a top priority for all merchants, but what is considered acceptable for a consumer making a purchase in a convenience store isn’t necessarily going to be considered acceptable by a large B2B customer. To ensure high-value customers always feel totally confident and secure, B2B merchant account services should offer advanced security through technologies like point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and tokenization. 

P2PE:

B2B merchant account services offering P2PE improve transaction security by encrypting payment data directly within the payment terminal or gateway the second a payment is entered. By using P2PE, there is no point throughout the entire payment process in which sensitive data is unencrypted and, therefore, vulnerable to attack from bad actors. 

Tokenization:

Tokenization is a security technology that takes a sensitive piece of information, like a credit card number, and replaces it entirely with an unrelated string that can’t be reverted to the original value. With tokenization, even if a bad actor were to intercept a customer’s payment information, it would be totally useless. All top B2B merchant account services offer data tokenization as a pillar of security systems. 

Improved Transaction Transparency In B2B Merchant Account Services

Another important difference between B2B and B2C customers is the importance of transparency. Transparency plays two important roles in large B2B sales: 

• It helps ensure compliance where regulations dictate how business must be done — an especially important factor for government agencies and non-governmental organizations. 
• It helps ensure cost management and reduces risks for essentially all stakeholders involved, including the credit card companies. 

The primary way B2B merchant account services offer improved transparency is through the collection of Level 2 and Level 3 transaction data. Level 2 and Level 3 processing collects additional data points on top of the minimal information reported through normal transactions. In the case of Level 3 processing, over a dozen additional data points are collected and reported on each transaction, covering everything from quantities to weights to buyer and seller locations and beyond. 

In addition to providing stakeholders with a more transparent accounting of transactions, Level 3 processing gives merchants access to the lowest credit card interchange rates possible. Lower interchange rates allow merchants to pass on savings while maintaining profit margins, making Level 3 processing important for both merchant and customer on large B2B transactions. 

Not all gateways can collect the necessary additional data, so B2B merchant account services generally include software specifically designed to facilitate Level 3 processing. 

BAMS offers some of the payments industry’s best B2B merchant account services, including advanced encryption and easy Level 3 reporting integration. BAMS merchants also gain access to an unmatched support team and the guaranteed lowest transaction fees available, thanks to our interchange-plus pricing model. 

To find out more about how BAMS B2B merchant account services can take your large business and government sales to the next level while saving you money on your merchant statement each month, click here to start your free five-point price comparison today.