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The Best Alternatives to Shopify in 2019

Alternatives to Shopify

Shopify is a great platform, and its ease of use has resulted in skyrocketing popularity over the last few years. But as an all-in-one solution, Shopify also comes with some major downsides – namely the costs. As with all third-party payment processors, the fees charged by Shopify on transactions are higher than the fees charged by traditional merchant accounts. That’s no big deal for smaller sellers doing a low volume of sales with low revenues, but for bigger companies bringing in significant revenues, keeping the percentage fees on transactions as low as possible is key. For those companies, a much better solution is to combine a traditional merchant account with a dedicated eCommerce platform. Luckily, there are plenty of great alternatives to Shopify for merchants to choose from. 

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BAMS Low Cost Payment Processing Saves Businesses Thousands Annually

Saves Businesses Thousands Annually

BAMS has been offering electronic payment processing solutions to thousands of merchants all across the globe for well over a decade. Our experience and commitment to customer satisfaction and savings mean that there are a number of significant benefits to choosing BAMS as a payment processor – benefits that our competitors simply can’t match. From our guaranteed low pricing to our unmatched support, when you partner with BAMS, you truly do gain a partner; one who is as committed to your success as you are.

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Why Is Interchange-Plus Pricing the Most Advantageous Merchant Account Pricing Format?

closeup of businessman working on financial spreadsheet on laptop rearview

A merchant’s profitability is determined largely by the costs of doing business, and one of the most common costs merchants in the digital age run into is the fees associated with processing card payments. Many merchants just assume that all payment processors and all fee structures are alike, but that couldn’t be more untrue. Merchant services providers use a variety of pricing models, the most common of which is the fixed-fee structure used by major third-party providers like PayPal. But that pricing model is actually extremely wasteful for all but a small subset of merchants, and the majority of business will bleed profits unnecessarily by utilizing it. 

An alternative model – and the one used by BAMS – is the interchange-plus pricing model. Interchange-plus offers some major benefits over other pricing models and is just one of the many reasons BAMS can offer our low price guarantee. 

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Understanding Merchant Fees – Which Fees Are Common for A Merchant Account Statement?

Fees

Credit card transaction processing fees seem simple on the surface, but the overall fees are actually made up of many smaller fees, sometimes numbering in the dozens. In the interest of transparency and regulatory compliance, payment processors break down all of those fees on their merchants’ monthly statements. That’s good for both the processor and the merchant, but without context, many merchants find the huge number of line items confusing. 

Not all potential fees apply to all merchants, but there are some common ones that the vast majority of merchants encounter in their monthly statements, and those are the ones we get the most questions about. The following is a quick breakdown of those common fees and what they represent. 

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Which Merchant Account Provider is Better – BAMS, Braintree or QuickBooks Merchant Services?

Merchant Account Provider

Choosing a merchant services provider is a serious task and picking the wrong merchant account can result in headaches with integration, unnecessarily high fees, and delays in deposits reaching a merchant’s bank account. Merchants choosing between BAMS, Braintree, and QuickBooks Merchant Services – three of the most popular merchant services providers on the market – have a lot to think about, as each company provides highly capable and feature-rich offerings. However, there are some significant differences between the three, and this article aims to compare and contrast them in three key areas; pricing, support, and onboard features. 

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Does Size Matter? In an Age of Major Mergers, what do Merchants Gain from Going Big?

Merger

On May 28th, 2019, payment processing giants Global Payments and TSYS officially announced a merger in a deal worth 21.5 billion dollars. That merger was just the latest in a series of mergers and acquisitions that have seen some of the industry’s largest players become even larger. In fact, the Global/TSYS merger was the third major merger in the industry in as many years. In January 2018, Vantiv announced a $10.4 billion merger with Wordplay, coming together to form Wordplay Inc., and on July 2017, First Data Corporation acquired CardConnect for $750 million.

These mergers demonstrate a clear trend towards consolidation and rapid, massive growth among the largest players in the payment processing industry. And with each new merger, pressure grows for other payment processors to follow suit in order to avoid being run over or swallowed up themselves. But, whether or not these mergers are good for the companies involved or for the industry as a whole, the million-dollar question is: are they beneficial in any way for merchants?

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Is Square the Best Payment Processor for Restaurants?

Restaurant Payments

Ever since the introduction of the original Square Reader – the small, white plastic magstripe reader that plugs right into the headphone jack of a smartphone – Square has been a widely recognized brand name among small businesses and entrepreneurs. There is no question the Square Reader was revolutionary for pop-up shops, mobile businesses, and hobbyists, but for all the convenience it offers to small retailers, the question remains as to whether it’s the right choice for larger, fixed-based businesses, including restaurants.

While Square certainly can be used as a restaurant payment processor, when compared to some other merchant services and payment processing providers, including BAMS, Square and its third-party peers like PayPal and Stripe have some notable drawbacks that make them less than ideal solutions.

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How Emailed Invoices Can Help You Get Paid Faster

Emailed Invoices

Cash flow is everything, and one of the biggest keys to success in business is keeping accounts receivable to a minimum. The faster your invoices get paid, the healthier your company’s finances will be, and the better you’ll sleep at night. That means using any tool that can help you collect payment faster is a no-brainer. Email invoices are one such tool, and luckily, some payment gateways build free email invoicing tools right into their platforms. Taking advantage of them is a great way to reduce the amount of work that goes into invoicing and account management, and to speed up the arrival of your payments.

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The Basics of Interchange Fees – What They Are, What They Cover, and How They’re Calculated

Interchange Fees

Merchants are all painfully aware of the fact they’re charged fees on the card transaction they put through, but many don’t understand what those fees are made up of. While those fees contain a number of different components, the largest portion is made up of the interchange fee. Interchange fees are charged on every single credit card transaction regardless of who a merchant partners with for their payment processing, so it’s important to understand at least the basics of what they are and how they’re calculated. 

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