Merchant Account & E Commerce Payment Processing Insights
The motto at BAMS is to deliver superior customer support and education about merchant accounts.
BAMS offers everything new and experienced merchants alike need to ensure that their customers’ sensitive payment data is always as safe as possible. We provide every one of our merchants with expert guidance through the sometimes complex process of becoming fully PCI compliant.
Continue reading “What Are the True Costs of Data Breaches?”
WooCommerce and Shopify are two of the leading e-commerce platforms in the world. Each is full-featured and designed specifically to aide online sales, but there are as many differences (if not more) than there are similarities between the two platforms. Below we’ll analyze four of the primary areas of comparison between the two platforms, and why, while Shopify has become a giant in the space, WooCommerce is the preferred choice of so many businesses around the globe.
Continue reading “Why Do So Many Businesses Prefer WooCommerce over Shopify?”
Minimizing risk is a task of great importance to everyone involved in online commerce and electronic payments, from the merchants right through to the credit card issuers. High fraud rates and chargeback rates can have a significant impact on merchants, even resulting in enrollment in chargeback and fraud monitoring programs that can carry hefty fees. Risk scoring is a tool to help merchants avoid those negative consequences by catching and stopping fraud as it happens, and more and more merchants are enlisting them in the never-ending fight against credit card fraud.
Continue reading “What Is Risk Scoring and How Can It Help You?”
Cyber Monday is the online sale event of the year. Since 2005, it has occurred every year on the Monday after Thanksgiving and is the opposite bookend to the more longstanding Black Friday sale. And while Black Friday might be the most important shopping day of the year when it comes to in-store brick and mortar sales, overall, Cyber Monday is now king, with almost eight billion dollars spent on Cyber Monday 2018. That shift means a couple of things: first, that Cyber Monday represents a huge opportunity for merchants to supercharge their holiday sales, and second, that competition for online shoppers’ attention is at a yearly high on that day.
Continue reading “What is Cyber Monday and What Can It Mean for Merchants?”
There are a number of factors that go into the success of a restaurant. Enjoyable food and friendly staff are two of the most obvious ones, but for a quick service restaurant, highly efficient operations are equally important. The ability to move a high volume of customers from the front door, through ordering, to enjoying their meal, and out again is absolutely crucial, and that focus on speed and efficiency is the main reason customer order kiosks are sweeping the industry. These kiosks provide a wide range of benefits to both customers and restaurants alike, making them an excellent choice for any restaurant looking to boost efficiency, customer experience, and revenue.
Continue reading “Can Customer Order Kiosks Speed Up Your Business?”
Chargebacks are a reality of accepting credit card payments. While many chargebacks are requested for valid reasons, there are plenty of cases in which disputes are initiated despite the merchant holding up every aspect of their end of the bargain. Unfortunately, many merchants don’t really understand the dispute process, how to handle a chargeback, or the consequences that chargebacks represent to the health of their businesses. Those consequences can include unexpected drains on revenue, penalties levied by the card companies, and across-the-board rate increases.
Continue reading “How Problematic Are Chargebacks for Business Owners?”
For obvious reasons, the major credit card companies take fraud and excessive chargebacks very seriously, and companies like Visa and Mastercard have put forward thorough monitoring and tracking systems to try to prevent the losses associated with them. In October 2019, both companies made changes to their chargeback and fraud defense programs, and it’s important that merchants keep up on the details of those changes, as getting tied up in any of these programs can result in costly fines and burdensome assessments.
Continue reading “What Visa and MC Updated Dispute and Fraud Monitoring Programs Mean For You”
Square is one of the world’s most popular payment processors, offering simple payment solutions and equally simple hardware to businesses looking to take electronic payments both online and in-store. One of Square’s most notable features has long been its pricing structure; a straight 2.75% with no additional flat fee tacked on to each transaction. But a recent announcement from Square has revealed that the company’s popular pricing model is about to change, with major consequences for a large portion of their merchants. Continue reading “What Square’s New Pricing Means to You”
Part of establishing PCI compliance and maintaining it year in and year out is filling out an annual PCI self-assessment questionnaire (SAQ). These questionnaires are designed to accomplish two goals: to help businesses identify weaknesses that need to be dealt with and to help prove to institutions that a company is compliant. But not all companies handle credit cards in the same way, so PCI has put together nine different versions of the SAQ. The difference in length and complexity between the shortest and longest versions is extreme – 22 questions versus 329. As a result, it’s important that companies select the proper SAQ for self-assessments because choosing poorly could result in under-analysis, or alternately, a lot of unnecessary work. Below is a quick review of each SAQ version to help with proper selection.
Continue reading “Are You Doing the Right PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire?”
Sometimes you just don’t have the time or personal knowledge necessary to purchase someone a truly personal gift, and in those instances, nothing beats a gift card. They’re kind of like cash, but not nearly as impersonal, and the convenience they provide for the giver and recipient makes them incredibly popular. But gift cards aren’t just good for your customers, they’re also good for your business, and they can impact everything from customer satisfaction to the health of your bottom line. Below are three undeniable reasons your business can’t afford to ignore these little plastic revenue drivers.