e-commerce Archives - Merchant Account & E Commerce Payment Processing Insights

March 20, 2019

Why BAMS Is The Perfect Solution For Your E-commerce Business?

Over the past decade, the world of e-commerce has completely transformed consumer purchasing behaviors. Practically everything you once had to procure in-person can now be purchased from the convenience of your couch through a series of clicks, taps, and confirmation emails.

In fact, 1.79 billion people worldwide made a purchase online in 2018, with that number expected to grow to 2.14 billion by 2021. The moral of the story: your customers are shopping online with money that’s burning a hole in their pocket.

As an online business, putting the right e-commerce strategy in place is and will continue to be key for long-term growth. Part of that strategy relies on selecting the right payment processing solution for your website.

You will, without a doubt, have a multitude of merchant account providers to choose from, so it’s important to know what matters most to your business when making a selection.

You’re not simply choosing a method with which to process transactions: you’re giving customers a sense of security and your business a positive reputation.

Trust in a platform that will ensure all of the above, and then some. Here’s why BAMS is the perfect solution for your e-commerce business.

BAMS Integrates With Your Existing E-Commerce Software

The last thing you want to have to do when choosing a merchant account is completely reconfiguring your current system. Convenience goes out the window when you have to change out all of your e-commerce software and point-of-sale systems already in use.

The team at BAMS knows how important popular integrations are for business owners with full plates. The more consolidated your efforts become from a software standpoint, the more strategic you’re able to be in your day-to-day operations.

With a checkout process already in place, BAMS easily integrates with popular e-commerce platforms like Authorize.Net, Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce. Best of all, BAMS agents take care of the heavy lifting, connecting your current online store to the ideal payment gateway solution for your e-commerce business.

BAMS Protects Against Chargebacks

Chargebacks, on average, cost e-commerce businesses $40 billion in lost revenue. This is largely due to the fact that most business owners don’t even notice a chargeback until it’s already been processed.

With additional fees tacked onto the customer’s refund, you can end up losing more than simply the cost of a returned product. This becomes especially true as your chargeback rate starts to rise. When an increasing number of customers dispute purchases with your business, refund processing fees from issuing banks start to rise and your ability to process credit cards in the future can become compromised.

The Chargeback Defense functionality offered through BAMS gives you the ability to manage chargebacks effectively. From Instant Dispute Alerts to Online Dispute Management tools, you have the power to review and refute claims as soon as they arise.

BAMS Streamlines Operations With Reporting & Analytics Dashboards

Running a business is one thing: growing a business is something else entirely. To do so requires you to separate yourself from the day-to-day and think big picture. It requires you to pull insights from reporting and analytics.

This is where BAMS goes beyond payment processing to provide you with software that actually works to maximize profitability. Working with BAMS, you’ll gain access to a powerful CRM portal that gives you visibility into daily operational highlights.

Set up daily settlement reports that can be received via email or SMS. Track sales growth trends with an easy-to-use, visual monitoring dashboard. Search through your entire history of transactional records in seconds. All of this functionality and more is at your fingertips in one centralized location.

BAMS Pricing is Transparent

The team at BAMS knows you have options when it comes to payment processing for e-commerce. This is why we’re both competitive and transparent when it comes to pricing.

Our pricing model involves a unique 5-step comparison process. When you request a quote, you receive an analysis specific to the needs of your e-commerce business. This starts with an in-depth look at the rates and fees you’re currently paying.

If there’s a way to save you money and better serve your payment processing needs, our team of Merchant Account Specialists will uncover it. After all, you shouldn’t have to pay for tools that aren’t actually effective or relevant to how your business operates.

This belief carries into the BAMS Low Price Guarantee. Receive a less expensive merchant account offer from any other registered financial provider during your relationship with BAMS, and we’ll either match or beat it.

BAMS Offers Dependable Support

How many times have you signed your name on the dotted line with a service provider only to find the implementation and ongoing support lacking to non-existent? Unfortunately, this is the risk you run post-sale with any partnership.

BAMS puts its relationships with customers above all else. This is reflected through the human connections fostered between e-commerce business owners and Merchant Account Specialists.

These individuals are with you every step of the way. They’ll provide personalized quotes, guide you through implementation, and even help your business get certified as PCI-compliant — walking you through the entire process.

Final Thoughts: Why BAMS is the Perfect Solution for Your E-commerce Business

Sifting through the variety of payment processing solutions made available to e-commerce business owners can be both frustrating and overwhelming. You want to make not only the right choice for the sake of your customers but a choice that will positively impact and grow with your business for years to come.

This is why it’s important to look at the big picture. Prioritize what matters most across your business operations and partner with a team that values your success just as much as you do.

For e-commerce businesses, BAMS’ fully-loaded payment processing platform is truly a one-stop shop. Find out what makes it the perfect solution for your business — contact our team of expert specialists to request a free quote today.

June 26, 2018

Does Your Payment Processing Tool Protect You from Chargebacks?

closeup of businessman working on financial spreadsheet on laptop rearview

Whenever a credit card user disputes a charge they find in their credit card history, one of the provider’s first steps is to demand that the retailer returns the value of the charge. They protect consumers from fraudulent charges, but they can also be extremely costly to the merchant.

How can chargebacks hurt your business?

Even when the chargebacks are limited purely to potential credit card fraud, they can hurt your company’s bottom line. The revenue from a sale goes back to the consumer, and each chargeback usually has an associated fee. Having too many chargebacks can get your merchant account frozen, your company blacklisted, and your company fined.

Less straightforward incidents of chargebacks, like friendly fraud, can be even more damaging to your revenue and your company’s reputation.

What tools do you need to reduce the damage of chargebacks?

Get instant alerts so you can respond.

Chargeback alerts often come in the mail. Delays are bad for business. Text messages give you more opportunity to straighten out the dispute. Text messages can also be integrated with other automatic process tools so the alert becomes a case in the appropriate employee’s workflow.

Export your records to Excel.

It’s not just individual accounts of chargebacks that need your attention. Keep a living history of all the chargebacks issued to your company. Even if you don’t use the document to maintain a status report, you can use the report to know when your company is in danger of triggering fines, an audit, or the termination language with your payment processor.

Respond through an online interface.

Responding through faxes and letters is cumbersome. It also increases the risk of delays and the chance you won’t respond within the appropriate window of time. But an online management tool lets you respond immediately, keep track of responses, and organize the dispute.

Go to BAMS to find these and other tools for your company’s payment processing.

March 20, 2018

Modernize Your Site with E-Commerce Processing

If you sell products from a physical store, you might be missing out on an entire other sales channel: the internet. Today’s customers expect even physical stores to be able to offer certain e-commerce features from their sites, and if these aren’t available, the stores seem behind on the times. Here are a few essentials your store’s site should have:

Site to Store

With this feature, customers order online, but pick their items up at your store’s service counter or other designated areas. Your staff does the job of picking it all off the shelves and boxing or bagging it, but you don’t worry about shipping it anywhere. This makes things quick and easy for the customer and increases your chance of making sales, while you are saved from dealing with logistics.

Pre-Orders

If you routinely get hot new items, give your customers the chance to lock in their copies by ordering in advance of arrival. Offering the ability to make pre-orders will please your customers, but more importantly, it’ll let you get a better idea of how many units to buy for release day and how hot the item will be overall.

Of course, getting set up to offer these services requires your site to have a few essentials. One of these is a merchant processing account. To get set up with an affordable option that includes a free Authorize.net gateway, just contact us!

Here at BAMS, we are happy to answer any of your questions and help you get started!

November 27, 2017

Why Every Site Should Have E-Commerce Payment Processing

Paper boxes in a shopping cart on a laptop keyboard. Ideas about e-commerce payment processing

It may seem like just yesterday when you could put up a site and have people come into your store to shop, but with the speed of technology’s rise, that might as well be a million years ago. Now, people want to buy precisely when they’re in the mood – and they don’t want to have to go get their items, either. Your site may put them in that buying mood, but if you can’t follow through by allowing them to buy from your site and have their items delivered, they’ll go to a site that is properly enabled. This is why your site must have a shopping cart and e-commerce payment processing all ready to go.

Fortunately, it’s not hard to bring a site into the modern world. Unlike just a few years ago, you don’t have to figure out a lot of arcane programming to get your products into a cart and integrate that cart with a payment processor. A plethora of shopping cart options – both free and paid – offer plenty of solutions for your products, software offerings, and more. The best of them integrate easily with payment processing solutions like ours with no more than the entry of some key information.

The payment processing itself is simple when you use a solution like ours. BAMS integrates with all of the most popular shopping carts and can be used with some of the lesser-known ones as well. Importantly, we offer free access to the Authorize.net gateway that powers most e-commerce transactions. You won’t have to worry about programming anything – your supported online cart and our payment processing solutions will work together without a hitch.

To get started on making your online shop competitive with others in your field, just contact us. We’ll be happy to explain everything about e-commerce payment processing.

November 20, 2017

Tips to Help Prevent Chargeback Fraud

Stealing a credit card through a laptop concept for computer hacker, fraud, network security and electronic banking security

All chargebacks are frustrating, but it’s even worse when they happen because of fraud. Then, you not only lose the transaction but the merchandise as well. This alone is enough reason to make sure you stop fraud before you send out any products. Here are some of the chargeback prevention ways that you can armor your online store against fraudulent purchases:

The Zip Code Check

These checks are basic, but they block a surprising amount of suspicious transactions. One of the most standards is to collect the would-be buyer’s name and address. Then, use a shopping cart that sends that information to Authorize.net along with the credit card number. Set your Authorize.net account to compare the zip code on file with the credit card company against the one you were given. If they don’t match, it automatically declines the transaction.

Have Proof of Shipment

One of the most common ways to commit chargeback fraud is done by the criminal ordering things and then claiming non-receipt. Stop this nonsense by shipping everything using methods that give you tracking numbers and proof of delivery. All of the major shippers have an option that provides these things, and it’s worth it to use those options. Then if someone claims non-delivery, you can give us or a card-issuing bank the number to prove that your package indeed arrived.

Having this information at hand also helps you when the customer legitimately hasn’t gotten an item. You’ll be able to look up the tracking and see exactly where the package is in the shipping system. You can almost always get someone to be more patient if you can provide a detailed answer to the question of “where’s my stuff!?.”

To learn more about how to prevent fraudulent chargebacks and other problems, just contact us. We’ll be glad to help you make your business go more smoothly.

November 16, 2017

3 Ways Waiting For Your Processor Is Slowing You Down

dollar sign with an arrow shadow. Next day processor funding concept

Money is the grease that keeps your business moving. Products, employees – keeping all those gears spinning is how your business gains and keeps its forward momentum. For cash transactions, making sure you get paid fast is easy, but what about your credit card processor?

Many merchant service providers can take days to turn your transactions around and get them into your bank. This can cause extra friction that may be slowing you down. Here are 3 ways hanging on to a slow processor is throwing a wrench in your business.

Inventory

The way you purchase products and materials for your business can save you money. Many vendors offer volume pricing or discounts for quick payments. If your card processor is holding your funds it can be difficult to take advantage of these offers. If you are missing out on these discounts your processor is costing you money.

Accounting

If you are waiting for money to come in so is your accountant. Slow transfers make for slow bookkeeping. That means waiting to produce important documents for banks & creditors. It also means your inventory turnover rate is longer, which can make you look like a bad investment. If your processor can’t keep up can you afford to wait for them?

Money availability

When you are waiting to be paid, so is everyone else. This can be solved by working with a processor who has next day funding. Even if you are not struggling now many businesses are one emergency purchase away from potentially being unable to make important payments on time. This is something no business can afford – your vendors and your employees expect to be paid on time, so should you.

All merchant services providers are not created equal. Many big-name processors can take more than half a week to turn over your funds. At BAMS, keeping your business moving is how we keep ours moving too. Your time is valuable, that is why we offer next day processing. Contact us now and lose your old processor, before everything grinds to a halt.

September 8, 2017

Why It’s Important for Your Payment Processor to Offer a Free Authorize.net Gateway

Authorize.net

In order to accept online payments, a business has to have a special gateway to connect to the processing system. One of the most-used and trouble-free solutions is to use Authorize.net, which is the leading provider of online payment gateways. Authorize.net can also process transactions that are entered directly into its system, so it’s easy for you to sell products and services from a remote, but physical location such as a fair. Getting setup with them, however, requires going through a payment processing company – they do not deal directly with end-users.

Some processors charge high set-up fees to add Authorize.net to your account because they know that your only other option is to use a less well-known, and possibly unreliable, solution. This adds expense to your set-up cost that, as it turns out, is entirely avoidable.

Avoiding the set-up cost is simple. All you need to do is choose a provider that offers a free authorize.net gateway as part of its package. Then, you not only get free access to Authorize.net, but the account creation is done for you. You’ll just need to take care of the technical details of connecting your site, something your merchant services agent can likely help you do. With many shopping cart software options, all you need to do for this is enter your account number into the relevant fields.

BAMS, a leading payment processor, does more than just give you the free gateway. They provide physical payment solutions as well as virtual ones, and they examine your application to find cost savings for you whenever possible. This makes it easy for you to get all of your payment needs handled under one roof at the lowest possible cost. To learn more, just contact us and we’ll explain all that you need to know.