Payment gateways are a crucial tool in both ecommerce and brick-and-mortar sales, but many merchants don’t necessarily understand what their gateways do or why they really need to have one at all. With that in mind, the following is a quick refresher on what gateways are, how they work, and why they’re so important. […]
Tag: payment processing
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What is a Payment Gateway?
Payment gateways are a crucial tool in both ecommerce and brick-and-mortar sales, but many merchants don’t necessarily understand what their gateways do or why they really need to have one at all. With that in mind, the following is a quick refresher on what gateways are, how they work, and why they’re so important. […]
The past few years have seen a sea of change in the payments industry and the role that EMV payment cards play in the lives of consumers. Worldwide health measures have changed the way we pay in-person, and, today, cash is no longer king – so much so that many consumers no longer carry any […]
Knowledge is power, yet many merchants operate with an incomplete picture of their payment processing, their transaction history, their ongoing and historical disputes, and more. Advanced merchant reporting tools offered by some payment processors are designed to provide merchants with insights into those key areas in a fast, efficient, and easily-digestible way. Merchant reporting tools […]
The average customer might think that the second they complete a credit or debit card transaction, the funds from the purchase go directly into the merchant’s bank account – but they’d be wrong. In reality, most merchants have to wait two or even three business days to access their funds due to the standard holds […]
Point-of-sale systems are mission-critical tools for retailers and restaurants, providing the system through which sales are made, and inventory is controlled. But POS systems can do a lot more than just process transactions if a merchant has the right integrations. Integrations allow merchants to squeeze extra value out of their POS systems, simplifying tasks, leveraging […]
Clover is a popular small business point of sale system, offering retailers and restaurants intuitive POS software and a wide variety of hardware choices. But one of Clover’s most standout features is its well-stocked third-party app market, which enables Clover users to expand and refine the capabilities of their systems, as needed, in a matter […]
Toast POS is one of the most popular point-of-sale systems in the restaurant industry. It’s known for feature-rich and easy-to-use software and a wide variety of hardware options. But while Toast POS is both highly capable and user-friendly, it does have some notable drawbacks, including the cost of payment processing and dependence on proprietary hardware. […]
Choosing a new payment processor is an important task, as payments are at the core of all businesses. But with so many options on the market, it can be hard for merchants to know how to differentiate one processor from another. When requesting a merchant services quote, many business owners will focus on price and […]
Payment gateways are software tools that enable transaction processing by acting as the bridge between the end customer and a merchant’s payment processor. Every transaction – both online and off – goes through some type of payment gateway. In ecommerce, payment gateways provide everything from payment data encryption to two-way communication to fraud protection and […]
Merchants can fight chargebacks and, while many don’t, all should whenever possible because chargebacks matter. Chargebacks cost merchants money in the form of lost revenues and, in many cases, lost inventory. They also raise red flags when they start to rack up, causing potential strains in relationships with payment processors and the major card companies […]
An ecommerce merchant is a business that sells online and utilizes payment processing services to collect card payments. In a terminology-heavy industry like payment processing, it can be easy for confusion to arise about what certain terms mean and don’t mean. “Merchant” is one of those terms, and many people incorrectly assume that all businesses […]
Amex OptBlue is a program designed to make American Express payments more accessible to small businesses. Traditionally, the high barriers to entry on the network and the extremely high transaction fees made American Express more trouble than it was worth for smaller merchants. To remedy that problem, the company created the Amex OptBlue program, which […]
Next day funding is a feature offered by certain payment processors that allows merchants to access the money from their batched transactions in a single day – in some cases, as little as ten hours after a transaction is submitted. Most merchants on standard funding plans don’t get access to their funds nearly as quickly, […]
Payment processing is a complex industry with a lot of moving parts, a lot of tech, and a lot of security rules. But, for the end merchant, all that complexity represents a needless source of headaches and potential business interruptions. The best payment processors offer simple merchant services that allow businesses to focus solely on […]
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, or PCI-DSS, is a security standard that must be met by all companies that handle, store, or transmit credit card data from the major card brands. It exists to protect consumers and minimize the potential damage associated with payment-related data breaches. PCI compliance refers to a company’s ongoing […]
Having a payment gateway that accepts credit cards on-site is important for most modern businesses, and it’s an absolute must for retail businesses, where cash-only sales are all but extinct. But how do you go about getting a credit card reader? The good news is that getting set up with a reader isn’t that hard, […]
Retail ecommerce is already worth over 431 billion dollars in the United States alone and is set to exceed $563 billion by 2025. Simply put, your customers are already online. If you’re still weighing the pros and cons of selling on the web, now is the time to take the plunge. Expanding your sales to […]
Apple Pay and other digital wallets, like Google Pay and Samsung Pay, are mobile payment technologies that allow users to pay for things with a simple tap of their phone or the click of a single button online. They offer speed, convenience, and, thanks to built-in biometric ID, heightened security. It comes as no surprise […]
