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BAMS featured image showing how seasonal eCommerce volume surges can cause payment processing costs and cash flow pressure to rise faster than transaction volume.
Featured Article 7 Payment Processing Costs That Spike With Seasonal Volume

The specific fee line items that compound quietly at baseline but drain margins during peak traffic surges Learn which payment processing costs behave differently at peak volume versus baseline. This diagnostic checklist helps ecommerce managers audit the exact line items that silently erode margins during seasonal surges. TL;DR Seasonal volume changes your cost structure, not […]

Chargeback Defense Merchants Beware: A Chargeback Defense Guide to Help You Avoid the Scourge of Ecommerce
Read MoreMerchants Beware: A Chargeback Defense Guide to Help You Avoid the Scourge of Ecommerce

As a merchant, you take pride in providing the best service possible to each and every one of your customers. That’s why it can come as such a shock – even an insult – whenever a chargeback request comes in claiming that you failed to deliver on a transaction. While chargebacks are a reality of […]

Toast POS Terminal Picture Is Toast POS Leaving Merchants Burnt? A Quick Look at Toast POS Part Two of Two
Read MoreIs Toast POS Leaving Merchants Burnt? A Quick Look at Toast POS Part Two of Two

In part one of this article, we examined Toast’s discounting and billing structure and how it impacts merchants. Essentially, Toast offers significant discounts to restaurants on hardware and software but then charges significantly inflated transaction fees, which wipe out any other savings for restaurants doing any kind of significant volume. In part two, we’ll look […]

EMV Cards and Your Restaurant EMV Cards and Your Restaurant: What You Need to Know
Read MoreEMV Cards and Your Restaurant: What You Need to Know

A credit card is a credit card, and a payment terminal is a payment terminal, right? 😉 Many merchants and restauranteurs would agree with that statement, but they’d also be very wrong. As a result, a huge number of restaurants don’t have the hardware they need to process EMV cards – the current standard in […]

Magento is one of the top e-commerce platforms Magento is Now Part of Adobe. How Does the Acquisition Impact Your Store?
Read MoreMagento is Now Part of Adobe. How Does the Acquisition Impact Your Store?

In June of 2018, Adobe completed its acquisition of Magento, one of the world’s leading eCommerce platforms. With the acquisition, Magento Commerce Cloud was added to the Adobe Experience Cloud, giving Adobe full end-to-end coverage of every aspect of online store creation and management, from web design to graphic design, content creation, sales, order management, […]

Payment Processing Should I Work with A Third-Party Processor?
Read MoreShould I Work with A Third-Party Processor?

Third-party processors, like PayPal, Square, and Stripe, are companies that provide payment processing to clients by pooling all client payments through their own master merchant accounts. For example, if you sign up with PayPal, you do not get your own merchant account. Instead, whenever you accept a credit card payment, that payment is processed through […]

Toast POS Is Toast POS Leaving Merchants Burnt? A Quick Look at Toast POS Part One of Two
Read MoreIs Toast POS Leaving Merchants Burnt? A Quick Look at Toast POS Part One of Two

Toast POS is a cloud-based restaurant POS provider and payment processor that offers restaurants a variety of POS options built on an Android framework. Toast has been growing rapidly since it launched its POS platform in 2013, and many restauranteurs are drawn to Toast both for its simplicity and the attractive pricing offers the company […]

Interchange Plus the Best Pricing Plan Is Interchange Plus the Best Pricing Plan? How the Most Transparent Pricing Model on the Market Provides Huge Savings on Merchant Fees
Read MoreIs Interchange Plus the Best Pricing Plan? How the Most Transparent Pricing Model on the Market Provides Huge Savings on Merchant Fees

One of the most important questions any business should ask themselves when looking for a new merchant account or merchant services provider is “how will this service impact my profitability.” It can be easy to simply write off merchant fees as a cost of doing business – and certainly, they are – but small differences […]

Ecommerce Account Should Your Business Have an Ecommerce Account?
Read MoreShould Your Business Have an Ecommerce Account?

In 2018, almost 5,900 brick and mortar retail locations closed. 2019 has seen another 6,000 go the way of the dodo, and by 2026, as many as 75,000 stores will shut their doors permanently. The reality is, brick and mortar stores are expensive – far more expensive than their web-based eCommerce counterparts. As a result, […]

Chargeback Prevention Part Two: Is an Ounce of Chargeback Prevention Worth A Pound of Cure?
Read MorePart Two: Is an Ounce of Chargeback Prevention Worth A Pound of Cure?

In part one of this two-part series, we looked at some of the technology-based solutions merchants have available to them to catch fraud early on and stop it before it can result in chargebacks and lost revenues. In part two, we’ll look at the other side of the coin – legitimate chargebacks filed by customers […]

Chargeback Prevention Part One: Is an Ounce of Chargeback Prevention Worth A Pound of Cure?
Read MorePart One: Is an Ounce of Chargeback Prevention Worth A Pound of Cure?

A seller receives an order and delivers on their end of the bargain flawlessly, only to later find that the money they earned has been clawed back due to a chargeback. This is an all too common scenario, especially in commerce online where purchases are made without any physical, real-world interaction between customer and merchant. […]

Data Breaches What Are the True Costs of Data Breaches?
Read MoreWhat Are the True Costs of Data Breaches?

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.

WooCommerce over Shopify Why Do So Many Businesses Prefer WooCommerce over Shopify?
Read MoreWhy Do So Many Businesses Prefer WooCommerce over Shopify?

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 […]

Risk Scoring What Is Risk Scoring and How Can It Help You?
Read MoreWhat Is Risk Scoring and How Can It Help You?

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. […]

Cyber Monday What is Cyber Monday and What Can It Mean for Merchants?
Read MoreWhat is Cyber Monday and What Can It Mean for Merchants?

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 […]

Restaurant Payments Can Customer Order Kiosks Speed Up Your Business?
Read MoreCan Customer Order Kiosks Speed Up Your Business?

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 […]

Merchant Services What Visa and MC Updated Dispute and Fraud Monitoring Programs Mean For You
Read MoreWhat Visa and MC Updated Dispute and Fraud Monitoring Programs Mean For You

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 […]

PayPal, Square, or Stripe What Square’s New Pricing Means to You
Read MoreWhat Square’s New Pricing Means to 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 […]

PCI Are You Doing the Right PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire?
Read MoreAre You Doing the Right PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire?

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 […]