If you own a retail business, you have probably been approached by several sales representatives trying to sell you a Gift Card or Loyalty Card Program. Whether it’s an independent office, a standalone Gift Card Provider, or your current credit card processor, it’s probably happened at least once to you.

Moreover, you were probably really interested in adding this kind of program, because many of the benefits are really transparent, and it’s an easy way to build your brand. But, they probably told you how much it would cost you, and you found it hard to pull the trigger because you weren’t sure that this kind of program would increase your revenue enough to justify the cost, right?

Gift and Loyalty Programs are Incredibly Effective

The benefits of gift and loyalty programs are so powerful. If you make a few assumptions, the validity of which have been shown over and over again in independent studies, and crunch some numbers, it’s really easy to see how a gift or loyalty program will pay for itself and more every single month

Increase your average transaction size, get customers to come in more often, reduce attrition and “lost opportunities” associated with your customers not shopping as often. Loyalty customers spend about 20% more than there counterparts, and their average transaction size is 15%-20% higher. Also, people are 70% more likely to tell their friends about your business if they are loyalty customers. It’s not hard to see how utilizing a program like this will increase revenue and build your brand.

If your business is a cash cow, and you’re ready to take it to the next level by deciding to accept credit cards from your customers instead of just cash, you should do a bit of research on which merchant service provider you’re going to set your account up with. If you’re doing a ton of business, the last thing you want is to set up a merchant account with someone who’s going to freeze your account if you start processing too many transactions. It happens from time to time and it’s way easier to deal with beforehand than it is after-the-fact.

Where to Go for a High Volume Merchant Account

Your bank may be an obvious choice. It would certainly be a safe one. As the institution that handles your bank accounts, they will probably jump at the opportunity to process credit card transactions on your behalf. First of all, their risk is significantly mitigated compared to a typical merchant service provider because they have direct access to all of your capital in the accounts that they’re holding in your name. So again, your bank is a safe choice, but we find that most people who process credit cards with the same company that does there banking tend to pay more than they need to for this privilege.

We’ve seen it hundreds of times: businesses being charged 2%-3% more than they have to just for the convenience of processing and banking with the same company. Most of the time it’s out of convenience, or because they have a level of comfort there, but trust me, especially if you’re going to be processing a lot of transactions, it’s not worth what it’s going to cost you.

Maybe you just don’t want to shop for a merchant account. You may be scared that you’re going to get ripped off, or may be uneasy dealing with a new person. The trick is finding a reputable company that knows what they’re doing. Search the Better Business Bureau for accredited companies because they’re likely to provide you with a great user experience. Even harder may be finding someone who knows what they’re doing. After all, whether or not the processor decides to hold your funds has a lot to do with how your account representative sets up your account.

You won’t regret working with Sure Payment Solutions. Our rates are more competitive than your local banks’, and we’ll set you up the right way so you don’t have any headaches down the line. Give us a call today to find out what we can do.

Most people who own a traditional type of brick and mortar business understand at least the basics of how their credit card processing service actually works. For example, let’s say that you own a restaurant or a retail clothing store. People who own these types of businesses understand that they’ll need to get a credit card processing terminal or reprogram their existing terminal, so that when they batch out there transactions at the end of each day, the information is routed to their new credit card processor so that they can deposit the funds into their bank account.

It gets a bit trickier when you’re setting up an online business, whether it’s standalone or just a new stream of revenue for your existing retail business. Most business owner’s don’t really know how this works, and understandably so because it’s not really easy.

Processing Transactions on your Website

This may go without saying, but just to be safe I’m going to put it here. The first thing you’ll need to do this is a website. If you don’t have a website, you’re going to have a hard time processing transactions online.

The next thing you’ll need is a shopping cart. You can do this in a few different ways. If you have a savvy webmaster, he may be able to build some custom shopping cart software, but this isn’t really recommended. For starters, you’ll have to know already who you’re going to process those transactions through, and what gateway you’ll be using. That way your programmer will be able to integrate that with the shopping cart he’s building.

What’s recommended here is to purchase some shopping cart software. There are a lot of options online, and most of them are already compatible with most processors and gateways, so 1) you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues, and 2) you’re not totally committed to staying with this processor for the rest of your life. Believe me, you’re not going to want to have to rebuild your custom shopping cart just because you want to save some money on your credit card processing rates. Most of the shopping cart software out there is relatively easy to install.

Next, you’ll need a gateway. Contact your credit card processor (current or new), and find out which gateways they’ll be compatible with. Cross check that list with the list of gateways that your shopping cart is compatible with. Chances are you’ll come up with a few common and inexpensive gateways to set up. The most common is probably Authorize.net. You can either contact them directly or your processor can usually set it up for less money than you would pay on your own.

Once you have all this done, you’ll need a few bits of information from your processor and your gateway, and you should be ready to plug it into the shopping cart software, and voila. Be sure to test it out. Run a test transaction and call your processor to make sure that it went through.

Troubleshooting

Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned, especially with technical things like this. Before you do anything you want to contact someone in technical support at your credit card processor, and let them know what gateway and shopping cart you’re planning on using, and make sure you get the go ahead from them.

Every 6 months or so, the Card Associations including Visa, MasterCard and Discover, review their table of Interchange rates and make changes based on new risk models, industry trends or internal data. For many merchants, this usually results in a slight increase in the credit card processing rates that they signed on for. Seems sneaky, right?

If and when you notice this rate increases, you may be quick to blame your current credit card processor, but the fact is that they are usually just passing along their own increased costs to you, the customer. Whether or not they have the right to do this may be up for debate, but generally, merchant processing agreements contain some fine print about such interchange increases.

If you think that your rates have been raised in error, an account representative here at Sure Payment Solutions would be happy to give you a free, no obligation rate analysis based on your most recent credit card processing statement. Do not pass this up, even if you aren’t sure that your rates have been increased. Merchants and business owners usually end up saving a huge chunk of change just by getting this rate review, regardless of whether they end up switching their merchant service provider.

For a rate review, just fill out a “Get Started” form by clicking the green button at the top of this page.

One of the hardest parts of running a business is continually gaining access to cash when it’s needed. While some businesses use lines of credit and loans to fund business endeavors, others cannot qualify for this type of financing. Businesses who have a hard time borrowing money from the traditional paths may find it necessary to pursue these types of credit card processing loans. These credit card processing loans are sometimes easier to qualify for and can provide the cash flow that businesses need to be successful.

Credit Card Processing Loans

These loans are sometimes referred to as merchant cash advances as well. The basic idea behind this type of loan is that a company comes in and gives a cash advance or loan to a business that has a sufficient amount of credit card receipts. Once the loan is given, the lender sets up its own credit card terminal in the business. After the credit card terminal is set up, it sends a percentage of the transaction back to the lender each time a sale is paid for with a credit or debit card. In this way, the loan is paid back with small amounts every time a payment is made to the business.

Benefits

Using loans against credit card processing sales is beneficial for many businesses because it does not depend on the credit profile that they have developed over time. If the business has a bad credit history, it can still qualify for this type of loan. The main thing that a lender is looking at in this instance is a sufficient amount of credit card sales on a monthly basis. If the credit card sales are there, then the loan can usually be approved.

Another advantage of using this type of loan is that it makes paying back the money borrowed easier. The business does not have to worry about making regular monthly payments to repay the loan as it would with a traditional commercial lending arrangement. Instead, the loan is paid back a little bit every time someone makes a purchase on a credit card or debit card. This means that the loan is only technically be repaid when the business receives money. Other lending arrangements do not take into consideration how much money the business has received recently. This makes borrowing against credit card sales an attractive proposition that many businesses are getting involved with.

Considerations

Those who plan on borrowing money against their credit card sales should do a little bit of shopping around to make sure that they are getting the best deal available. Otherwise, the business may end up paying too much for the loan that they need for cash flow purposes.