Posted on Mon, Mar 05, 2012 @ 11:36 AM
Putting together a transaction service system is an involved and complex process fraught with bureaucracy, so when businesses find themselves needing to offer transaction processing to their client merchants, they might turn to a white label solution. Using an existing transaction processing service and offering it to your merchants under your own brand carries a number of advantages for your business.
Focus on your business
A white label solution for your financial transaction processing allows you to focus on building the other elements of your business, rather than having to invest heavily in software development, Payment Card Industry certification, data security, and the other associated costs of developing your own system. In addition to the money and resources saved, using a turnkey transaction service also dramatically reduces your time to market, since you're offering a product that is already made, tested, and ready for use. The ability to offer transaction services under your company's name and logo reinforces your brand identity, keeping your name in the minds of your merchants every time they log in.
What to look when considering a white label provider
A good white label solution can do all this for your company and more, so it's important to know what to look for when choosing a white label transaction processing service. The provider should be certified as PCI DSS Level 1 Compliant, the highest level of compliance available, because the more your provider has already taken care of, the less paperwork your business will have to deal with. In addition to that certification, your transaction service provider should have a reputation for experience and reliability, including secure data centers with 24-hour monitoring, and dependable software that will ensure your merchants access to their payments at any time.
Flexibility is also key for any white label transaction provider. It needs to be able to accommodate increased transaction volume resulting from the growth of your business – or your merchants' businesses. It should also offer a number of payment processor options, so your merchants can stick with a preferred payment processor, or change processors easily without needing new software. Some merchants, like property managers and educational institutions, need the flexibility to receive payments on both a regular schedule and as one-time fees, and through various payment methods. Merchants should be able to process payments from their smartphones. A good white label transaction service has to be able to meet those needs, and provide your merchants with quality technical support as needed.
Looking for a white label payment solution for your merchants?
Posted on Fri, Dec 30, 2011 @ 10:34 AM
Warmest wishes from Maas Global Solutions for a happy and prosperous new year for your company, your employees, your families, and most importantly, you.
For many people and entrepeneurs, the end of the year is a time of reflection, looking back, and looking forward. What should you change next year? What is working well?
We found four articles that may be of help as you move your business to the next level in 2012.
Some intriguing business trends are emerging, where an investment in the right place might yield terrific dividends in the coming year for your business. Here are three key areas from Entrepeneur magazine to consider prioritizing in your company budget next year.
@SmallBizLady has some great thoughts on things to do to get yourself and your company ready for the next year.
Are there things you are doing that are hindering your productivity or effectiveness? Here are five things to consider cutting out of your workday from Harvard Business Review.
Small Business Guide advises three simple things to grow your small business: run a profit model review, increase conversion rates, & focus on the customer experience.
What are your business challenges?
If you need a payment or technology partner to help you out in 2012, let us know. We would be glad to help. Maas Global Solutions specializes in transaction processing, custom software development, high end web hosting, and business consulting. Perhaps our expertise, technology, or transaction processing products and services could help you achieve your company's goals in 2012.
Posted on Mon, Dec 05, 2011 @ 05:16 PM
Maas Global Solutions, owner of the Paymentsite gateway and Paymentsite payment solutions, is please to announce the newest version of the Paymentsite Mobile Virtual Terminal is now available in the Apple iTunes App Store.
We've been working hard on our Paymentsite Mobile Virtual Terminal--the iPhone app that allows merchants to process credit card, debit card and check transactions directly from their iPhone or iPod Touch.We are proud to announce the newest version is now available for free download in the iTunes App store.
Read more on the Paymentsite News page >>
Posted on Thu, Sep 29, 2011 @ 05:25 PM
Check 21 refers to electronically processing paper checks by submitting a scanned image of the check. The physical check does not need to be presented at all. The legislation enables businesses and financial institutions to immediately process checks by providing images rather than physical pieces of paper. The law also allows the creation of substitute checks that can be processed immediately.
How does it work?
The merchant uses a check scanner, which scans and captures the entire image of the check. Maas Global's Paymentsite submits these images electronically with the transaction information to the bank. The merchant’s bank can transmit this information electronically to the customer’s bank. If a receiving bank or its customer requires a paper check, the bank can use the electronic picture and payment information to create a paper “substitute check.” Using ‘Check 21’ electronic check conversion, the transaction is processed within 24 business hours.
Which check scanner(s) are supported?
The RDM 7000i is the check scanner that is compatible and is currently being used with the Paymentsite Merchant Portal to capture the check images. Other check scanners may be integrated in the future. The RDM 7000i is available for resale from Maas Global.
If you sign up for a merchant account with Intellivative that includes ACH check services, we will provide a check scanner at no cost.
6 Key Benefits your business gets from implementing Check 21 services:
- It’s faster - Next day funding, in most cases.
- It saves time - Forget heading the bank and waiting in those long after-work hour lines.
- Convenient online records of each transaction – you can access scanned images of all checks processed.
- Fewer NSFs (Non-Sufficient Funds) since the checks are presented overnight, as opposed to a few days.
- Accounts on file - With the consumers’ permission, the payment gateway can allow merchants to store the checking account information for subsequent transactions without the need to write another check. (While Paymentsite offers this feature, not all payment gateways have this capability; check with your gateway provider to make sure.)
- Reduces human error - Automated method to capture dollar amounts on the check saves data entry time and decreases chances for input error.
With the confusion over Check 21 evolving to enlightenment, the days of paper checks ought to be numbered.
Still want more information?
Be sure to follow us on Twitter @MaasGlobal and @Paymentsite to stay on top of the latest business, merchant, and payment news!
Posted on Fri, Sep 16, 2011 @ 03:35 PM
TGIF! What's buzzing around the payment industry and business world? This week we decided to focus on the most interesting articles spread via Twitter.
Here are our top 5 articles and sources to follow from this week:
1. 6 ways Zappos uses Twitter to Increase Sales Posted by @jeffbullas
Jeff makes a great case for how well Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO, and his company utilizes Twitter for customer service as well as increasing sales. Hsieh's book, Delivering Happiness, is a great read for any business person looking for an amusing and insightful book.
2. At Least 12% Growth Expected for Online Holiday Sales This Year Posted by @eMarketer
As the days before the holidays are decreasing, spending is expected to increase! Great news for online retailers and mCommerce services such as payment processing for electronic transactions.
3. The Decade of Online to Offline Retail Commerce Disruption Posted by @DailyDealMedia
If you've been in business for longer than 5 years, you know this trend best. The trend that shows how brick and mortar shops have had to evolve into multi-channel retailers or just plain eCommerce. From Blockbuster to Netflix and Borders to Amazon, consumers are shopping differently.
4. Non-Cash Payments Grew 8% Globally in 2010 Posted by @AmerBanker
Going hand in hand with the evolution of online retailers, the growth of electronic payment transactions are increasing as well. In Europe and Asia, contactless payment forms are popular while the US is slowly catching up. This article captures the statistics of the growth of non-cash payments around the globe last year. We don't see this number decreasing, non-cash payments is on the rise.
5. 3 Business Lessons I Learned from Karate Posted by @SmallBizBonfire
Business lessons can come from anything, even karate lessons! Alyssa Gregory reflects on her business and life skills that she adapted from her experience in gaining a black belt at a young age. We all take advantage of those life lessons that are right in front of us, what are some lessons you've learned from a hobby or sport?
Check out these sources on Twitter! It's #FollowFriday with great articles from great sources. Until next week, have a great weekend!
Posted on Fri, Sep 02, 2011 @ 03:12 PM
With all of the blogs and news sources out there, it’s almost impossible to feel caught up. Our marketing and PR team sift through hundreds of reads on a daily basis--so we’ll share the weekly reads that were the most enlightening. Here are the top 5 articles that recently had the payments industry and business world buzzing:
1. 5 Steps to Registering Your Business – Source: U.S. Small Business Administration
If you have just started your business or are thinking about starting a new business, you’ll need this.
2. Sizing the Mobile Payments Market – Source: eMarketer
Mobile payments – the latest craze that has every payments technology company scrambling to gain an edge.
3. The #1 Thing You Must Do to Build a Business That Lasts – Source: Glazer-Kennedy’s Insider’s Circle
Everyone needs to remember this one.
4. Spending Wisely on Technology – Source: The Wall Street Journal
Nowadays, you’re only as productive as your computer and mobile device are. So here’s a great piece on how to see technology as an investment rather than an expense.
5. Tablet Computers Deliver a Bigger Bang Than Smart Phones for the M-Commerce Buck – Source: Digital Transactions
Payment companies shouldn’t ignore the presence and conversion rates that tablets, like the iPad, have in the market.
Did you see any hot articles that are worth mentioning? Share them with us in the comments and we’ll post them next week.
Happy Labor Day Weekend!
Posted on Fri, Jul 22, 2011 @ 12:30 PM
Square is a relatively new payment platform whose unique selling proposition is giving away a square plastic magnetic stripe reader that plugs into the headphone port of an iPhone or iPad depending on which service you utilize. Square is growing in the micro-merchant world and it’s popular with end users because it’s easy to use. Square is great for some very small merchants but this small package has some significant disadvantages. In fact, many experts agree that unless you have a miniscule number of transactions you’ll be paying much higher transaction fees and give up quite a bit just so you can process transactions on your iPhone.
Here are the 3 key reasons why Square may not be the optimal solution for your businesses payment processing:
1. Square Takes a Big Bite Out of Your Pie
The industry standard of credit card transaction fees is approximately 1.75% fee per transaction. Whereas Square charges a 2.75% fee per transaction, which seems small for a $4 girl scout cookie sale, but let’s crunch the numbers: if you process over 10,000 $10 purchases in one year (less than 1000 per month)—Square gets a whopping $2,750 of your revenue as opposed to 1.75% or $1,750 with an actual merchant account through a payment processor or payment gateway.
2. Debit? eChecks? Nope, Back to Square One
Many customers use their debit cards and some cards don’t have the dual ability to run as a credit card. Where Square does not have PIN pad function, your typical Point of Sale (POS) and the Paymentsite virtual terminal do. So if you want to accept less costly PIN-based debit cards—or electronically process checks from your customers, you’re back to square one.
3. More than 10 Cashiers or Users?
Square’s account limits you to having 10 users. For a retail store, catalog call center or fundraising organizations with well over 10 users, this poses a problem. Square’s offerings are limited compared to true merchant accounts via payment gateway and processing products such as Paymentsite that don’t have user maximums.
Although Square is a great solution for ultra-low volume businesses, most other businesses would enjoy a larger profit margin and much more functionality by shopping around for more versatile payment processing solutions such as Paymentsite, before resorting to Square’s iPhone solution. True merchant accounts can provide merchants with more flexibility, usability, and more profitability.
Set on using an iPhone for payment processing?
Business owners who want mobile payment processing on their iPhone but don’t want to be stuck in a Square box might find Paymentsite Mobile “fits the bill.”
Feature
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Square
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Paymentsite Mobile
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Use iPhone for payment processing
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# of users
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10
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Unlimited
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Credit cards
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Checks
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PIN Debit
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*
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Processing fees
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2.75%
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1.75%**
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Full-featured Virtual POS terminal that runs on Mac OS X and Windows
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Integrated payment transaction reports for both iPhone and other payments
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Customers can self-pay online or from their mobile phone without giving you their payment info
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With Link2Payments customer payment portal
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*PIN debit is available through the Paymentsite Virtual terminal
**Fee associated with average retail/swiped merchants. Merchant processing fees naturally vary by type of transaction and type of merchant.
Posted on Mon, Jul 11, 2011 @ 02:35 PM
Business owners have a high need for information to run their business. And their payment transactions contain a lot of good information that can be leveraged for things you might not always think of when you think payments.
- Some business owners are concerned about fraud, so they want to look at the address verification response for their transactions--and see the CVV response too.
- Other business owners want to know which employee processed the most transactions.
- Or they might want a shipping report so they can print out shipping labels or see where they are sending out the most products.
Some payment systems offer reports that specifically address each of these business owner's needs, but most don't.
So what if you could create your own?
If business owners could pick and choose data elements in their reports, every business owner would get exactly the report they wanted.
At Maas Global Solutions, we just added a new feature to our Paymentsite Universal merchant center that allows business owners to create, name and save their own custom report views. So now the Transactions Report is no longer just a payments report. It's a shipping report, a fraud report, an employee report, or whatever you want it to be. Plus the report data can be downloaded so you can manipulate it in any spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel.
The possibilities are just about endless.
Want to see how it works?
Download instructions for creating your own custom report views in Universal Paymentsite
Don't have Universal Paymentsite yet? Want to learn more?
Download the Universal Paymentsite information sheet.
Posted on Fri, Jun 10, 2011 @ 02:45 PM
Regular point of sale (POS) terminals have come a long way over the last couple of decades, but in the ways that matter, they really haven’t changed much. Merchants like them because they’re easy to use and dependable but they’re still very limited, single purpose devices. Comparing a virtual Point of Sale terminal to a traditional terminal is like comparing a traditional telephone to a smart phone; you can make calls on either one, but a telephone is just a one trick pony.
Here are the top 10 reasons why virtual POS terminals (VPOS) are better for business:
- Card on file. Merchants have a secure way to store credit/debit card and checking account details so they can charge their regular customers without requiring them to present a card or check.
- Email receipts. With a VPOS email engine, merchants can send receipts their customers can easily store electronically.
- No extra hardware to maintain. Why have multiple devices to manage and pay for when most businesses have personal computers on site already?
Unlimited users who can log on from anywhere. With the merchant's express permission, their bookkeeper can log in from their office to get transaction reports, clerks can log on from the front desk to process payments and merchants can log in from any Internet connection to check on the business from anywhere in the world. - PCI Compliance. Most VPOS terminals are continually updated to remain fully PCI compliant while most existing POS terminals simply aren’t PCI DSS compliant. After the massive recent data breaches with Sony et al., this issue will become increasingly important as the card associations start cracking down on non-compliance.
- Customer Data at your fingertips. VPOS terminals generally support loading customer information which gives the merchant a great way to communicate with their customers for promotions and loyalty.
- Consumer “Push” Payments. Some VPOS terminals support a consumer payment portal that allows them to push a payment to the merchant. This keeps all of the consumer’s payment details secure and private and gives the customer the convenience of paying online or via their smart phone.
- Doesn’t tie up a phone line. Standard POS terminals use phone lines to communicate with the processor which requires merchants to either lose their line while the transactions process or get a second phone line which is often times more expensive than the monthly fee for a VPOS.
- Rental/lease fees. Merchants often pay $30-$40/month to rent or lease their POS terminals which is more expensive than simply using a VPOS terminal.
- Marketing. With a VPOS, receipts can be printed on preprinted sheets that market the Merchant’s business. They are larger than normal receipts so a consumer will be more inclined to keep them and respond to a marketing message than if it’s printed on a small POS terminal receipt. What a great way to incent your customers to save your marketing message. With a VPOS, you can actually turn your credit card processing into a great new way to make grow your business!
There are many other reasons for using a virtual POS terminal versus the traditional kind, but for businesses with Internet connections, virtual POS terminals are clearly the way merchants should process payments. All indications are that this trend will continue into the future!
Want to know more about virtual terminals?
Posted on Fri, Jun 03, 2011 @ 10:33 AM
How business owners can leverage online payment portals and scheduled payments to increase cash flow
It's a common problem in business: there are lots of orders coming in, but there just isn't enough cash to keep everything operating smoothly. The lag in the time that it takes to get a payment from a customer on top of to the time that it takes to process that payment and turn it into cash creates a gap in the company cash reserves.
While it's not always easy to get customers to pay on time, there are ways to minimize this issue and keep the money flowing.
Why do customers pay late?
- They are too busy. Whether your customers are consumers or businesses, they often have a lot going on in their lives and it's not always easy to take time to write that check--or they might simply forget.
- They have their own cash flow issues. Even if they have enough income coming in to pay the bill, they timing might be off.
- There are other bills to pay. Most people and businesses have a stack of bills they need to pay--and sometimes there isn't enough to pay them all. Where does yours fit in stack?
Payment solutions that help get customers to pay on time
While you can't necessarily control whether your bill gets top priority in your customer's eyes, there are some things you can do that can help.
- Online payments. Offering a payment portal where customers can go and pay online whenever they want makes it much simpler for customers to pay when they have time.
- Scheduled payments. Set up an automated recurring payment schedule that fits with the customer's pay schedule. This eliminates the possibility that the customer will forget or that there isn't enough money when it's time to pay the bill. It's even better if an e-mail several days before the automated payment goes through so the customer has time to check that they have enough money to cover it.
- Multiple payment options. If the customer doesn't have the cash when the bill comes due, they might still be able to pay using a credit card.
Does your payment processor support your cash flow?
Adding online and scheduled payments to your business infrastructure can be time consuming--and if you are not experienced with online payments, you may not be aware of the regulations and security implications involved.
You may want to consider adding a turnkey online customer payment portal.
- Look for a system that is set up to send bills via e-mail to the customer, with a link to your payment portal.
- Is it hosted and managed by a PCI-compliant payment solutions provider? This ensures your business doesn't have to deal with transmitting and handling sensitive payment data.
- Does the system allow the customer to set up up a desired schedule of payments?
- Do you have control over the billing and payment schedules? Making sure you control the billing and payment schedules ensures the schedule fits with your cash flow needs as well as the customer's--and allows you to decide which customers can pay on a schedule or use online payments.
Other payment processor considerations
- Recurring payments. Many processors support automated recurring (or scheduled) payments. What options do they provide? Do they charge extra for recurring payments? Do they send reminder e-mails to the customer (and you) before a payment is scheduled? Are the payments easy to set up and do you have control over the schedule?
- Funding time. How long does it take for the processor to fund each kind of payment--from the time the payment is received to the time the money shows up in your account?
Want a payment processor that supports your cash flow?
If your current processor isn't providing the resources to support your cash flow with scheduled payments, a secure online payment portal, fast funding turnaroud, and helpful email notifications:
Find out which payment processing options might help improve your business cash flow with the
cash flow analyzer worksheet.
