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Durbin Aftermath: Banks Go Ninja Style

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The Official Merchant Services Blog continues its far reaching and ongoing coverage of the Durbin Amendment and the aftermath of what this legislation brings. Just a quick recap of what the Durbin Amendment did: On October 1, the legislation put in place a cap on interchange fees from debit card usage. Prior to the legislation taking affect, the fee merchants were charged on the average transaction was around 44 cents. The cap put in place by this finance reform legislation put the ceiling for the fee at 21 cents, with provisions in place that allowed most banks to reach a maximum of 24 cents for the transaction. This cut into the profits that banks were essentially “banking on.”

Host Merchant Services provided an extensive and thorough analysis of the Durbin Amendment before it took affect. And our analysis predicted the same reaction from the banking industry that many other media sources predicted –– Banks would not want to lose those profits. Billions of dollars were at stake. The banking industry’s reaction is pretty straightforward: The burden of the fees would be shifted to other parts of the services they offer. The costs and fees would go from the merchants, to the consumer.

Bank of America Takes the Heat

There was a very public media backlash over “Round 1” of this plan, as people slammed the banks for their plans to add monthly fees to debit card usage. The most notable reaction was against Bank of America, who announced they were going to charge customers a $5 monthly fee to use debit cards. This announcement polarized the Occupy Wall Street movement giving them a target for their ire and then was slammed in a wide variety of media outlets (including one Fox News Anchor who cut her debit card up on the air).

This very public display prompted all the banks considering this kind of fee to back off of the idea. With Bank of America itself being the last to relent.

The Burden of Billions

But that didn’t solve the problem. The big banks still have billions of dollars in losses from the hard cap on interchange fees that they need to make up for. And so the current plan is to spread them out through their other services. The customers are still going to shoulder the burden of these billions of dollars. It’s just now the burden is going to be much harder to spot. Which makes for less media coverage and more customer acceptance –– it’s just not as easy to slam banks for doing things like raising the cost of replacing a lost debit card or charging a fee for opening a basic checking account. The debit card usage fee was a sexy, easy to highlight news byte that could be latched onto. A news anchor could make their point with a pair of scissors. But what now? The billions of dollars are still there to be dropped onto bank customers. But now it’s tiny bits here for one service, tiny bits there for another service. It just can’t be wrapped up into one easy to characterize news angle.

Sneaking Fees Onto Consumers By Stealth

ABC News does its best to try, however, offering this article to explain that banks are now going ninja style with their plan of action. Sneaky fees hidden and peppered about their services. All combining to help make up the ground they were going to lose. But most of them deposited around their whole suite of services that it is much harder to latch on like a pit bull and berate them for doing this.  The ABC Article states: “After an uproar of protests, the largest banks have said they are not going to charge customers for debit card purchases, but hidden overdraft, ATM and other fees are likely to rise, say consumer advocates.”

The New York Times also mentions that banks are trying to avoid the noise with this plan B of theirs: “Even as Bank of America and other major lenders back away from charging customers to use their debit cards, many banks have been quietly imposing other new fees. Need to replace a lost debit card? Bank of America now charges $5 — or $20 for rush delivery. Deposit money with a mobile phone? At U.S. Bancorp, it is now 50 cents a check. Want cash wired to your account? Starting in December, that will cost $15 for each incoming domestic payment at TD Bank. Facing a reaction from an angry public and heightened scrutiny from regulators, banks are turning to all sorts of fees that fly under the radar. Everything, it seems, has a price.”

A moneymorning.com article which recapped the New York Times article cites the Durbin Amendment as a direct catalyst for this strategy: “Banks blame increased regulations that limit fees and other charges for wiping out an estimated $12 billion in yearly income. Now it costs banks between $200 and $300 a year to maintain a retail checking account, but they only take in about $85 to $115 in fees per account per year. “

Durbin Not The Cause?

The ABC News Article offers a counter to Durbin being the easy scapegoat: “[Ed] Mierzwinski [consumer program director  of U.S. Public Interest Research Group] said he believes banks are offering more a la carte services from what used to be one package offered to consumers. He said the trend is similar to what telephone companies have done over the years. ‘They’re un-bundling what used to be part of service and charging you more for it,’ he said. ‘Everybody blames Durbin. That’s hooey.’ “

Much of this was already predicted. Analysts that saw what Durbin was going to do knew the banks would have to scramble to recoup their perceived losses. Billions of dollars that they counted on couldn’t just disappear from their business plans and projections. That they would work added fees and rising costs of their other services was pretty much a no-brainer. These other areas of their service were not mentioned or affected by the finance reform legislation. Leaving banks open to make these kinds of adjustments. Occupy Wall Street is far more focused on house foreclosure practices than they are on the fee a bank charges you for using another bank’s card at their ATM.

The Bottom Line

And the bottom line is, the Dodd-Frank Act and its Durbin Amendment simply didn’t take enough of the variables into account to deal with this reaction. Even after all of this was predicted by the people on both sides of the debate. Yes, these changes are more stealthy than the straight up, in-your-face debit card usage fee. But no, they’re not that surprising. Just like a ninja in a boat full of pirates, these changes are standing on the deck as quiet as can be. But are very easy to see.

The Allure of Credit Cards for Holiday Shopping

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With the Holiday Shopping Season fast approaching –– Black Friday is 11 days away, Cyber Monday is 14 days away –– the payment processing industry is still getting the last pieces in place for a brisk rush in the use of credit and debit cards. The Official Merchant Services Blog continues its series focusing on the impact the holiday shopping season is going to have on both the e-commerce industry and merchant services in general.

The battlefield is set between Debit cards and Credit cards. Debit cards received a huge boon from the federal government in the form of a cap on interchange fees that went live on October 1, 2011 in the form of the Durbin Amendment. This cap restricts the interchange fees that can be applied to Signature debit card transactions. The cap restricts the charge to between 21 and 24 cents per transaction. This is a huge cut from the previous average of 44 cents per transaction, and presents debit card transactions as an attractive option for merchants to start accepting right as we slip into the big holiday shopping rush.

That has left Credit card issuers scrambling for a response, trying to stay competitive and keep consumers answering “Credit” at the checkout line.

This Reuters article suggests one of the big campaigns that credit card issuers are going to push this year is a significant raise in rewards programs for their customers, tempting them to choose credit as their swipe of choice to get access to those sweet sweet rewards. A focus on cash back and travel rewards push the right buttons for consumers while holiday shopping.

A Look At The Numbers

Here’s a small chart detailing the dichotomy between debit card usage and credit card usage from consumers in 2010:

Merchant Services graphic for debit card versus credit card usage

The chart breaks down the chosen method of payment among a survey of credit card owners from 2010. Key numbers to note are the Travel category –– which is dominated by credit card use. It is unlikely that the Durbin Amendment and its changes are going to really affect that sector. But looking at the category listed as “Personal Items” –– which would tend to be the category for holiday gift purchases –– you’ll see a much tougher competition between the two transaction choices. This is where the Durbin Amendment changes to debit card swipe fees are going to have a large impact. And this is where the juicier cash back rewards have credit card issuers hoping they can keep things competitives.

According to the Reuters article: “For example, both Chase (CCF.A) and Citibank C.UL have cards that are offering new applicants $200 in cash back after they spend $500 on their cards.”

You Have to Dig to Find the Best Deals

Some of the best deals are not always displayed in easy to find places. The Reuters article cites a Citibank deal. On the Citi website it advertises the deal as $150 cash back on your first $500 of purchases. But then if you dig deeper by google searching “Citi Dividend $200” you find the better deal directly.

Making it Work For You

The really effective strategy to maximize these deals is to combine them with other deals you will be hit with during the holiday shopping season. The Reuters article notes: “Some cards (such as the Upromise card) have their own shopping portals that combine their rebates with rebates from merchants. In other cases, you can use your rewards points directly for holiday shopping; American Express (AXP.N) awards can be paid directly to Amazon for purchases, for example.”

This type of deal stacking gives consumers a lot of shopping incentive to choose credit as their swipe choice.

Merchant Services: Defining Tech Talk

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For merchants navigating their business through the e-commerce industry, there’s quite a lot of technical jargon to be aware of. It’s now more important than ever to stay on top of the latest buzz words that go along with the technology that is at the heart of e-commerce. It can sometimes be a hassle to figure out what tech trends are important to business and what’s just a passing fad. The Official Merchant Services Blog offers some insight and explanation for some of the most important technologies that are affecting businesses today:

1. Virtualization.

Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a hardware platform, operating system, a storage device or network resources. Cloud Hosting is essentially an extension of virtualization. But it goes way deeper than that.

Hardware virtualization or platform virtualization refers to the creation of a virtual machine that acts like a real computer with an operating system. Software executed on these virtual machines is separated from the underlying hardware resources.

Virtualization is something businesses can use to improve their workflow as well as their performance. You can pretty much “virtualize” just about any hardware or software that you need. One of the classic examples of Virtualization is an operating system. Mac users who run Windows on their Mac, are using Virtualization.

2. The Cloud.

The phrase “the cloud” is getting tossed around everywhere today. From television ads that boldly utter “To the cloud!” to web hosting companies offering cloud hosting, it’s a pervasive bit of tech jargon. But what exactly is the cloud?

Cloud Computing is a model of computer use based on sharing computing resources stored in an online environment rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle the applications. Cloud computing is obtaining mass appeal in corporate data centers because it enables the data center to operate like the Internet.  Cloud solutions for businesses are often more efficient and less expensive than maintaining software and servers on local machines. This can apply to everything a business needs to function, from financial software to document and file storage. A cloud solution can take all of that online, allowing a business (from many locations even) to access the application remotely.

A cloud can be private or public. A public cloud sells services to anyone on the Internet. (Currently, Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider.) A private cloud is a proprietary network or a data center that supplies hosted services to a limited number of people. When a service provider uses public cloud resources to create their private cloud, the result is called a virtual private cloud. Private or public, the goal of cloud computing is to provide easy, scalable access to computing resources and IT services.

3. Search Engine Optimization.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a specific topic we’ve covered before in The Official Merchant Services Blog. But it is extremely important and worth adding to this list. SEO is about maximizing the potential of your website to attract online customers. What it boils down to is a series of tactics and actions that you take to improve your web site’s page ranking on internet search engines. The higher your site is on searches, the easier it is for potential online customers to find your site. This drives potential business to your web site.

4. Unified Communications.

Unified Communications (UC) is a really basic concept with that can sometimes be presented to people in a complicated manner. What it essentially is: The merging of multiple communications tools, such as web conferencing and instant messing, into a single interface or integrated system.  Much like Search Engine Optimization, UC can be very helpful to businesses. On even a basic level, a business can make itself more efficient by maximizing their communication tools. This could be something as easy as integrating BlackBerry with Outlook.

5. Crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing, a phrase coined by Jeff Howe in a 2006 Wired article, is the act of outsourcing tasks usually performed by specific individuals instead to a group of people or a specific online community through an open call. Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production model. The way it works is problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. A “crowd” of users typically forms into an online community, and the crowd submits solutions. The crowd also sorts through the solutions, finding the best ones. These best solutions are then owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place –– the crowdsourcer –– and the winning individuals in the crowd are sometimes rewarded.

The typical activities that crowdourcing gets use for are design tasks, the refining or carrying out of an algorithm’s steps, or help in capturing or analyzing large amounts of data. Because it can handle functions like those, crowdsourcing has become popular with businesses. Essentially it can be used leverage mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies and then help businesses achieve their goals.

It All Ties Together

This is just a short list of tech terms that merchants will encounter while trying to get their e-commerce solution running smoothly. Remember that value to your business is the cornerstone for evaluating technologies that can enhance your business. So don’t be confused or deceived by the buzz. Gimmicks can seem tempting and attractive, but always keep in mind that the product or service needs to bring something to the table that specifically improves your business. In the five examples provided here, there is one underlying theme to take note of: They all connect.

Virtualization ties into Cloud Computing, as one is an extension of the other. SEO and UC share the same goal of optimizing the way your business does a specific function –– search engine results of your businesses’ web site for SEO, and efficient communications within your business for UC. It’s also worth noting that many SEO tactics hinge on using Social Networking tools to improve your SEO, and those same Social Networking tools can be made more efficient with UC concepts and tactics. It’s all about improving your business and the tech presented here today by Host Merchant Services can be linked together in a concerted effort to enhance what your business can do online.

Google+ is Here for Businesses [2023 Update]

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The Official Merchant Services Blog has been following Google+ and its beta for awhile now. We previously detailed the potential upside of Google+ for small businesses in this blog entry. The major setback to Google+ for businesses at that point time was that Google hadn’t fully allowed businesses to function in Google+.

That changed three days ago. On November 7 Google announced that businesses were fully allowed to add pages and started accepting submissions. No longer restricted to just personal accounts and no longer tied to strictly Gmail, Google+ gave users the ability to utilize their fledgling social networking tool.

Host Merchant Services jumped on the offer, and you can find our Business Page here. You can also find our local small business page here.

So now that Google has opened the flood gates to businesses, what is the impact going to be? Should you jump right in feet first? What will this do to help your business and its marketing?

The Nuts and Bolts

First let’s review what Google+ Pages can functionally do for businesses:

Google+ Pages are different from regular use profiles. They have some limitations, such as Pages can’t add people to circles unless the page is added first or mentioned. Pages default privacy settings are public, they can’t +1 other pages nor can they +1 stuff on the web. Pages don’t have the option to share to “extended circles,” they don’t receive notifications via e-mail, text or in the Google bar. Pages can’t initiate a hangout on a mobile devices.

Google+ Pages also have advantages, such as they can be made for a variety of different purposes (brands, shops, celebrity figures, sports teams). They have the +1 button and can +1 certain things. Local pages include information about a business’ physical location (map, address, business hours and contact details).

The Pros

One  big factor for Google+ Pages right now is the functionality of circles. It’s more flexible and offers merchants more abilities than its Facebook equivalent. G+ Pages can use circles to segment different groups of connections, better organizing a business’ connections with its customers. The default settings already demonstrate the power of this over Facebook, as it sets up the circles for “customers,” “VIPs,” and “team members,” making it easy to target how you share information with your followers.

Another big plus for Google+ is the Hangouts feature –– which allows users to set up one-click video conversations with other users, fans or colleagues. The potential for your business from Hangouts is quite robust and Facebook offers nothing like that. You can utilize this as standard customer service, or instant face-to-face feedback from customers; you could also utilize it for marketing services, or running mini-workshops or webinars. That’s just a few off the cuff ideas on how to utilize this feature.

And then there’s the as yet unrealized potential of Direct Connect –– the feature that lets you quickly navigate to a Google+ page (and add that page to your circles) directly from a Google search bar. And that’s the real strength of Direct Connect: The Google search bar. This feature is still being worked on so it only works for a handful of big brand name pages, such as Pepsi. But this is definitely something that will shape businesses and what they can do, because it ties the social media extension into the Google searching functionality. Which is the bread and butter of Google.

The Cons

What are the cons of Google+? It’s still new, still in testing so there are some very noticeable drawbacks to Google+. Right up front, one of the biggest ones is G+ Pages do not currently allow multiple page administrators. So while with your Facebook page you can have multiple people in your business accessing the page and managing the content, G+ still only has its Pages as an extension from a single account. That needs to change. And Google is aware of the issue and is working on it. But for now it does create a bottleneck in terms of usage and is an obstacle for businesses in terms of utilizing Pages as powerfully as other social media options.

Another drawback is that Google+ does not allow contests. This TechCrunch article reveals that there’s explicit language in the Google+ Pages terms of service prohibiting businesses from running contests, promotions, sweepstakes, offers, or coupons. That’s a big blow for businesses, as all of those activities are popular with other social media outlets. From Facebook to Groupon, businesses are extensively using Social Media to promote and market through coupons and contests.

And another problem for Google+ Pages stems from the difference between a Page and a Local Business Page. The Local pages include your business’ location, and is tied into Google Maps and the Google Local features. But it is separate in some of its functions from a page setup based on the other list of purposes. Google explains the difference as: “Currently, Place pages and Google+ Pages must be managed separately. A Place page provides information about a business and makes it easy for customers to find local businesses on Google Maps and local search; while a Google+ page provides business owners with additional ways to engage, build relationships and interact directly with customers.”

Many businesses already have their Local entry set up through Google maps. So this raises some concerns and issues with compatibility that Google itself opened up by making the Local entry available in the Google+ Pages signup.

The Verdict

Google+ Pages have revitalized the Google+ project. It launched with a lot of buzz and then it tapered off. It comes storming back into peoples’ attention with this new development. And even with the few obstacles and issues it currently has, it’s definitely worth getting your business involved in it. From the start it benefits your e-commerce presence. Right now Google+ may not overtake the established juggernauts, like Facebook. But it’s really quick and easy to create your G+ Page and get it set up. Tying it into other social media outlets and continuing what you were already doing is what The Official Merchant Services Blog would advise.

Keeping it fresh and active will help you in the long run, because in terms of marketing your business, the potential that Google+ has over all the other social media tools is that it’s going to be able to impact the Google search engine more directly. And that’s the bottom line for businesses: Page ranking. The value to be had in the long term is too great to not get started now. As Direct Connection gets worked on and improved and as Google+ begins to ramp up its efforts to compete with Facebook and profit off of the investment in its social media tool, the strength of the search engine is what everything will hinge on. Including your business and its online presence.

So give Google+ a try, get your Page going and prepare yourself for more SEO opportunities.

Merchant Services News Briefs

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The Official Merchant Services Blog has two news items related to Host Merchant Services and the transaction processing industry to announce today.

PCI Compliance Initiative

First, Host Merchant Services would like to announce its PCI Compliance Initiative is kicking into high gear with a new special offer from its partner HostMySite.com. Host Merchant Services is offering a Free Compliance Package for online merchants. It’s a $100 value in terms of services being offered. With this initiative you get:

  • A Free PCI Compliance Analysis of your business by HMS.
  • A Free PCI Compliance Scan.
  • A report compiled for your business regarding its PCI Compliance issues and what it needs to do to become PCI Compliant.

 

All HostMySite.com customers can access the plan through the special offers tab in the partnership website here. And any other merchants interested in this offer can contact Host Merchant Services directly through this page on the HMS site.

TransFirst’s New Software

Our next news item is Host Merchant Services acquirer TransFirst® has formed a strategic alliance with Planet Group, Inc. The two Companies will collaborate on a new, proprietary back-end processing system.

TransFirst®, a leading provider of secure transaction processing services and payment enabling technologies, has entered into a strategic alliance with Planet Group, Inc., an information technology company dedicated to the financial payment space, to build a proprietary back-end processing system.

Under the partnership, TransFirst will combine the best components of its OnTrak merchant management system with the processing power of Planet Group’s Acquire360 software, creating an industry-leading solution for TransFirst’s merchant customers and sales partners. The ability to control the processing environment will give TransFirst the opportunity for more flexibility in terms of pricing, reporting, customization and statement production, as well as speed-to-market and additional ability to penetrate new business verticals.

In conjunction with the Planet Group alliance, TransFirst has made the strategic decision to continue its long-standing business relationship with TSYS as its preferred front-end system provider. TSYS’ best-inclass position for dial and IP authorization and capture technology, combined with Transaction ExpressTM, TransFirst’s innovative proprietary payment gateway, will create a solid foundation for future success.

“This venture will allow TransFirst to leverage its rapidly increasing scale and maximize efficiencies to help us better serve our clients and partners,” says John Shlonsky, president and CEO of TransFirst.

“Having our own back-end system will simplify our back office and create an ease of operations that will contribute to our already significant growth. We are confident that Planet Group will be an outstanding partner as we move forward with new solutions that will enhance our company’s market value. We are equally pleased to extend our relationship with TSYS and look forward to continuing to work with them in the future.”

“This deal with TransFirst lands right in our sweet spot as a company,” says Tom Nichting, president and CEO of Planet Group, Inc. “Because Planet Group is dedicated to providing software and consulting services to the financial payment space, there’s nothing better than working with a company like TransFirst, which fits solidly into our target for partnership. We look forward to providing the technology and support that will produce a mutually successful venture.”

Use Analytics to Maximize E-Commerce

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Then next phase in The Official Merchant Services Blog series on assisting merchants with beefing up their e-commerce presence this holiday shopping season focuses on web analytics. In a previous blog we gave merchants tips on how to improve the overall e-commerce picture. That blog focused on broad strokes and the process of landing on the merchant’s site and purchasing goods or services from the site. A second blog delved into Search Engine Optimization, assisting merchants with boosting their web site’s page rank when potential customers searched for the goods and services the merchant was selling.

Today’s blog brings both of those strategies together through web analytics. The process needs to be streamlined and strong. Your customers need to be able to find your page when they search, find your products when they get there and buy your products with no hassles. Click, click, purchase.

And how do you know if that is working? If your site is actually doing that and doing it well?

That’s where analytics come in.

Good website analytics take the mystery out of wondering who’s visiting your website and why. You don’t need to be an online marketing whiz to use them effectively. There are plenty of analytics packages for sale, but you can get started for free through Google Analytics. The Google service provides you with a line of code to plug into each of your website pages, and you can then start tracking your site’s data. You can get a breakdown not only of how many visitors came to the website, but how long they stayed, what site they previously came from, what search terms they used to reach the website, and which pages they visited the most.

Here are five questions to help you maximize your use of website analytics:

  • Do your visitors already know you? The whole point of the website is to link you with potential new customers who interested in your business. A well-designed website should only have a small percentage of visitors who have used the company’s name to find it in a search query –– suggesting they already know your business before they stopped by.
  • Are you bringing in potential customers? You want to make sure that people landing on your page are getting there using specific keywords. These keywords are relevant to the goods and services you provide. That way the traffic that seeks you out is the traffic that wants to purchase what your site is selling. Let’s say you’re a web hosting provider. You want the people searching for “web hosting” or “cloud hosting” to find you.
  • Does your social media presence work? Analytics let you monitor where your visits come from. So you can gauge how many visitors are coming from your social media activities. Google Analytics also lets you set goals, which can then be tuned to your social media outlets. Essentially you can judge how effective your Facebook Ad or Google Ad campaigns are by seeing what traffic they generate. And you can also tailor your goals section to track specific things related to your social media profiles. For example you can set a goal to monitor how much traffic you get from a specific Facebook ad or a Twitter Tweet.
  • Are visitors bailing from your homepage? Google Analytics tells you your homepage’s bounce rate, the percentage of homepage visitors who never clicked on additional pages. This is key for analyzing your e-commerce vitality. A lot of sites can generate visits, but if you’re not keeping people around and they’re not clicking through to your goods and services, you’re going to have a high bounce rate. If the bounce rate is more than 60 to 70 percent, you have a problem with your landing page, and possibly your marketing strategy. This problem is infecting your entire e-commerce setup and hurting your business. The search terms your visitors are using to find the site tell you whether they’re the people you want. If they are the right type of visitors and they aren’t delving deeper into the site, then the blame goes on the homepage.
  • Are they looking at your product or service pages? Your website is designed to generate sales or interest in your services. So beyond just the bounce rate of the homepage, it’s important to analyze your product pages. If website visitors aren’t looking at the pages that allow this to happen, then either your homepage is not doing its job or (if your bounce rate is not terrible, but your business isn’t being generated) there’s a problem with the product pages themselves. The homepage should be divided into decision-making paths that quickly separate visitors by their interests and lead them to the information they are looking for. The goal is to make the click through process easy and seamless. The customer arrives, finds what they want and goes and gets it.

 

That’s analytics in a brief nutshell. The data that programs like Google Website Analytics gives you can help shed light on problem areas with your e-commerce package. It is easy to use, so don’t be intimidated by the numbers. Take your time learning the program as these numbers are the key to finding out whether your website is effectively generating business.

 

E-Commerce SEO Tips for Merchants [2023 Update]

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The Official Merchant Services Blog once again picks up its thread about the impact 2011’s holiday shopping season is going to have on e-commerce. Previously we gave merchants tips on improving their e-commerce experience for customers. These tips were primarily focused on things merchants can do with their website and their online shopping cart. Today we’re going to offer some tips on improving your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is basically the other side of the coin. With the first set of tips the goal was to make it easy for your potential customers to use your site, and buy things from you effectively. With these SEO tips the goal is to make it easy for potential customers to find your web site in the first place.

What is SEO?

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” search results that come up from using the search engine. SEO is absolutely vital to your online business. SEO is what helps the search engines such as Google find your website or your products in whichever marketplace you are using. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. So the basic goal of SEO is to get a web site ranked on the first page.

How to Improve your SEO

Here are a few effective tips from Google itself and its SEO Report Card to help you use best SEO practices and boost traffic to your website or listings:

  • Offer Quality Content and Services

    –– According to Google, interesting websites will increase search engine recognition on their own. The internet is content driven. So the first step in improving your SEO is to make sure you have compelling, consistent content. In fact, here is what the Google SEO gurus have to say about your site’s content: “Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors discussed here.” Great content is more apt to be shared and linked to, which will help boost your rankings with the search engine results pages, or SERPs.

  • Create more descriptive title tags

    –– Optimized keywords and an effective URL naming structure can help the search engine understand the content of the page better. It is suggested to use a maximum of 60 characters on title tags as an opportunity to tell both users and search engines what the focus of the page is. There’s no need to go past this many characters, as most search engines will display ellipses ( … ) after this limit. Also, search engines may give less weight to words after a certain point.

  • Write Better Anchor Text

    –– What is anchor text? It’s the clickable text that users see as the result of a link and is placed within the anchor tag. This text tells Google and the other search engines, as well as internet users, a little something about the page you are linking to. You should use descriptive, concise text and format links so that they’re easily spotted. Don’t neglect your internal anchor text, either.

  • Create effective URLs

    –– Choose the form of the URL that is easiest to remember as the canonical and be consistent with this canonical form across all products. Think of the most common URL forms visitors are likely to try and then 301 redirect these to the preferred/canonical URL or be sure to use the rel=”canonical” link element if you cannot redirect.

  • Optimize Your Use of Images

    –– In the last blog post, we discussed the importance of using high quality images of your products in your shopping cart and how that helps you make sales. Those same images can help your SEO, if you utilize the text that comes with them properly. You can use a filename along with alt text for images and should take full advantage of both. The content of the alt attribute contains information about your image. Don’t scatter your image files in a bunch of directories and subdirectories, but store them all in a single directory. This will greatly simplify the path to your images. Use commonly supported file types such as PNG, JPEG, GIF and BMP.

The real work here for a successful e-commerce merchant is combining the strategies from the previous blog with the tips presented here. You need to make your site come up on the first page of a google search so customers can find you. Then once they click you need to have an strong, easy to use site so those same customers can make their purchase quickly and hassle-free. All of this leads up to the final submission of the sale, which is where Host Merchant Services steps in and makes the payment processing easy for you and completely worry-free. Let our tips and information help you with the first two steps, and then we’ll handle the processing.

Customer Service vs. Marketing? [2023 Update]

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Much of the content I provide for The Official Merchant Services Blog I write like a news story. The goal there is to provide quality, insightful information on topics that relate to what we feel our visitors and merchants can use in their business. But this is still a blog. And today I’m going to take a more casual, more blog-like approach. In the end though it’s all going to come back to a very relevant point about customer service, e-commerce, and the holiday shopping season.

Good Call Gone Bad

I have ended my relationship with the Apple iPhone. Which is a pretty significant departure for me. I’ve had an iPhone since 2007. While I wasn’t the first in line to get one, I was still a very early convert and had one a couple of months after its launch. I “wow-ed” my friends with its touch screen technology, and became a loyal iPhone customer all the way up until this week.

What Caused Me to Leave the iPhone?

Poor customer service is what caused me to switch to a different smartphone plan and leave the iPhone. Here’s what happened:

I hadn’t upgraded my iPhone in awhile. I was still using the 3G. My battery was getting spotty. My internet connection through it was definitely showing its age. It was time for me to upgrade. And conveniently enough the iPhone 4S had just been released. I thought this was an amazing opportunity to upgrade right before Christmas. And luckily (or so I thought) for Apple, I had two phones to upgrade. I had purchased an iPhone as a Christmas present for my mom a couple of years back. And it was on my phone plan, and she was really unhappy with her internet speed on the phone. Win-Win for the Apple store right? Two phones to upgrade.

One Step Forward, One Step Out the Door

So I went into my local Apple store Monday evening looking to upgrade. At $200 per upgrade, I was basically walking through the front door with at the very least $400 to spend on their products.

That’s when things got all bizarro-world. Up was down, North was South, and making sales was not the salesperson’s goal this day. I was told that I could not upgrade my phone that day. That I had to do one of two things:

  1. Log onto their web-site and purchase the phone online directly from the apple store’s site. I was told this would take 1 to 2 weeks to deliver.
  2. Log onto their web-site and make a reservation to pick up a phone the next day. I was informed that I had a very specific window in which I could make this reservation (between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. at night). I was told that I would run into high internet traffic and would likely have to refresh the page multiple times. I may not make it into the reservation quickly enough because of this (The salesperson compared it to bidding on something on eBay but in my head it sounded more like trying to obtain playoff tickets before they sell out). And I was told I had a very specific window of opportunity to make it into the store the next day to pay for my reserved iPhone.

And after explaining all that, I was ushered out of the store. Just like that, $400 walked out of their store.

Cool Like That

I have to ask: What is wrong with that business model? I mean, I fully understand there’s some marketing tactics being employed right now by Apple. Part of what makes Apple the brand that it is stems from their marketing of “cool.” That their style drives the demand in their product and that they can give that aura of being too cool to worry about beating their competitors with boring numbers. But how far does that extend? Is it a good move to let $400 walk right out of the door? What kind of customer service is that?

To get back to my misadventure, after walking out of the store with no service, I did indeed go home and jump onto the web that night. But instead of visiting Apple’s web site, I went to AT&T’s site –– my phone service and data plan provider. I just wasn’t even going to try and deal with Apple’s site. Especially with all of the obstacles they put in front of me. I did note that AT&T’s site would give me an upgrade to an iPhone 4S and promised 2-day  priority shipping. But I didn’t really investigate the details of what they were going to offer. I was that annoyed with the Apple Store’s treatment of me. I had been a loyal customer of this product for 4 years. I’d upgrade multiple times in the past. And never once experienced anything like this. Apple did not want my money. So as fascinated as I was by AT&T’s offer, it was time to move on.

Ex-Phone to the Next Phone

I upgraded my service plan and smartphone to a Samsung Galaxy S II. For the exact same price as the iPhone 4S.

My phone arrived last night. And now for the first time since 2007 I’m not using an iPhone. It all comes down to the customer service.

I’ve read stories explaining that demand for the iPhone 4S is higher than supplies. So that’s why this reservation process exists. However I question the circumstances that led up to this situation existing. The iPhone 4S was released in time for the holiday shopping season of 2011. The iPhone is an industry leader. And this is one of Apple’s biggest releases of the year. What prompted them to under produce?

I tend to think it’s part of their “oh so cool” marketing strategy. By under producing they help continue to stoke the flames of demand. It’s this slick new gadget from the hip tech company. And you want it even more because you can’t have it.

The Bottom Line

There is a lot of power in that strategy. But as I said to a friend of mine the other day at lunch, Microsoft will stay ahead of Apple on a lot of things simply because Microsoft would rather have my $400, and your $400 and everyone else’s $400. They’d rather make the sale. Customer service wins out over cool branding and hip marketing. And that’s something very important for merchants to remember heading into the most frenzied portion of the holiday shopping season. The iPhone 4S is trying to be the Tickle-Me-Elmo of the smartphone industry. The must-have/can’t-find item. And I am guessing that in the long-run losing out on my $400 isn’t going to hit them very hard. But that’s not a mistake smaller businesses can make.

It’s All About Service

Customer service is key. With e-commerce being so prevalent, consumers are blitzed by options. They can shop around by clicking from here to there. And your business needs to make an impression on customers. Especially those that walk into your brick and mortar operation with money in hand looking to purchase. If the Apple store had done anything to retain my business, they’d have kept me around for a few more years. Instead they showed me the door. Literally.

Merchant Services Blog Customer Service Samsung Galaxy

The Samsung Galaxy S2

I didn’t just decide to blast Apple without checking around to see what the deal was with this. And I do have a certain level of understanding about how the company has to now deal with their short supply and still move forward with trying to sell the product. I have a friend who went through the reservation process and was as flustered with it as I was just being told about it by the salesperson in the store. I also poked around to find some relevant stories and information on this.

Here’s a Conversation Marketing Blog about trouble with Apple Store customer service. The issue is completely different. But I did get a chuckle out of this image. And it underscores my overall theme here –– Customer Service needs to improve.

That blog led me to this article about Gary Vaynerchuk’s book The Thank You Economy. The book makes “a compelling case for why businesses need to adapt to the new reality that one-way push communications are no longer as effective as building a real, sustainable relationship with your customers.”

Which gets round to the whole reason this story exists on The Official Merchant Services Blog: Quality customer service is at the very heart of the Host Merchant Services business philosophy. As our CEO often says, “You stay with us because you’re happy.” It’s just that simple. No contracts, no termination fees, no tricks. Host Merchant Services will not run you off the way the Apple Store feels it can with customers who are looking to spend hundreds of dollars. It’s not part of the HMS philosophy.

E-Commerce Tips for Merchants [2023 Update]

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The Official Merchant Services Blog continues its coverage of the holiday shopping season and its impact on the e-commerce industry. Today we’re going to give some very brief, incisive tips on how merchants can improve their e-commerce presence and hopefully improve their profits in the holiday shopping season.

Think Like a Consumer, and Put your Products in More than One Category

Make your online shop easy to navigate and your products easy to locate. The online businesses that make their goods and services easy to find reap rewards in two ways: people purchase more and they experience greater overall satisfaction with the web site. While reorganizing and streamlining your catalog, consider up-sell and cross-sell opportunities by offering products that make logical sense together. For example, if you sell paintings and frames, show the frames that best complement the paintings. If you sell a line of products that have a wide range of prices, show the progression from the least expensive to the most expensive. Customers may choose to purchase the higher priced items if they’re presented as options.

Keep it Simple

Many people cite overly complicated navigation or too many pages in the purchase path as reasons they don’t complete their online sale or abandon their shopping cart. Successful e-commerce sites simplify the checkout process and display clear pricing and shipping information –– making the shopping experience take the fewest amount of clicks possible to get from landing on the site to completing checkout. They also post clear return policies and access to customer service. Putting your brick and mortar store’s phone number in a visible place on your web site is also a good idea. Studies suggest that consumers feel more confident knowing you are readily available if they have a question or if there’s a problem with their order.

A picture really is worth a thousand words, so use quality photos of your products instead of long descriptive text blocks. Online usability studies suggest that people do not read, they scan. It’s harder to read text on computer screens, so keep these guidelines in mind for optimum readability: Headlines should be 8 words or less, shoot for 9-12 words on a line (people don’t want to read across the entire screen); keep sentences short (15-20 words) and try to keep summaries under 30 words; and hold paragraphs to 40-70 words. In this way you can maintain compelling product descriptions alongside your high quality images.

Market your Site Once it’s Live

It’s not enough to just build a web site. You need to make a focused effort to market and promote your web site to new and existing customers. Collect e-mail addresses on your site to help you keep in touch with customers and consider creating a newsletter or a blog. Seek back links from other sites that complement yours. Optimize your site’s content for relevance and submit it to the major search engines.

Make Payment Processing Easy

Online shoppers need a way to give you money online. That’s easy these days. You can accept credit card payments with merchant account from Host Merchant Services. HMS is ideal for anyone trying out the e-commerce waters since the company guarantees a low rate, and does not lock you into a contract or saddle you with termination fees. Host Merchant Services also offers a fully customized e-commerce solution tailored to your specific business. You can get further details simply by contacting the company or filling out this form here.