Tag Archives: small business owners

Improve Your E-Commerce Site

Eight Impactful Strategies to Improve Your E-Commerce Site

Every business today must be online. It’s crucial to survive given the landscape of the pandemic. Many businesses either weren’t online or had a small online presence that wasn’t enough to compete in today’s competitive marketplace.

To meet or beat the competition, your e-commerce site must have the following.

Customer Loyalty Program

What incentives do you have to bring customers back? Sure, one-time customers are great, but if you want your marketing efforts to do double-duty, start a customer loyalty program. Whether it’s a points system or you offer specials for each purchase – give shoppers a reason to try you again.

Cross-Sell

Don’t stop your marketing efforts on the product or service that a customer buys. Use the opportunity you have while you’re in front of them to cross-sell or even upsell. Offer more options before they check out – it’s like the candy and gum at the register, sometimes buyers can’t resist.

Make your Site Look Trustworthy

Your site must look legit and the only way to do that is to use words like secure and HTTPS. Test your site on all browsers and with all antivirus programs to make sure it gets through even the toughest security. If customers think their information is even remotely at risk, they’ll bail.

Make Searching Simple

A complex website is like making your store hard to navigate. No one will shop there. Make your home page and product selection are easy to sort through. If shoppers can’t find what they’re looking for fast (within seconds), they’ll go elsewhere. Make your website user-friendly.

Add Live Customer Service

Customers want instant gratification and that includes when they need help with your products or services. An instant chat feature, even if it’s a bot, will help keep their mind at ease. If customer service is hard to find or get to, customers will go elsewhere.

Make Contact Information Easy to Find

Don’t make customers hunt for your contact information. If you don’t have a chat option, make your phone number and email address easy to find. Put them on every page so customers see it and can contact you with questions.

Use Technology to your Advantage

Show off your products in ways you couldn’t in store. Create videos or share your products on social media. Get the word out and let people share. There’s something about videos that makes them go viral versus just pictures and words, so take advantage.

Add Customer Reviews

Nothing sells a product more than others talking about it. Let customers leave reviews on your website or copy and paste them from your social media feeds. Showing that others are using and loving your products is like free marketing.

Improve your E-Commerce Site for the Best Results

Business is competitive today. You have to stand out to get new customers and keep your loyal customers. Existing online seems overwhelming, but once you see the potential it offers, you’ll enjoy finding ways to keep your customer happy too.

What to Know About Chargebacks, How to Avoid Them, and How to Win Them

What to Know About Chargebacks, How to Avoid Them, and How to Win Them

An unfortunate part of running a business is the risk of chargebacks. While they are a natural part of accepting credit card payments, if they get too excessive, it can make you a ‘risky’ merchant, causing you to lose your merchant account.

Here’s what you must know.

What is a Chargeback?

A chargeback is a charge reversal. The customer initiates it and it’s usually due to wrongdoing on the merchant’s part, or at least that’s what most people think. Since a chargeback protects the consumer and not the merchant, you’re on the losing end right from the start.

Common Reasons for Chargebacks

Chargebacks happen for a million reasons, but some of the most common include:

  • Customer dissatisfaction
  • Fraudulent charges
  • Clerical error

The most common reason is identity theft or fraudulent charges. But anything can happen, and customers can initiate them if they feel warranted.

So how do you avoid chargebacks? Here are some tried and true methods.

Make your Payment Description Clear

How often have you seen a charge on your credit card you don’t recognize? Your first instinct is to dispute it. Sometimes, it’s from a company you did initiate a transaction with, but the name differs from the name customers know of you. Use the same name or description and you’ll avoid chargebacks.

Have a Friendly Return Policy

You are in business to make money, but if customers aren’t happy, you won’t make money. Instead, make your customer service and return policy so friendly that customers won’t have a reason to initiate a chargeback. If they know you will figure out the issue, they will most likely trust you rather than making you go through the investigation process.

Watch for Suspicious Transactions

It’s hard to figure out which transactions are legit and which aren’t, but here are a few key areas to watch for:

  • Multiple attempts to use the same card
  • Unusually large purchases for your business and/or industry
  • Questionable answer when you accept a card-not-present transaction

Despite your best efforts, you may not prevent all chargebacks, but you can still ‘win’ at them. Here’s how to win at chargebacks.

Watch the Timeframe

You have only a few days to answer the chargeback. If you ignore it, the dispute will count against you. If you respond right away and can work things out, you may win it. Missing a dispute is like letting your opponent knock you out in a boxing match.

Have the Right Documentation

Don’t let the timeline stress you out. Instead, have your documentation ready so you have everything the merchant processor needs to decide about the chargeback. The more information you have, the better your chances of it going in your favor.

Write a Great Rebuttal

A chargeback is a he said/she said situation, but if you draft a proper rebuttal, you may get your way. While you don’t want to make customers mad, if you have a valid point, it should be taken when going through the process.

Chargebacks are a part of doing business, but when you have great customer service and proper protocols in place, you can minimize them. If they happen, don’t worry, but do your best to ‘win’ so you don’t ruin your rating with the merchant processor.

SBA Rule

Upcoming SBA Rule Changes to Affect Small Businesses [2023 Update]

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During the events at National Small Business Week the Small Business Administration announced upcoming changes due to take effect on July 22, 2013. These changes shift what defines how “small business” is defined. The administration is increasing the size standards in 70 industries. These standards lay out the maximum size a firm can be and still be considered a small business.

This shift in classification is noteworthy because companies that do not currently qualify for this categorization will now be eligible for special SBA loans and government contracts set aside to help smaller firms. Defining much larger businesses as “small” could have costly implications for the “little guy”.

The indicator that the SBA looks to for this classification is the average annual revenue of the company. The threshold that is increasing in about 25 industries will increase over 500 percent from the current $7 million to $35.5. That translates into around 17,000 U.S. businesses that will now be considered a small business.

NAICS Sectors and One NAICS Subsector

There are four NAICS sectors and one NAICS subsector that are revised in the new standards. They are:

  • NAICS Sector 71, Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
  • NAICS Sector 52, Finance and Insurance
  • NAICS Sector 55, Management of Companies and Enterprises
  • NAICS Sector 11, Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting
  • NAICS Subsector 213, Support Activities for Mining

There is already controversy surrounding the amount of contracts that are to be awarded to smaller firms, a mark that the federal government has missed over the past 11 years, according to an article by the Washington Post. A total of 23 percent of federal contracts are earmarked to be granted to companies with the designation from the SBA. Adding more players to the mix will surely increase competition in an already competitive process.

Don’t Overlook Small Business Saturday

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For the past couple of weeks The Official Merchant Services Blog has been preparing you for the Holiday Shopping Season. We’ve discussed a lot of different strategies and services that merchants can use to boost their businesses on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Much of what we’ve covered also applies to going forward through the entire shopping season.

Today we’re going to focus on a new “day” that’s been added to the rush and crush. Sandwiched in-between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a new kid on the block: Small Business Saturday. Since Host Merchant Services has many small businesses in its customer base, we wanted to take a moment to spotlight this newer day of shopping focus and frenzy.

The Basics

First of all, what is Small Business Saturday? It is a shopping holiday created by American Express, held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year. It’s not that old. It was first celebrated on November 27, 2010. Small Business Saturday is designed to be a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday –– which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local.

How it Did Last Year

One of the key elements of the campaign last year was its social media push. Small Business Saturday has a Facebook page –– found here –– and last year AMEX bought advertising inventory on Facebook that it gave to its small merchant account holders for the purpose of promoting them and the event. The Social Media buzz generated 1.5 million likes on Facebook, as well as getting 13p public and private organizations and 41 politicians involved in supporting and publicizing the effort.

The bottom line? The event did indeed boost sales. According to AMEX executive Mary Ann Fitzmaurice Reilly, the event provoked “a 28 percent rise in sales volumes for our small business merchants versus the same day in 2009.”

What’s 2011 Bring To S-B Saturday?

The most basic perk to the Small Business Saturday campaign is that it gives money back to consumers for shopping at local small businesses. As defined by American Express at their Small Business Saturday Link Here: “You can receive a one-time $25 statement credit when you register any eligible American Express® Card and use that Card to make a purchase of $25 or more at a small business on November 26, 2011.”

Merchant Services logo for Small Business Saturday

There are multiple ways to obtain the savings:

  • Register your American Express Card here.
  • Sync your Foursquare account to your American Express Card here.

FedEx this year also gave away 40,000 $25 gift cards, which have all already been claimed.

Also, AMEX continues its robust social media marketing through the event, giving $100 in free Facebook advertising to 10,000 qualifying merchants.

Why You Should Get Involved

A survey by American Express  found 93% of consumers believe shopping at small businesses is important, and are backing that sentiment up by spending about a third of their discretionary income at local small businesses. This prompted AMEX to initiate the campaign in the first place. And if you are a small business merchant, AMEX is going the extra mile to get you involved in the perks and promotions of this holiday.

Even if you are a late-comer to this event and have missed out on the free Facebook ads or the free gift cards from FedEx, there is still quite a lot of value to be had from participating in Small Business Saturday. The $25 credit program applies no matter what else you do. But there’s also these amazing resources still available:

  • From AMEX you can get free in-store signage, and a free online marketing kit.
  • You can use AMEX’s Go Social app to create mobile-based deals for your American Express card-wielding customers.
  • A joint venture from Google and YouTube offers up My Business Story which lets you create custom videos using YouTube’s editing tool to entice your customers.
  • YourBuzz –– a tool that allows users to read and respond to customer reviews and online mentions in one location –– is offering $200 in free advertising credits on LinkedIn Ads ($100 for 6,500 business owners) and Facebook ($100 for 10,000, which is all used up).
  • FedEx offers a 20% discount on printing for  Small Business Saturday-related promotional materials through Nov. 26.

Too Early To Tell?

So what do you think? Will Small Business Saturday catch on? Cyber Monday seems to be gaining some traction, fueled by the rapid growth in online shopping and e-commerce, and standing on the precipice of a predicted boom in mobile payment business. Black Friday is still going strong, with big chains like Toys”R”Us and BestBuy fueling it year in and year out. Is there room for Small Business Saturday? Are you a small business merchant and have you participated in this event last year? Will you be doing it this year? Feel free to share you thoughts and insights on this bold campaign from AMEX. I know I’m particularly interested in hearing about what kind of use you’ve gotten out of the social media marketing tools AMEX is providing with this.

E-Commerce uses Mobile Payments and Near Field Communications as new Merchant Services Solutions

Payment Processing Changes and How They Effect Small Businesses

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It used to be one of the big decisions a small business had to make was whether or not to accept credit cards. But with E-commerce booming and consumers continually reaching for plastic instead of paper for their transactions, that decision has pretty much been made for small businesses. They have to accept some form of card payment as fewer people carry cash. However, the technology for payment processing is advancing at a high rate right now. And many studies predict mobile payments are on the verge of transforming the way people pay for things even more than before. The future of payment processing is ripe for change.

The Current Payment Processing Landscape At A Glance

Merchant Services, by its very nature, is an industry that for the most part seeks to work unnoticed by the consumer. The companies performing this service, which can be explained here in this Host Merchant Services infographic, tend to make their money off of percentages of a penny. Transaction by transaction those percentages grow into pennies, and as volume increases even further those pennies increase into dollars.

A lot of small business owners have horror stories about their payment processors because a really common practice that companies in the industry started to do to each other to compete better, was to boost the expenses from those transactions, and those percentages of pennies, with hidden fees and contractual obligations.

It got so bad that federal legislation, in the form of the Durbin Amendment, was passed as a way to combat debit card swipe fees. Host Merchant Services is already tracking the effects of those changes in a series right here on the Official Merchant Services Blog.

Changing the Game

But that’s not the only way the game is changing. Some companies, like Host Merchant Services, see the opportunity being created by the old standard. So HMS shines light on hidden fees, cuts away the fat from these agreements and HMS even goes so far as to not hold its merchants to contracts or termination fees.  Many of the features you find at Host Merchant Services are designed specifically to appeal to small business owners. A service oriented Merchant Services solution that lets the merchant know exactly what they are paying on their statement.

Technology Adds its Own Wrinkle

Beyond just what Host Merchant Services is doing to change the model for Merchant Services Providers, the industry is being shaped by advances in technology, specifically the potential for profits from mobile payments. Small Business Owners are starting to find the convenience of being able to process a payment anywhere can give them more flexibility to reach their customers. And so the companies developing the technology for these mobile payments are racing to reach the market with their ideas and advances.

Square Up  –  In 2009 the Co-Founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, introduced a breakthrough device that allows both individuals and businesses to swipe and process credit cards directly on their iPhone or Android phone. While Square was not the first company to do this, what set them apart was their fee structure and their lack of a contract. Square has no contract, does not have any monthly fees and only charges when a card is swiped or keyed in. They currently charge 2.75% of the transaction for each swiped card. This is their big selling point because Square lets small businesses that did not have the resources prior to begin accepting credit cards. This is appealing to small businesses with low or inconsistent volume that would normally be burdened by the heavy costs associated with setting up a merchant account.

Google Wallet  – On the other side of the payment world there is Google, who partnered with Citibank to create a new product called Google Wallet. This new mobile payment technology allows consumers to attach a credit card number to an embedded near-field communications (NFC) chip in their Android phone. This in turn gives that person the ability to make payments by swiping their mobile phone next to a chip reader.

NFC technology has been around for about a decade, and is still being tested in target market areas. Google Wallet will be tested first in New York City and Google hopes to roll it out for the rest of the country in 2012. Host Merchant Services noted this previously in an article.

HMSPay  – Host Merchant Services offers its own mobile payment solution, HMSPay. This is similar to Square in that it’s a device that attaches to an iPhone. And its big selling point is that it adheres to HMS’ standards of service and savings. Merchants who use it are able to get ultra-competitive rates that let small businesses take credit cards without being overwhelmed by hidden fees and other excesses found in the Merchant Services industry.

 

 

Advantages of Online Credit Card Processing

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The e-commerce industry’s existence hinges on thriving and healthy online credit card processing. People who own businesses today utilize online payment gateways and online credit card processing because of an increasing number of consumers that shop online and own credit cards. Here are some points outlining the advantages of obtaining online credit card services like those you can find at Host Merchant Services: Continue reading →