March, 2020

• 1 March

  Why Payment Facilitators Are Thriving

  

  As small businesses increasingly look for help in adopting digital payments, PFs are generating more and more payment volume—and more revenue. When payment-facilitator megaplayers, like Square Inc. and Stripe Inc., first entered the scene more than a decade ago, many within the payments industry viewed the model as too risky. …

February, 2020

• 1 February

  Where Unattended Checkout Is Thriving

  

  Thanks to cashless payment technology, markets ranging from laundromats to parking lots to vending machines are expanding sales and ushering in loyalty lures. Dig just below the surface of unattended retail—which is enjoying stellar growth of late thanks to expansion beyond its origins in vending to include laundromats, parking, transit, …

January, 2020

• 1 January

  Mobile Devices Connect With Contactless

  

  A new PCI standard for using off-the-shelf mobile phones and tablets to accept tap-and-go payments should open the door for more contactless transactions. How much more is another question. It’s the ultimate conven­ience for a harried merchant: just whip out a regular smart phone or tablet and ask the customer …

December, 2019

• 1 December

  Taking Merchants to School

  

  Merchant education can be a strategic advantage if you do it right. That starts with showing merchants how they can benefit from technology. Keeping up with payment technology is not easy for merchants. As if the learning curve for EMV, which is still rolling out in some merchant segments, wasn’t …

November, 2019

• 1 November

  The ABCs of CBD

  

  Some ISOs are high on selling acceptance services to marketers of this hemp derivative. The profit potential could be big, but so are the complications. The potential payoff from high-risk CBD merchants is stoking the acquiring industry’s enthusiasm. Almost a year after the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill that …

October, 2019

• 1 October

  Will That Be Credit, Debit…Or ACH?

  

  Historically, ACH processing hasn’t been a big item on most merchants’ wish lists. That could change soon as efforts to make it more merchant-friendly intensify. With all the discussion of faster payments and real-time payments, often synonymous but not always, one payments network continues to attract merchants. The automated clearing …

September, 2019

• 3 September

  Finessing Card-On-File

  

  Ever more numerous digital payments and better management tools are helping transform the venerable stored-credential transaction. As ubiquitous as card-on-file transactions have been, the expectation is that this payment method is poised to grow in volume and importance in coming years, especially as more commerce moves online and consumer comfort …

July, 2019

• 1 July

  Smarter Feet on the Street

  

  The sales-agent model is far from obsolete. Agents just need patience and the right training, experts say. Other sales models may garner more attention, but the traditional sales agent continues to have a place and a future in merchant services. Even when it appears that every processor is courting software …

June, 2019

• 1 June

  Getting Heard by EMVCo

  

  Six big networks control EMVCo, which in turn controls the global EMV standards. But merchants have ways to wield some influence. Within the fraternity of commerce, merchants have at times taken issue with directives set out by payments organizations. The most common differences usually center on pricing, but disputes about …

May, 2019

• 1 May

  Let’s Make a Deal

  

  The gravitational pull toward M&A is claiming some of the industry’s biggest merchant processors. Are more mega-deals inevitable? There’s nothing new about mergers and acquisitions in the merchant-processing business. These combinations have been going on for years, after all, as acquirers seek to penetrate new markets or bulk up for …