Fidelity Payment Services has been a fixture at Kosherfest, the largest annual Kosher food show, as the prime payment processor for the vast majority of the Kosher industry.  We take the opportunity to connect with our merchants face-to-face, advising them on the latest news in the payments industry and even offering them a complimentary shoe shine!

Kosherfest is also a prime opportunity to hear direct feedback from our merchant on the services that we provide.  Agents spoke to their merchants over the course of the two-day show and received a tremendous response from owners of businesses large and small.

Canadian merchants processing with Elavon have typically been restricted to a specific processing format with American Express. But they are now able to enjoy the convenience of a more streamlined program.  There are four main benefits for merchants that choose to enroll:

A Consolidated Statement

One benefit of the new program is a single statement for all credit card transactions. By contrast, the previous program issued a statement for Visa, Mastercard and Discover, while American Express was separate. Aside from convenience, this also has several ramifications for merchants in terms of fees and receipt of funds.

As a reminder, terminals must be manually adjusted for Daylight Savings. For most US states, the clocks move forward at 2 AM on the second Sunday of March, and they revert back on the first Sunday of November at 2 AM.

Click here for instructions on how to adjust the time on the most popular terminals. We’ve also put together a short video which demonstrates how to set the times on the PX S80 and VX520, featuring Johany and Victor from our Technical Support team.

Fraud has escalated this year to nearly $22 billion in losses globally. In other words, for every $100 spent, 6.97 cents was fraudulent, compared to 6.21 cents the year before. The Nilson Report, the top newsletter covering the payment industries, put together the specific fraud metrics. 

According to their report, if the global fraud rate was a pie, the US has the largest slice. The United States alone accounted for nearly 40 percent of the gross fraud losses, even though they only generated 22.9 percent of global purchase volume.  Simply put, for every $100 spent in the US last year, 11.76 cents was fraudulent. 

This October marked the one-year anniversary of the EMV liability shift, an essential but challenging process that rocked the payments industry. On the one hand, it reduced retail fraud significantly. However, some consumers felt that it hampered the checkout experience, at least initially.

Consumers and merchants have had a year to adjust to the change. This October 21st was the next milestone in the battle against payment fraud, the liability shift for ATM machines.   ATM owners are now required to be EMV-enabled to avoid chargeback liability.

Hint: It all comes down to checkout.

The retail customer relationship begins the moment a customer walks into your store and is cultivated during the shopping process with item selection, pricing, customer service and even store layout.  However, what truly seals the deal is the checkout process. Having a streamlined and efficient checkout is not only a key component of closing the sale but maintaining and cultivating customer relationships. 

Here are four key factors to consider when evaluating your checkout process:

The Wait Time

Customers can buy anything online in seconds, so they are much less willing to wait in line in the store. A long wait at checkout creates a negative impression; it’s the last thing customers remember before they leave.  A payment and point-of-sale system that is optimized for your particular establishment can significantly cut wait times and increase checkout efficiency.

As a business owner, you are no doubt aware that accepting credit cards is a key component of doing business. Hardly anyone carries cash or checks anymore, so a business that does not accept cards is likely to lose customers to other businesses that do. However, opting to accept credit cards meaning paying processing fees for those transactions.  In a business with a tight profit margin, like a coffee shop where most transactions are $10 or less, those fees can add up over the course of a month and take a big chunk out of profits.

Many businesses simply accept these fees as a cost of doing business, and customers are unaware as they casually swipe their cards. But a growing number of merchants are frustrated to keep paying credit card processing fees and are looking at ways to pass them onto their customers.

If you’re processing credit cards, you’ve most likely heard of PCI compliance. What is it and how do you become compliant? We’ll walk you through it.

What is PCI?

The Payment Card Industry Security Standard is a set of guidelines that protect merchant and cardholder security.  If a merchant intends to accept card payments, the data must be hosted securely with an approved provider.

You’ve no doubt had this experience: you’re checking out at a store and are asked for your ID at checkout when you use a credit card, perhaps if the purchase is over a certain amount. You might even have a policy about this at your own store.

Is it legal for businesses to ask for ID?

Yes, it is absolutely legal. However, card networks have rules that stores must abide by when it comes to dealing with verification. These rules vary depending on whether or not a signature appears on the back of the card.

Visa & Mastercard’s policy is that if the card is unsigned, the merchant must ask that the card be signed and that the customer provide government ID. If the card is signed, the merchant is not allowed to require ID.

Visa’s policy is that “merchants cannot as part of their regular card acceptance procedures refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID.”  Visa’s advice to merchants: if a cardholder looks suspicious, the merchant should make a Code 10 authorization request call that alerts the card issuer to suspicious activity without alerting the customer.

“A merchant must not refuse to complete a transaction solely because a cardholder refuses to provide additional identification information,” says MasterCard.  It even has a special page on its website that cardholders can report to them when merchants do this.

Impulse buys account for more than half of retail sales. While not all impulse buys are at checkout, it’s certainly the easiest place to implement them. Successful impulse sales are achieved by understanding the mindset of the customer.  By paying attention to placement, item size and the customer’s’ immediate needs, a successful impulse purchase strategy can be implemented.

Summer camps, snow removal and vacation services are only active for a small portion of the year. They require the ability to accept payments during those few months, but most processors  will charge them a monthly fee or have the merchant reapply each year. Is there a better option?

Come the seasonal merchant account, which is custom-made for this purpose. There is no need to pay unnecessary fees or waste time on the application process each year. Credit checks, which potentially lower one’s credit score, do not have to performed each year. Additionally, if a merchant had credit problems during the year, it could prevent the merchant account from being opened entirely, or force them to get set up with a more expensive service. Unfortunately, past processing history does not entitle a merchant to the same service in the future. A seasonal account prevents these issues entirely.

The seasonal account allows a merchant to “press pause” on their account as opposed to a “hard stop”.  This way, the account is ready whenever the business needs it and all that needs to be done is send the processor a re-opening letter.

However, there are several things to keep in mind: