How Merchants Can Recapture Lost Revenue from Declined Transactions
There are few things more annoying and troubling for merchants than declined transactions. According to MasterCard, decline rates for recurring card billings average 25-30% – that’s a huge amount of revenue being lost. The cost of acquiring a new customer is 5 to 10 times more expensive than retaining an existing one, so this activity […]
How Can Africa Prepare For the Credit Card Boom?
It doesn’t take a crystal ball to know that credit card usage in Africa is about to increase significantly. The credit card companies themselves are investing heavily in cashlessness in Africa. Such a financial eco-system is appealing to them, and they are hedging their bets between government deals and “small-scale retail.” As MasterCard’s sub-Saharan Africa […]
How Social Media Has Affected the eCommerce and Payment Industries
Online commerce and payments have grown significantly since their beginnings, and they are continuously advancing as technological developments take leaps forward. The history of ecommerce began as we know it in 1991 when the Internet first opened for commercial use. Online store websites launched and initially accepted payments performed through EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) and […]
Top 5 Reasons Online Businesses Should Use a Hosted Payment Page
Merchants can either create a payment page from scratch or integrate a secure hosted payment page into their sites. Creating a dedicated payment page requires time and resources that many small merchants cannot afford that include obtaining PCI certification, design, development, integration with multiple payment methods, and liability costs. Working with a payment service provider […]
Payment Processing Fees: What Should Merchants Expect to Pay?
Every eCommerce business must accept online and mobile payments in order to succeed, but few merchants understand what this actually entails – especially regarding the fees they must pay in order to accept these card-not-present payments. Check out this slideshow below to see a short guide about the fees that merchants should be aware of when choosing a payment service provider to work with. […]
PCI DSS Compliance: The 4 Most Important Things Merchants Need to Know
The breach or theft of cardholder data affects all parties involved. Customers immediately lose trust in merchants or financial institutions, and their personal credit can be negatively affected. Merchants and financial institutions lose credibility and in turn, customers – and they may also subject to numerous financial liabilities. In order to protect merchants and their […]
The Future of mPOS – PayPal Here vs. Square
Throughout the world, there are currently two major players when it comes to mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) payments and smartphone processing solutions: PayPal Here and Square. Though they are not currently available in Africa, we’ll take a look at them. PayPal Here: Global Giant PayPal Here is owned by internet superhero, Ebay. PayPal Here […]
7 Predictions for the African Payment Industry in 2016
Some predictions for 2016 are important and some seem a tad trivial. Fortune forecasts that cyber-espionage will rise sharply, but interest rates will not (important). Indiewire.com predicts that Leonardo DiCaprio may finally win an Oscar (trivial). In our part of the world, the following seven predictions about the African payments industry are important because they […]
Is 3D Secure Right for Your Business?
Everything You Need to Know About Chargebacks
Merchants accepting online and mobile payments are constantly concerned about credit card fraud and chargebacks. You can protect yourself, as a business owner, by learning about the different types of fraud and what chargebacks are, as well as what the chargeback process is, and what you can do to help your business avoid them. One of the best ways merchants […]