While much of the media’s talk of the 2015 Christmas and winter holiday shopping season consisted of the surge of e-commerce sales, they lacked mentioning m-commerce. M-commerce, or mobile commerce, is growing quickly, and with the lessened prices of smartphones, more consumers are likely to jump on this techie bandwagon. For customers and merchants alike, this change is quick and great, but there is one major drawback to this new technology: the lack of secure payment processing options.
Merchants know the drill: A new, hip way to process payments can quickly turn into a nightmare product. But unlike Apple Pay’s wonky upstart (i.e. duplicate payments without a reversal method) mobile commerce is entering without any issues. The 2015 holiday season saw $12.7 billion in transactions. This was a 59% increase in sales from 2014, which brought in $7.98 billion in sales. The main issue though was not the risk of low performance, but rather the risk of hackings.
Hackings can damage any business, regardless of their financial status. 2013’s Target hackings taught us that even the mainstream can have hacking issues, and while this was tragic for consumers, it helped educate merchants to the fact that they need secure processing. Finding a process becomes complicated if you have a “high risk” labeling, are on the TMF file, or are in need of an ecommerce merchant account. Yes, it can be a challenge to locate the right fit for your business, but it is possible. The key is that you have to ask question.
Inquire about the processor and their clients. Find out if they specialize in your type of business, or if they accept any “high risk” businesses. Specialization is key, and you can find reputable processors for nearly any industry, even for the new and presumed risky e-commerce industry. Yes, the process can be long and hard, but the effort is worth it to keep your business and customers safe in this era of hackings. Remember that this is not something that is a fad, but a long-time commitment to ensure the betterment of your business.