Fintech Company of the Year 2018
May, 2018: PayTabs is honoured to win the ‘Fintech Company of the Year’ award at the Arabian Business Achievement Awards held in Kuwait
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These 10 things will help protect your Ecommerce Business against fraud
The good news is that e-commerce is flourishing like never before. The volume of ecommerce transactions worldwide is growing by leaps and bounds every year. In fact, according to reports by Statista and emarketer., the total volume of global e-commerce is expected to cross the $3.03 trillion mark by 2019.
The not-so-good news is that along with market expansion, the incidents of online frauds have also increased. And as the world moves ahead, fraud has become more sophisticated. According to the Global Fraud Index, which tracks and analyses changes in fraud patterns by studying the transactions of more than 5,000 e-commerce merchants in North America, Asia and Europe, $3.3 billion was lost by merchants as a result of account takeover frauds in the second quarter of 2017.
Online frauds usually result in fraudulent transactions, account take overs, stolen goods, and unauthorized requests for refund. To cover your e-commerce business against fraud attack, let’s understand what we can do.
Here are 10 ways to reduce eCommerce fraud activities:
- Begin with your website security
Make sure that your website is not vulnerable. You should hire security experts to ward off such kind of possibilities. Make sure that your website is integrated with a secure payment processor.
- Train your staff
It is high time that your internal staff should be aware of the patterns of behavior usually observed during a fraudulent activity and also the security measures associated with it. They should also be trained to quickly spot an unusual activity.
- Use security codes
To ensure the physical possession of the credit card by the user, make the use of CVV mandatory. CVV is the code which is printed on the back of the credit card.
- Don’t allow customers to buy in guest mode
E-Commerce websites allow you to buy on guest mode, which means that you are not required to set up an account with the website and you can just provide the billing and payment details and make a purchase. While setting up an account on the website, you are required to provide more information about yourself and that minimizes the frauds.
- Contact the customer if required
If you suspect any fraudulent activity, immediately contact the customer on the contact number provided by them and make sure that you are talking to the actual customer.
- Use tracking numbers
You should track the order delivery and record every detail associated with it.
- Compare email address with IP address of the user
You can use free verification services to make sure the customer is ordering from the same location with which they are registered with you. Remember, during most of the frauds, users initiate a purchase from far-off places and sometimes even different countries.
- Compare shipping and billing addresses
It is also a form of preliminary check and you can use address verification services to ensure that these two addresses are not dramatically different. However, there can be exceptions to that – it usually happens when a person wants to gift something to one of his/her friends or relatives. However, you can always contact the customer when required and confirm the order as a security measure.
- Take signatures on delivery
It is for those customers who frequently return and dispute the transactions. Such customers claim that they never received the product and ask for a chargeback. To prevent such frauds make sure the delivery boys get their signature on delivery.
- Use a fraud protection service
The staff at a fraud protection service is specially trained to detect fraudulent activities during millions of transactions. They use human intelligence along with machine learning techniques to help you identify a possible fraud. When you hire any such service, you can minimize fraudulent activities on your website.
Frauds happen everywhere and they make a dent in your profits and sales revenue. The above steps will definitely help you prevent those frauds and run your business smoothly.
9 Things to Look For In a Payment Gateway
If you are setting up an e-commerce store, one of the most important things you will be looking for is a payment partner who is going to help you enable the whole payments process.
With the right payment partner, your customers will be able to pay you easily and is more likely to come back to your website. There is just one small problem – how do you choose the right payment gateway?
With the market cluttered with several payment gateway options, it might be hard to choose the right one. In order to choose the right processor, you should do some homework and consider some points that are relevant to your business needs.
So in this article, we are going to explain 9 important things to be considered before you choose your payment partner.
- Look into location and incorporation details
Most of the times, the ideal payment gateway for you should be the gateway that is from the same location/country, your business is incorporated in. The corollary is also true. For example, if you want a European payment gateway for your business, you need to incorporate in Europe itself.
- What’s the pricing and the providers’ fees?
It is extremely important to know the fee structure of your payment processor, if your business model is extremely price sensitive. Most of the fintech companies fall into this group and a slight variation in prices can alter their profits and may even turn it into loss. Don’t get carried away by the advertisements that announce lowest fees or discounts, as it just might act as a catch to attract clients. Find a payment gateway provider that offers transparent fee structure without any surprises afterwards.
- What’s the technology
The bottom line is that you should choose a payment gateway that is supported by robust technology. This should not only offer simple, user-friendly solutions but also protect all financial transactions against fraud. Also, your payment gateway should be secure enough to protect all your customer’s data and also have lower processing costs.
- How good is the support
Operating in a global market involves many unexpected and occasional incidents that can be bad for your business. That’s why support is considered to be a crucial factor to instantly fix the problems you face. Support should be simple and hassle free and ticketing system should be robust and fast.
- Does the operator offer international payments?
Check whether your payment gateway accepts international payments. If you are a growing business which is looking for selling to the global customer in the future, you might want to go with payment gateway which accept international currencies and offers alternative payment options. While local payment providers might be cheaper in certain cases, global payment gateways like PayTabs come with extremely attractive features like multi-currency payments, acceptance of a variety of cards, settlements and alternative payment arrangements. The latter is probably the better option if you are looking for revenue from around the world.
- What are the safety and security features
It is extremely important to ensure the safety and security of your customers, while they purchase online. Maximum frauds happen while your customers try to make payments online. There are different ways of protection that a processor can implement such as 3D secure payments, verified by Visa, and token system etc. Your gateway should always follow the guidelines of PCI to minimize the chances of frauds.
- Regular payments
If your business model requires short-term payments and settlements, it is ideal to go for a processor that doesn’t expect you to wait too long. Check the cost of the transfer and make sure that the fees are not too high. Always check what your payment gateway is charging for wire transfer. Some gateways charge a low fee and some might ask you to pay a higher fee.
Make sure that the rolling reserves are kept to a minimum. Rolling reserves is a kind of money that a payment processor or a bank can keep with themselves for a period of three to six months as security money against possible charge-backs.
- Does it allow invoicing
It might make sense to go with a payment gateway which offers built-in invoicing services. This not only makes it easier for you to raise instant invoices for the customer but also eliminates the need to move to another platform for invoicing.
- Reporting features
Another important thing to check is whether your payment partner is offering detailed reporting services. Once your business starts, you will want to review the transactions, review chargebacks in any, or do an analysis of any extra charges that you might have incurred while using the gateway. Try to go with a gateway that offers a better user experience.
There might not be a “perfect payment gateway” that fits the needs of every business. But its worth going the extra mile in order to find your right payment partner since a bad choice will not only cost you money but also your customers. The one thing to probably always keep in mind is the security aspect. The right partner will help you provide all the necessary tools for helping your business grow.
Forging the Future of Payments – The Emerging Trends
With the rapid pace at which the payment industry is gathering momentum, the global payment environment will go through a sea change in near future. There are many factors responsible for an ongoing shift in the payment industry.
We are going to discuss these trends in the light of the 5 major factors that are as follows:
- Increasing regulations and compliance post global recession of 2009
- Entry of new players in the market and increasing competition
- Economic growth in emerging markets and a resultant boom in payment flow across new regions
- Innovation and unprecedented growth in technology
Technological innovation is paving the way for increased accessibility, efficiency, velocity and reach, as far as payment transfers are concerned. It is responsible for a complete shift as to where, when and how payments are initiated and transferred.
Banks need to be cautious and monitor the situation carefully as to how developments are taking place in the payment industry and what opportunities and threats it is posing for the banks. In order to thrive, they need to be alert and ready to capitalize on the emerging possibilities.
- The impact of regulation
Increasing regulations is the biggest factor that is going to impact this industry in future. With an unprecedented growth in the volumes of cross-border payment transactions, the volume of these transfers has doubled from US$10 billion in 2012 to US$18billion in 2018. Such a huge volume of international transactions warrants strict monitoring and control.
Banks need to keep an eye on the complexities involved with local and international regulatory framework. The other influencing factors are current practices, currencies and payment formats.
Changes in regulatory compliance can lead to enormous innovation, where it becomes necessary to reevaluate both internal and pan-industry practices. It will open a whole new world of opportunities for banks and corporate sector.
To simplify and harmonize payment practices across Europe, EU has introduced the Single European Payments Area (SEPA). Fixing regulatory and compliance issues, SEPA has harmonized and standardized the payment market and eased local transfers. Such integration activities are likely to take place in other regions as well.
- Entry of new players
Many new players are likely to enter the payment industry and those can be online payments providers, virtual marketplaces and large technology and social media companies such as Google, WhatsApp, Amazon, and Apple, etc. A thriving fin-tech ecosystem will boost the market.
The factors that are responsible for attracting new players in this market are the current secure payment propositions. The industry as a whole is gravitating towards new payment methods that are not constrained by banking regulations and offer convenient and innovative methods to the customers.
- Economic growth in emerging markets
Shifting economic landscape and changing global demographics across the planet will also shape how future payment flows will take place.
A soaring middle-class population and changing economic landscape is creating global opportunities in this industry. In the year 2000, the US and Western Europe together controlled 70% of global financial assets, but by 2020, it is estimated to fall to 45%. China, on the other hand, is flexing its economic muscles and it has seen a 600% growth in global financial assets since then.
- Rapid growth in technology
With the rapid pace of change in financial technology, many regions such as Latin America have experienced unprecedented growth in smartphone penetration. Nearly half of the adult population in this region doesn’t have a bank account. So, there is huge potential for payment processors and mobile banking. Technology allows you to not only transfer the funds instantly but also to track it in real time.
Payment processors like PayTabs have a real advantage here because they have future-proof strategies in place that include customer-centric approach, convenience, flexibility and multi-currency support.
Tips To Choose the Right Payment Integration Method for Your Ecommerce Site
Advancement in technology is gradually making payment integration easier and simpler. However, as new entrants to the world of eCommerce, you may find it a little difficult to choose the right integration method for your eCommerce business. At present, there are three popular integration methods and in this article, we are going to discuss these options in order to help you choose the right option for your business.
- Hosted checkout pages
As a matter of fact, this option can be used by any type of merchant, whether small or big.
There are many reasons why small merchants should choose this as their checkout solution. First of all, there is no need to hire a software developer when you integrate it with your website. It also works well when your website is not PCI compliant.
Hosted checkout pages are also beneficial for medium to large-sized merchants, who have already designed and created their checkout pages. This is the quickest way to supplement your alternative payment method. Almost 60% of the shopping cart abandonment incidents take place because people are not able to use their preferred mode of payment. It is more prevalent in the countries where cards are not used frequently.
The benefit of hosted checkout pages for merchants:
It has the following benefits for the merchants:
- PCI compliance is not complicated
- No need to store card information
- Ideal for quick global outreach
- Supports all major credit cards and major currencies
- Supports local payment options
- Offers easy integration
2. Payment API
If you are among the perfectionists who would like to exercise extreme control as far as design and user experience of checkout pages is concerned, a payment API is the right solution for you.
For card processing, payment API is the ideal solution whereas if you need both card processing and value added services such as coupons and catalogs, currencies and subscription billing, Payment Plus API should be tried.
It doesn’t require customers to leave the site in order to check out and makes checkout a simple process with minimum steps to complete.
The benefit of payment API for merchants:
It has the following benefits for the merchants:
- The XML based API doesn’t require any specific programming language
- A native mobile checkout flow can easily be developed
- Easier PCI compliance through client-side encryption
- Tokenization enables the sellers to save the card information of the shoppers so that the returning shoppers need not repeat the process all over again
Payment API makes the checkout safe and secure.
3. Shopping Cart
If you are using any shopping cart such as Magenta or Prestashop, the “shopping cart” is the ideal integration method for you. It offers users almost the same benefits as they get in hosted pages. It is comparatively easier and simpler to setup and it doesn’t require you to make any payment.
Choosing a payment processor
Your selection of the integration method is very important to offer better user experience and it decides your future success in the eCommerce space. But, there are other factors as well that are no less important. Make sure that the payment processor you choose meets all your business needs and completely fits into your business model.
Make sure your payment processor is able to upgrade their technology and services to match your needs when you grow. Make sure they offer the functionalities you require at present and might require in future.
When you come to PayTabs, we sincerely listen to your needs and answer your queries. We have imbibed a culture of striving to meet your business requirements. We are also determined to resolve the issues you face during your journey to become a successful eCommerce entrepreneur.
Get in touch with PayTabs today and talk to a consultant to discuss your business needs and how to achieve higher conversion.
