Global Payment Requirements for International Merchants

At MerchantPlus, we have been helping US-based merchants accept global payments for some times.  Every case is unique, but we see a particular pattern on a regular basis: US-based startup targets the largest and easiest market first (The United States).  With limited time, resources and experience, they punt on the global market unless it bangs on their door (speak English and pays in dollars with a standard credit card).  Then, if things go really well,

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It’s all about the People (in Payments)

I’ve been in the merchant acquiring and payment industry for over 10 years now, having started MerchatPlus as a simple way to process online payments back in 2003.  In some ways, the industry is completely different then it was a decade ago – no longer is it strange for a business to only process credit cards online (believe me, it used to be!), online applications are the norm versus triplicate copies of yellow, white and

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Introducing the MerchantPlus Payment Galaxy

At MerchantPlus, we work hard to keep abreast of the payment landscape, offering bootcamps on popular payment subjects and educating our customers on best practices from our 100% NYC-based support team. However, we have found that a major issue in understanding the ‘inner workings’ of the payment space is simply around knowing the terms, lingo and roles of the various players.  To that end, we’ve created a section of our website called the MerchantPlus Payment

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New NaviGate Modules for Magento, CS Cart and More

Our dev team has been working on creating native modules for the most popular shopping carts and billing systems for our NaviGate Gateway.  The goal is to make it even easier for merchants to accept payments with the MerchantPlus Advanced Account. However, we’ve got a secondary motivation for all of this work.  Soon, we’ll be releasing some exciting new features for NaviGate and we want to make sure that customers can leverage these advanced new

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Interested in a Mobile Payments Processing Solution? Now accepting Beta testers for our Windows , iPhone and Android Payments App!

We are currently in the final stages of launching our awesome payments app and before we do that we’d like the public to test it out. The app itself is sleek and simple making the process of accepting payments seamless. We will set you up with a test account that will give you access to process payments via an app you would download on your device. We encourage any feedback you may have to better

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Payment Strategies for High Growth Businesses – When are ‘flat fee’ plans a rip-off?

Stripe, Braintree, Intuit and others have massively popularized the idea of the flat fee payment processing account — no monthly fees and a per transaction cost that is simple and easy to understand.  In fact, MerchantPlus also recently introduced such a plan (called the “Starter Plan”) that offers a very common and competitive per transaction cost of 2.9% per sale.  These plans have become the most popular options for startups, developers and small online businesses

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Coming Soon – Our New and Improved Windows 8 Mobile Payments App!

Mobile processing has always been a convenient way for our customers to be able to take payments anytime and anyplace.  Before smartphones, merchants would need to lug around specialized and expensive wireless payment terminals – but that has been greatly simplified with today’s smartphones. With the mobile ecosystems moving as fast as they are – MerchantPlus unfortunately had to pull our beloved Windows Phone 7 payment app from the Windows Tore several months ago.    Honestly,

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The Importance of Interchange for Global eCommerce and SaaS Businesses

For most merchants, Interchange Fees represent the largest portion of their costs for accepting electronic payments from their customers.  With nearly all eCommerce and card-not-present or recurring transactions paid via a major credit card, the reimbursement fees that are paid to card issuers add up to be a big cost.  This can be exacerbated if merchants process international cards often, accept a lot of business-to-business payments or don’t submit all the necessary information along with

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Names and Nomenclatures in the Payment Ecosystem

Recently, MerchantPlus launched a consulting division called ROIPayments (www.roipayments.com) that focuses on developing payment strategies for growing, global businesses.  As part of our mission to improve the “Payments IQ” of the startups, enterprises and individuals working in, with or around electronic payments, we created a bootcamp series of webinars.  These webinars seek to provide context on the complicated payment ecosystem, as well as trends, breakthroughs and issues currently facing merchants. In our first webinar, available

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Crack Open This Geode – and Find Your Credit Cards are Stored Inside!

If you’re an iPhone user, you’ve no doubt explored a zillion cases and additions to your beloved device.  From custom-carved wooden backs to hot pink protectors, the iPhone is one of the more augmented and personalized devices around. While I love a good wooden iPhone backing, the case I read about today is potentially far more influential (and worth even more money!). iCache Geode is an elegant solution to the problem of mobile payments –

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