I’m just getting started with my small business. What are some of the basics I should know when it comes to offering customers secure payments?
ROD HSU | Chief experience officer, nTrust
When launching a new business, there are three fundamental steps to establishing a secure payment system. Firstly, you must know your audience in order to determine their preferred payment method. Consider the demographics of your customers – are they young, tech savvy, always on the go? If this is your customer, a mobile payment system is a viable option for your business.
The second item is to do your research. Survey the different payment options available and compare fees, security measures and other factors. As a small business starting out, you’ll have to determine how the fees will affect your bottom line, what costs you’ll need to absorb, and what costs you’ll have to pass on to your customers, which may alter the pricing of your product or service.
It’s important to have a payment system that ensures your customers feel secure when dealing with your business. Today, some mobile platforms are actually more regulated than banks, so this is a safe option with which consumers are becoming increasingly more comfortable. At nTrust we’ve made it our mandate to use the highest payment security possible. Our platform meets or exceeds the toughest global banking standards, including 256-bit encryption, rigorous audits, a Level One PCI-DSS rating and regulation by FINTRAC. Regulations like these are essential to establishing trust between your business and your customers.
Finally, as a small business it is crucial to keep a pulse on the industry and stay on top of trends that are influencing your customers. With the popularity of dongle technology being used for mobile payments and the new announcement of Apple Pay, there is currently a shift happening in the payments space towards digital platforms. The next iteration of currency exchange will be mobile payments, so it would benefit any startup business to capitalize on this trend and consider digital options.
EARL REYES | Digital experience manager, Coast Capital Savings
For many years, e-commerce has been limited to using credit cards as a means to receive payments. However, in a world where technology advances at warp speed and consumers are never without choice, that one-size-fits-all payment method is fast becoming archaic.
Here are the top three pearls of wisdom for small business owners exploring their secure payment options.
1) Don’t store data: If you aren’t in the business of electronic information security, don’t risk having your customers’ information breached by keeping it around. Although some customers may find this frustrating when placing repeat orders, the only way to ensure that your customers’ information is safe is by not storing it on your system or device. You don’t want your customers and your business to become victims of a security breech. The fallout can be a nightmare for all.
2) Don’t skimp on payment security: As a small business owner, you most likely don’t have a multi-million-dollar budget for building and maintaining a secure payment platform. Use a payment provider like PayPal, whose business is keeping client payment information safe. Their budget for security is higher than anything a small business can afford.
3) Offer multiple secure payment options: Not only will you open yourself up to a larger potential customer base, you’re allowing your customers to make a call on what method they are comfortable with. Consider leveraging the trusted relationship that customers have with their financial institution by offering Interac e-Transfer and Interac Online or as a payment option. They don’t have to disclose any banking information and the funds are deposited directly into your account.
At the end of the day, choice is king. Don’t limit yourself to just one method of secure payment. Research established secure options and keep your ear to the ground about innovation in the payment space so that you can adopt new approaches early and get ahead of the competition.
RACHEL JOLICOEUR | Fraud programs manager, Interac Association
As a merchant, you should explore the differences between payment products, such as the cost of processing payments and the level of security built into the technology. For example, the cost of debit transactions on the Interac network is a flat rate, typically pennies per transaction. The Interac network is among the most secure in the world and offers merchants low-cost, real-time payments with no chargebacks.
As a manager in the Fraud Programs department at Interac Association, I see how criminal activity is changing in the payment landscape. Criminals are increasingly shifting their focus to international exploitation in non-chip environments and card-not-present (i.e. Internet and telephone) exploitation on credit cards and other networks’ debit products. Rules offer Interac cardholders the added protections of not allowing card-not-present offline and signature transactions, and the number on the front of a bank card is an identifier only, not an account number.
One of the ways you can protect your customers is by choosing payment options that don’t require you to store your customer’s personal financial information. The same rules apply for online payments. For example, Interac Online leverages web-banking so customers’ personal financial information is never shared with a merchant. This also protects merchants from losses resulting from payment card data security breaches, such as those recently reported in the media.
Chip technology is another key part of fraud prevention strategy. There are a number of technologies already built into your customer’s Interac debit card to help protect them from fraud. If a customer ever experiences fraud, they are fully reimbursed by their financial institution.
Finally, merchants can also play a role in keeping the payment landscape safe by conducting routine inspections of their point-of-sale terminal and physically securing their payment devices as to deter criminals.
Next week’s question: How do I know a merger or acquisition is right for my company?
