One of the reasons hackers breach direct marketing merchant sites is that’s where the card numbers are stored. Cardholder data is kept for a variety of reasons including: 1) providing customer service, 2) processing re-occurring transactions and 3) responding to chargebacks (representments). Fortunately, Visa recently clarified its Rules and advised merchants that they no longer need the entire 16-digit card number to cure a chargeback. Instead, merchants may use other clarifying information in addition to a truncated card number, in responding.
Visa has also mandated that issuers accept these truncated numbers. This is welcomed news for merchants and unless card numbers are absolutely needed, they simply should not be stored—helping to lessen the burden of PCI compliance. PCI compliance requires card numbers to be encrypted (if they are stored).
This does not eliminate an e-tailer’s responsibility to comply with PCI, as they are still processing card data; it merely makes the job easier. Further, direct marketers how are processing re-occurring transactions should consider utilizing a gateway that stores the data for them in an encrypted fashion.
Many gateways have re-occurring payment modules, which allow you to input the card data and to bill that same card on a regular basis, yet encrypts and stores that data in a PCI-compliant format. Since most e-tailers utilize a payment gateway, it behooves you to inquire if your gateway can perform this service for you. Doing so further allows you to concentrate on selling and eliminates enormous enterprise risk. Risk that could lead to substantial fines, the loss of your merchant account and a listing of your data on the MATCH file; further curtailing your ability to process transactions.
Think about the reasons you are storing card data. Do you really need to?
Ken Musanteis president of Direct Response Payments in Eureka, Calif. Contact Musante at (877) 476-0570 or at kenm@eurekapayments.com.
Electronic Retailer’sJanuary 2010 issue featuring Jeff Taylor (founder of Monster.com and CEO of Eons.com) is now available online. For more information on Jeff’s upcoming keynote address at the ERA Great Ideas Summit, click here.
It has been an exciting week in the world of net neutrality. This week, Julius Genachowski, the Chairman of the FCC, announced the Commission’s intention to enter into a formal rulemaking process to codify the four principles of net neutrality currently in use and to add two more principles. The additional principles include a statement that consumers must be able to access the lawful content of their choice, subject to reasonable network management. Essentially, ISPs cannot block traffic to say, NBC Video, just because they have a partnership with Hulu. However, they still may prioritize all video content over all file sharing in order to manage the use of the network. In addition, networks must be transparent about what they are doing to manage traffic. This would give small business and direct response marketers more information about how consumers are experiencing online offerings like video advertising. Specifically, if you are providing an application for wireless devices or making videos available on sites like YouTube, you will know if some of the network providers are slowing certain services during peak hours. You will then be able to adjust your content delivery accordingly.
Electronic Retailer’sSeptember ‘09 issue featuring Montel Williams is now available online! For more information about Motel’s upcoming keynote presentation at the ERA D2C Convention on Monday, Sept. 14, click here.
In this world where “flat is the new up,” it is critical to make each visit of every shopper count. With fewer shoppers coming to your site, you have to be instantly engaging, catering to your shopper, making your site a destination. And, you have to get your shoppers to put as much as possible into their cart and then actually check out.
The question is - how can you take the flat or even decreased traffic and turn it into profit? Here are eight tips to help you entice your shoppers to buy more.
1. Shipping Offers - Lets start with getting people to your site. Shipping is something that shoppers are always concerned with. Free shipping, if you can afford it, always moves people to buy more. If your model does not support free, shoppers are also happy with flat fee shipping or even shipping with a minimum purchase (they will buy just one more product to qualify).
2. Incentives and Bundles - So, you got them to your site with a shipping offer, next, motivate them to buy more with incentives. Who doesn’t like getting a gift with a purchase or a special bundle of products for an extra discount? The shopper feels like they’re getting a bargain while you get to move more products.
3. Rebates - If you can’t offer discounts, another tactic to entice shoppers is to offer rebates. People get wide-eyed about rebates and will buy more to get them. Even if they do not actually redeem the rebate, they will be more loyal to your site for the service.
4. Personalized Product Recommendations - Next, lets turn to the customer experience. Today’s savvy shopper expects merchants to know them. Serving personalized product recommendations helps customers find what they’re looking for (and sometimes things they did not even know they wanted). The product detail page is the most logical location, but place recommendations throughout your site and most importantly in the shopping cart - it is a good place to put those impulse purchases - just like candy at the store check out.
5. Video - Another way to enhance the customer experience is to tantalize and engage your shopper with video. This medium can be used to demonstrate how a product works, show how apparel fits, or even do a virtual wine tasting. Video can answer questions shoppers have so that they buy even more than expected.
6. Ratings and Reviews - Lets face it, shoppers are social creatures, and love to talk and get advice from one another. Rating and reviews helps people get feedback from each other. Some shoppers can’t resist the temptation; they have to buy top rated items and will fill their cart.
7. Customer Service - Speaking of people talking , another thing that really helps is something just so simple - offer stellar customer service, and you will not believe how far that will get you. People talk and when they have a great experience, they will tell everyone they know. I do all the time!
8. Alternative Payment Methods - Okay, you have used tips 1-7 on your site and the shopper has stuffed their cart - this is when you are at risk for the dreaded cart abandonment. There are many things you should do to motivate your shoppers to click submit, maybe that is for a dedicated article. Suffice it to say, make it easy to check out. Alternative payment methods make it easier for anyone to check out - so make sure you offer them.
The bottom line is that you need to employ many different tactics to boost your average order value; it is the only way to take flat traffic and turn it up!
Lisa Joy Rosner is MyBuys‘ vice president of marketing.
Before booking your travel to Las Vegas or San Diego, you may first want to get a few tips from “Saturday Night Live” travel expert Judy Grimes.
Did you miss out on the recent networking receptions in NYC and L.A.? Click here to view pictures from various events at Electronic Retailer’s Buzz page!
Late last week Representatives Markey (D-MA) and Eshoo (D-CA) introduced a bill that would keep the Internet open by preventing Internet service providers (ISPs) from imposing “a charge on any Internet content, service, or application provider to enable any lawful Internet content, application, or service to be offered, provided, or used. In other words, they cannot charge you (as a content provider) more than the cost of service for your lawful content and any lawful applications you make available.
The bill also prevents ISPs from providing or selling any content, application, or service provider any offering that prioritizes traffic over that of other such providers. This addresses concerns that ISPs will sell premium access to some companies, which would have the end result of degrading everyone’s content. This is important to any company that is using video online, but is not interested in paying more than they currently do to ensure the quality of the video is not reduced. It’s not easy to be moved by advertising when the video is pixilated or freezes every three seconds.
Similar bills were introduced in the last two Congresses. However, the larger Democratic majority and President Obama’s stated priority of keeping the Internet open may mean there will be some movement on this bill. However, the House will be in a District Work Period (aka recess) until after Labor Day.
In the meantime, you can watch this video.
For more information on ERA’s government affairs efforts, click here.
Don’t take the initial setup phase for granted - Clients sometimes rush or don’t put enough effort into the initial setup phase of the fulfillment engagement. This can lead to miscommunications and mistakes that have long-term ramifications. It’s especially important to communicate who all of your vendors are, and make sure all offers and file exchanges are thoroughly tested.
Understand how the decline cycle works - Companies who are outsourcing their payment processing and fulfillment need to have a clear understanding of how the decline cycle works. New clients who don’t understand the difference between soft and hard declines, or that multiple charge attempts are being made always surprise me.
Make sure your refund policies are clear and reasonable - I see many situations where clients try to save money by imposing strict or unclear refund policies. These can lead to increased chargebacks and customer service calls, as well as BBB and FTC complaints.
Consult with your fulfillment company regularly regarding packaging - Packaging is very important when it comes to freight costs. Your fulfillment company can help you come up with the best packaging to keep your freight costs down. Remember, once a package is above one pound, an extra ounce can push you to the next weight tier.
Work with customer service to plan for call spikes and backorder situations - Avoid backed up call queues and long hold times by proactively planning for call spikes and backorder situations. Fulfillment centers don’t have infinite numbers of customer service agents, so you need to work with them in advance to make sure that staff is properly allocated. In backorder situations, sometimes it is better to outbound clients or send them e-mails to let them know what is going on and thereby reduce inbound customer service calls.
Be prepared for dry spells and unanticipated storage costs - Many DRTV marketers think they will never have a dry spell and are often caught flat footed when retail orders dry up or campaigns slow down. If they have over-ordered inventory, they can end up with higher than expected storage costs, which can definitely impact their bottom line. My advice is to develop a contingency plan and build adequate cushion into your budget for storage.
When it comes to the hard declines that almost every retailing campaign is going to endure, a forecast of bad debt is always established prior to launch to gain an idea of what the potential profitability will be. For the receivables themselves however, would a competent forecast in order to derive the ultimate work strategy towards recovery be as useful? The answer: Absolutely.
Measuring factors such as demographics, geographies, socio-economics and applying other predictive probability metrics is going to allow the proper strategy for both the lettering and calling to be as effective and impactful as possible. More importantly, if you can say that ten times fast you can surely follow the rest of the formula!
As an example: If I were to take a group of debtors that owe an average balance of $150 each and break down their respective state residence and compare that to historical data on the same type of balance within the same geographic location, I now have a better understanding of who will probably pay what over what time frame. If I further my analysis and add other probabilities such as median income and median debt to income ratio within that geography I can now begin to create a tier-level effect and a resulting rank ordering of a portfolio of debtors. Working that ranking allows more recovery, faster and smarter.
Where this all sounds potentially overwhelming and even almost unnecessary to the untrained eye, I assure you it is a very effective approach towards maximizing recovery of the receivables.Â
A $150 bill may not sound like much, but multiply that by several thousand debtors who have hard declined your campaign and I would imagine a very mathematical, almost scientific approach, towards hundreds of thousands of dollars owed becomes much appreciated. It can make the difference between a 10 percent return and a 20 percent return.
My question always is, if we take so much time to test, analyze and measure the campaign prior to making the bulk of our advertising, manufacturing and operational investment, why don’t we approach the money owed with the same cautious and calculated approach?Â
Come to think of it, this is America. We see the caloric value of the cheeseburger is 1270 but we order and eat it anyway! I say we change our thinking just a little bit; maybe we can shed some pounds and recover more money all at the same time?
When choosing an agency to partner with for the recovery of your receivables, make sure to inquire about the quantitative decision making tools they use or don’t use for their work strategy.
Louis DiGioia is a leading expert and analyst for the recovery of consumer receivables. He can be reached at ldigioia@retrievalmasters.com or 914-592-0055.Â
I just returned from New Zealand—a land known for its geographic isolation—where I met with one of the nation’s premier web development firms. While the work done in New Zealand is on par with the best in the world, the price based upon current currency disparity makes it anywhere from 35- to 40-percent less expensive. Savvy e-marketers should look beyond the proximity of any opportunity when making any cost-benefit decisions. Prior to my voyage I attended the sixth annual E-Commerce Best Practices Conference.
As usual, this year’s program addressed a wide array of current issues facing the e-commerce industry, an industry that has shattered any remaining business barriers caused by geographic isolation. They covered user-generated content, and the monetization of both that and other social media. On the legal front, we learned about the issues surrounding minors’ online activities, e-commerce patents, content aggregation and trespass issues, new threats to cybersecurity, as well as cutting-edge litigation strategies for online businesses. E-commerce companies were advised about affiliate marketing over the Internet, doing business in China. We were educated about best practices for U.S. Internet companies establishing online stores in other jurisdictions.
My general impressions were that the world we are living in is indeed flat. E-tailers are no longer constrained by geographic locations. Rather, a reasoned analysis could open a plethora of money-making opportunities based upon a number of factors.
But for me, perhaps the most exciting part of the conference was the panel titled “Best Practices for Drafting Terms of Use.â€Â Not because I have any particular love of or interest in the finer points of contract law and negotiation (I let our lawyers handle that), but because the law firm tasked with moderating this particular panel, DLA Piper, recently did some work for my company, E-Commerce Island and the related UVI Research & Technology Park (RTPark). It was work which could also directly and significantly benefit profitable electronic retailers, such as those who are providing newsletters, SaaS, online games, ringtones and/or music subscription, digital photo hosting and licensing, online education, ad serving for online marketing, online dating, video streaming, customer support and other online products and services.
DLA attorneys analyzed existing federal tax code for guidance relevant to the types of businesses the RTPark is ideally set up to serve and attract (given one of the largest concentrations of global bandwidth and an historical role as a crossroads of commerce). Several business models with standing income sourcing guidance were found, and they approached the Treasury in May and June of 2006 seeking its affirmation that the RTPark interpretation of federal law was correct. The Treasury responded favorably with temporary regulations in September 2006. Then, in April 2008, the Treasury’s permanent regulations were issued. Because USVI is a territory of the U.S, additional benefits of USVI-based e-commerce efforts include FDIC insurance as well as jurisdiction and IP protection under U.S. federal law.
So what does this mean for electronic retailers offering the above-mentioned kinds of online products? Up to 90-percent federal tax savings for income sourced in the (near-shore) USVI. These impressive benefits are all the more valuable given the administration’s recently toughening stance on off-shore corporate tax savings.
As is often the case, identical companies can significantly increase their value simply by the locations they choose to source portions of their activities from.
Steve Rohrlickis the master marketing agent for ECommerce Island, otherwise known as St. Croix, the largest island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where superior infrastructure and tax benefits under the U.S. flag offer an ideal new home for eCommerce businesses.
One of the reasons hackers breach direct marketing merchant sites is that’s where the card numbers are stored. Cardholder data is kept for a variety of reasons including: 1) providing customer service, 2) processing re-occurring transactions and 3) responding to chargebacks (representments). Fortunately, Visa recently clarified its Rules and advised merchants that they no longer need the entire 16-digit card number to cure a chargeback. Instead, merchants may use other clarifying information in addition to a truncated card number, in responding.
Electronic Retailer’s 
It has been an exciting week in the world of net neutrality. This week, Julius Genachowski, the Chairman of the FCC, announced the Commission’s intention to enter into a formal rulemaking process to 
Click here
In this world where “flat is the new up,” it is critical to make each visit of every shopper count. With fewer shoppers coming to your site, you have to be instantly engaging, catering to your shopper, making your site a destination. And, you have to get your shoppers to put as much as possible into their cart and then actually check out.
In addition to its upcoming 
Late last week Representatives Markey (D-MA) and Eshoo (D-CA) introduced a bill that would keep the Internet open by preventing 
Don’t take the initial setup phase for granted - Clients sometimes rush or don’t put enough effort into the initial setup phase of the fulfillment engagement. This can lead to miscommunications and mistakes that have long-term ramifications. It’s especially important to communicate who all of your vendors are, and make sure all offers and file exchanges are thoroughly tested.
When it comes to the hard declines that almost every retailing campaign is going to endure, a forecast of bad debt is always established prior to launch to gain an idea of what the potential profitability will be. For the receivables themselves however, would a competent forecast in order to derive the ultimate work strategy towards recovery be as useful? The answer: Absolutely.
I just returned from New Zealand—a land known for its geographic isolation—where I met with one of the nation’s premier web development firms. While the work done in New Zealand is on par with the best in the world, the price based upon current currency disparity makes it anywhere from 35- to 40-percent less expensive. Savvy e-marketers should look beyond the proximity of any opportunity when making any cost-benefit decisions. Prior to my voyage I attended the sixth annual E-Commerce Best Practices Conference.
