BluePay Blog

There are three essential components you need to bring together to accept credit cards:  A merchant account. This is essentially a bank account that allows you to accept incoming credit card payments.  A payment processor. This is the entity that authorizes credit card transactions by connecting your bank with the customer’s card-issuing bank.  A payment gateway. This is the tool that captures credit card data before sending it to your processor. Think of it as an “online” credit card terminal. 

Topics: E-Commerce and Online Payments, Payment Technology, Small Business Tips, Enterprise Business Tips, Getting Started with Payments, Merchant Accounts

Still months away, this is the time of year that many retailers are already deep into their holiday marketing plans. This includes having a content calendar ready to go, as well as a detailed strategy for how each channel will be addressed. And, while that structure provides a great framework for covering all marketing bases, it may not provide a way to truly stand out if you are implementing the same tactics and approach as the competition. 

Topics: Due.com Partner Posts, Fun Posts, Small Business Tips

The attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 had a huge impact on the American economy. The most obvious changes affected the roughly 18,000 small businesses that were displaced or destroyed in Lower Manhattan.  Nearly 20 years later, the effects of 9/11 persist, and they’ve forever changed how companies operate in the new millennium.  Below are five of the biggest changes businesses have made in the post-9/11 economy.

Topics: PCI Compliance and Fraud Prevention, Fun Posts

As payment technologies expand, so does fraud. Now, payment fraud knows no geographical boundaries. In fact, some countries offer a glimpse into new types of fraud that is sure to impact other countries. For example, the UK has noticed an increase in what is called authorized push payment fraud. New statistics from UK Finance found 19,000 victims of authorized push payment scams that totaled more than £100 million ($130 million) just in the first six months of 2017.

Topics: Due.com Partner Posts, PCI Compliance and Fraud Prevention

If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know that independent software vendors (ISVs) are increasingly expected to provide their end-users with seamless payment functionality.  This isn’t an industry requirement, per se.  But if the applications you design don’t come with payment processing capabilities, then perspective customers will simply find an ISV that can provide these things.

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, Payment Technology, PCI Compliance and Fraud Prevention, ISV/VAR

Labor Day is officially celebrated on the first Monday of September. For most Americans, this annual event is just another bank holiday. There’s not a whole lot of fanfare involved.  For students, Labor Day means that school is around the corner — or a day off. For most everyone else, it simply marks the “unofficial” end of the summer — complete with barbecues, picnics and pool parties. 

Topics: Fun Posts, Small Business Tips

Since the year is nearly two-thirds in the books, you might think it’s too late to make changes that will positively impact 2018 results. However, it's never too late to adopt a best practice, tweak a process, or add a new strategy that delivers some type of result. Here are seven changes for your small business that can help achieve improvements in customer engagement, payment security, and profitability:

Topics: Due.com Partner Posts, Small Business Tips

Open source contamination is the bane of many independent software vendors (ISVs). If even a tiny snippet of open source code makes it into your build, the entire application might legally be reclassified as “open source.”  To avoid this, developers must invest a lot of time creating bespoke code entirely from scratch. As an ISV, there’s another type of “contamination” of which you need to be aware — one that has to do with payment security. Or more specifically, PCI compliance. 

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, Payment Technology, PCI Compliance and Fraud Prevention, ISV/VAR

Women’s Equality Day (August 26) is a yearly event commemorating the 1920 passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in the United States.  The amendment was first introduced in 1878, but it took nearly 30 years to become ratified. The country waited another 50 years before Congress officially designated August 26 as Women’s Equality Day. 

Topics: Fun Posts

As a business owner, you already know how hard it is to stay abreast of constant changes such as:  New tax laws. Evolving payment technology. Industry trends.  Plus, your company likely releases its own products, services and features on a regular basis. Against this backdrop, who has time to blog?  There are very compelling reasons why you should launch and maintain a blog with regularly updated content.  We’ll start with an obvious one. 

Topics: Small Business Tips, Enterprise Business Tips