BluePay Blog

Accepting gift cards for your small business is a simple, effective way to improve sales. Gift cards are easy, convenient options that take the guesswork out of gift giving and allow the recipients to purchase the item or receive the service they desire. There are many benefits of accepting gift cards. Here are just a few:

Topics: Payment Technology, Small Business Tips, Getting Started with Payments

While you may love Amazon as a consumer, you may feel differently as an eCommerce business owner or online retail startup. That’s because this retailer behemoth seems to dominate as the online retailer of choice. Although it offers “space” for retailers to sell on their site, most companies would prefer to be in control of their online business and create a separate loyal following.

Topics: Due.com Partner Posts, E-Commerce and Online Payments, Small Business Tips

They say that youth is wasted on the young. Nearly all of us wish we could go back in time to shake some commonsense into our younger selves. This universal desire applies to everything from love to health to business. It even applies to retail. Just think of everything you wish you could have told yourself before opening your first store.

Topics: Small Business Tips, Getting Started with Payments

For decades, consumers around the globe relied on “legacy” credit and debit cards when shopping in-person at retail stores. These simple pieces of plastic came with account numbers on the front and a magnetic stripe on the back that allowed users to physically swipe their cards at the checkout counter. The problem was, these magstripe credit cards were relatively easy to clone — even from a distance. This security flaw allowed criminals to steal a user’s payment data and rack up fraudulent charges.

Topics: E-Commerce and Online Payments, Payment Technology, PCI Compliance and Fraud Prevention, Small Business Tips, Payment Trends

Most people are polite, but even the best of us become flustered or downright angry when we encounter bad service or defective products. We’ve all been that customer who calls support or goes to the store in person to “unload.” What about when you’re on the receiving end of these tirades? If you go into business, such exchanges are inevitable. Whether it’s over the phone, via chat or face to face, you need to be prepared in how to deal with unpleasant customers.

Topics: Small Business Tips

ABC’s Shark Tank is an award-winning show in which budding entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas to industry experts who have plenty of money to spend.     The goal of the show is to elicit funding from these angel investors so contestants can take their business ideas to the next level. The competition is stiff, with nearly half of all contestants going home empty-handed as they join millions of other businesses that never survive their first year.

Topics: Fun Posts, Small Business Tips

Social media is everywhere. And we use platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to literally run our lives, whether it’s to: Connect with friends Plan upcoming events Find jobs (as a candidate) Find customers (as a business) It only makes sense that these platforms would add payment functionality. In fact, Facebook already makes it possible to host fundraisers for parties and charity drives. And it recently introduced the world’s first social media cryptocurrency — Libra.

Topics: E-Commerce and Online Payments, Small Business Tips, Payment Trends, Consumer Education

With customers heading out to enjoy summer getaways, the kids home from school, and very few holidays or reasons to spark a shopping trip, many retailers start experiencing sales slowdowns during this part of the year. However, the sizzle in those revenue numbers doesn’t have to fizzle if you focus on smart, season-specific retail sales strategies like these:

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

According to Harvard Business Review, “acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.” Furthermore, older customers spend up to 31% more per purchase than do newer ones. So, if you want to grow your business, investing in customer retention is clearly a winning strategy. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is to launch a loyalty program.

Topics: Small Business Tips

The basic concept behind brick-and-mortar retail is almost as old as commerce itself, with buyers and sellers historically meeting in centralized marketplaces to conduct business. The advent of mail ordering (in the 19th century) and phone-based ordering (in the 20th century) altered this dynamic, allowing merchants to sell goods without meeting customers in person. Still, the vast majority of exchanges happened face to face.

Topics: Mobile Payments, E-Commerce and Online Payments, Payment Technology, Small Business Tips