BluePay Blog

Digital transformation is happening all around us as our lives become more dependent on internet technology. Yet, whereas much of this transition is driven by consumer desire for ease, speed, and convenience, businesses are sometimes reluctant to make the requisite investments to meet this growing demand for digitization. Doing so is often seen as prohibitively expensive.

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, Mobile Payments, E-Commerce and Online Payments, Payment Technology, Payment Trends

As a budding entrepreneur, you may be tempted to splurge on fancy offices, cool gadgets, and glossy business cards — since these investments can help make your newly formed company seem more legitimate. Yet, covering expenses like these is one of the primary reasons why so many businesses fail in their first few years. They have more money going out than coming in, and it’s just a matter of time before these startups have to close their doors.

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, Small Business Tips

When you launch a store or restaurant, managing inventory is relatively straightforward. As items come and go, you can track everything using nothing more than a simple spreadsheet.  Yet, this inventory management system isn’t sustainable for long:  It’s incredibly time-consuming to track inventory and update records by hand.  You have to “eyeball” when stock is getting low — this can be hit or miss.

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, Small Business Tips

In recent years, we've heard about the shared economy and the on-demand economy. Now, there's the API economy. With each economy that emerges, it's important to know what it involves and how you can become a part of it to leverage any relevant benefits for your business. Although this meaning of economy is slightly different, it's important to know what it involves because today's businesses do need to consider leveraging APIs to service unique customer needs and expectations.

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, B2B, Due.com Partner Posts, Payment Technology, ISV/VAR

Weaving payment tools into the applications you build was once seen as a major cost for independent software vendors (ISVs):  You have to invest more development time to integrate payments. Your clients become more exposed to security risk (i.e., fraud). You have to worry about payment-related patches and updates.  While these costs haven’t disappeared, the ability to provide a frictionless payment experience allows you to reach a much larger audience. End-users want turn-key solutions, not patchworks of third-party add-ons. 

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, E-Commerce and Online Payments, Consideration, ISV/VAR

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

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

As an independent software vendor (ISV), you already know that end users expect turn-key solutions that work out of the box. The more tightly you can integrate payments with the solutions you provide, the fewer headaches your clients will face. That’s because there won’t be as many interoperability issues or moving parts for them to handle.  Meeting your end users’ expectations will require extra effort and development time. That’s no small feat — especially if you have limited resources. 

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, Payment Technology, ISV/VAR

In previous posts, we’ve covered a number of lesser-known business “holidays,” including:  National Fun at Work Day (celebrated on January 26)  National Splurge Day (celebrated every June 18)  International Giving Day (the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving)  Now, we have a new one to add to the list — National Get to Know Your Customers Day.

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, Small Business Tips

In 2017, Airbnb recorded an estimated 100 million “guest arrivals.” Not too shabby for a company that’s only 10 years old. Airbnb’s success is bad news for the larger hospitality industry. The aforementioned number represents 100 million potential travelers who could’ve — but didn’t — stay with conventional hotels and motels.  Admittedly, not everyone who stays at an Airbnb home is in the market for traditional lodging. Like Couchsurfing.com, the platform largely caters to budget travelers who go abroad only because affordable accommodations exist in their destination cities. This explains why for every 10 percent increase in Airbnb guests, there’s only a 0.35 percent decrease in hotel revenues.

Topics: Software and Payment Integration, ISV/VAR