January 1 is fast approaching—the day when you’ll wake up with the overpowering urge to start (something, anything!) fresh. (Personally, I plan on being more adventurous next year—it covers a lot of bases, thus reducing my chances of resolution failure for the third year in a row.)
I know the whole “New year, new me!” thing is popular, but your business deserves a chance to make a positive change in 2018 too. Payment processing is one area that tends to fly under the radar, but did you know that a great payment processor can actually boost your sales? So if you haven’t evaluated your payment gateway’s performance lately, now’s a good time. Soon you’ll be well on your way to a better bottom line in 2018.
Below are some of the ways BlueSnap can help you accept payments better in the new year, paired with some of the most popular new year’s resolutions. If anything here grabs your attention, just holler—we’ll hook you up! (But those weight loss strategies… I’m pretty sure you’ve got that.)
3 Better Ways To Accept Payments In 2018
1. Connect to a payment gateway that accepts payments in multiple ways.
If your gateway lets you accept payments online only, you’re missing out! You should be able to sell in a variety of ways to make the most of your business. (And if you’re using multiple gateways to get additional support, you’re overspending.) You should be able to get everything you need from one gateway connection, like BlueSnap. With us, your business can accept payments through:
- Online/mobile checkout—Build your own checkout experience with the Payment API or embed our pre-built Hosted Checkout into your website. You can also connect your existing eCommerce platform (we have hundreds of integrations!) to our payment processing engine with a Shopping Cart.
- Subscriptions—Our award-winning subscription billing engine lets you configure and manage different plans and tiers. It also automatically updates your shopper’s subscription payment information and has automated retries to maximize customer conversion.
- Marketplaces—Does your business require you to manage multiple vendors? Our payment gateway gives you everything you need to manage vendors on your terms, including the ability to easily define and change commission splits and onboard new vendors with minimal red tape.
- Invoicing—Take payments over the phone or add simple payment links to invoices, price quotes, and emails. No website required!
- Manual orders through virtual terminal—Easily process orders over the phone or via a secure payment link.
*A 2018 resolution for you: Spend less and save more! In case you missed the boat on this popular resolution in 2017, there’s always next year. Get a jump start this December with these psychological tricks for saving around the holidays.
Wouldn’t you love to know what (if anything) is causing friction in your payment process? You can find out with our free checkout conversion calculator.
2. Connect to a payment gateway that has all the built-in products you’ll ever need—seriously!
The payment gateway you choose the first time should have everything you need for the life of your business. That means thinking beyond the basics to give your business room to grow.
With BlueSnap, you’ll benefit from a host of advanced payment processing tools and have the flexibility to add (or subtract) features whenever you want. Our platform includes:
- Powerful fraud-fighting technology. Failure to stop fraudulent transactions leads to higher chargebacks in addition to lost merchandise, so we take it very seriously. We partner with Kount, a leading fraud expert, to give you the highest level of protection possible. And since not every business needs exactly the same type of protection, you have the option to customize your fraud rules so they work for you.
- Superior global payment processing. Lots of payment gateways say they offer global payment processing, but they lack the infrastructure to do it right. Instead of partnering with just one acquiring bank (like most gateways), BlueSnap has a global network of 20+ banks at the ready, and we’ll send every transaction to the bank most likely to approve it—a system that can boost sales by as much as 17%! Plus, we support 100 local currencies around the world and checkout in 29 languages.
- Support for 110 payment types, including all the popular eWallets. Some gateways put a limit on the payment types you can accept—not BlueSnap. Your customers will always find their preferred payment method with the options we have available. That includes all the most-used eWallets, like Apple Pay, Visa Checkout, Masterpass, and PayPal.
*Thirty-three percent of people resolve to lose weight as a new year’s resolution; even if that’s not you this year—yay!—maybe your business could stand to lose some weight in the form of those extra gateways, hmmm? If that is you, check out this good advice on how to make that particular resolution stick in 2018.
3. If you’re a software company that caters to businesses, up your game and offer top-notch payment capabilities as part of your package.
Salesforce, Zuora, Limelight… they’re all B2B software companies that have payment capabilities built into their platforms. If the idea behind your product is to help customers run their businesses and to support growth, then the addition of a payment gateway is a natural fit. It’s efficient—because payments are streamlined into the normal flow of business—and enables faster payment—because customers can place orders immediately, rather than being redirected elsewhere.
Partnering with the right payment gateway will strengthen your software offering. With BlueSnap you get everything mentioned above, and more—check us out!
*One of the most popular top 10 resolutions is to spend more time with family and friends. But a little stepping out from your usual crowd is a good goal, too. (Kinda like your software intermingling with new partners.) A weak social circle is bad for your health, which is bad for your life expectancy, which is bad for… well, you get the point. To avoid all that, you might want to add a few of these friend-making strategies to your 2018 to-do list.
Have questions about the BlueSnap All-in-One Payment Platform and how it can work for your business? Get in touch! We’d like to help you make 2018 your best year yet!