Not everyone is always thrilled with their Christmas gifts, and now that we can shop for anything we want with relative ease and next to no effort, so too can we return items. Year on year, Christmas shopping habits are growing and the dollar amount consumers spend is on the rise. It’s only inevitable that […]
Merchants Prepare for Over $40 Billion in Returns [2023 Update] Read More »
![5G Communications Could Change the American Retail Landscape [2023 Update]](https://www.hostmerchantservices.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/5g-communications-1024x682.jpg)
In terms of telecommunications and payment transactions, the United States is strangely out of step with the rest of the world in some aspects. Paper checks, for example, are still used by many companies. The adoption of EMV technology by American retailers was slow enough to cause anxiety among providers of payment processing services. As
5G Communications Could Change the American Retail Landscape [2023 Update] Read More »
Getting customers into your store during the summer months can sometimes be difficult. Most people take a summer vacation to somewhere, which could severely cut down on your business. However, there are ways you can market your store for the summer. One of those ways is to capitalize on the fact that people travel in
Summer Marketing Ideas For Retail Stores Read More »
In April, credit card signatures will become a thing of the past. American Express, Discover, Visa, and Mastercard have all announced they will end the signature requirement for in-store credit card machine purchases. For Discover, Mastercard, and American Express, the end date was April 13. Visa will end the signature requirement later in the month.
The End of Required Credit Card Signatures Read More »
Protect Your Business from Credit Card Skimmers Each year, companies sign on to take advantage of merchant services offered for credit card processing. Skimmers are quickly becoming a threat to unsuspecting customers as companies rely more heavily than ever on point of sale services for their businesses. As a merchant, you want to protect your
Protect Your Business from Credit Card Skimmers Read More »
When considering the trends that have been shaping the retail industry over the last few years, it is easy to infer that 2018 will be the year of mobile first shopping. Online retail giants such as Amazon have noticed that shoppers are not quite ready to completely abandon the brick-and-mortar model; however, they expect to
What Mobile-First Shopping Will Mean for the Retail Industry in 2018 Read More »
Many retailers impose a fee on customers when they use a credit card as they are charged a fee for using a credit card machine to process a transaction. This practice has long been illegal in California, however. In 1985, California passed a law banning businesses from charging these fees, which forced many businesses to
California Overturns Ban on Surcharges [2023 Update] Read More »
How to Get Payment Processing for Firearms If you plan to sell guns online or in a retail setting with a credit card machine, you will quickly discover that merchant services can be hard to acquire. Transactions that involve gun sales — including those by gun stores, firearms dealers, and gunsmiths — are considered high
Get Payment Processing for Firearms Read More »
Some credit card processing companies are now charging “EMV non-compliance fees”. For those who don’t know, the acronym EMV refers to the technology embedded in what are commonly called chip cards. Developed originally to increase security for customers when making a “card present” payment at a retailer, the date for merchants to install a chip-enabled credit
Avoid EMV Non-Compliance Fees Read More »
Point-of-sale systems have come a long way since they were introduced as advanced replacements for cash registers in the 20th century. Modern point-of-sale (POS) solutions offer more than just the ability to ring up purchases; they integrate multiple functions such as merchant services, inventory control, payment processing, scheduling employee shifts, collecting customer data, and even
Five Reasons You Should Upgrade Your Point of Sale System Now Read More »
The Retail Industry is Far from Dead For all the talk about how e-commerce has advanced to the point that online shopping has obliterated the brick-and-mortar experience, the evidence cited in this regard is tenuous at best. Those who believe that e-commerce will make shopping mall disappear will often mention the meteoric rise of Amazon
Retail isn’t Dying, it’s Evolving Read More »