Strategy

We can help clients that accept, process and/or issue payment cards to develop a strategy designed to meet their specific objectives. The strategy should support the client’s broader business goals, reduce costs, offer increased convenience to customers and help to differentiate the business from competitors. The scope should embrace all aspects including card acceptance, acquiring, issuing and processing.

Expected benefits should be identified and their bottom-line impact quantified. It is then critical to ensure that these are actually delivered through effective project management. TransAction Resources can assist in working through the process from defining the objectives to delivering the forecast benefits.

For many of our clients, strategy work often also encompasses loyalty and database marketing as there are strong synergies between payments and loyalty. A merchant’s card payment infrastructure can be further leveraged to capture customer data for direct marketing applications.

Card Marketing

Card acceptance has marketing implications related to customer convenience, choice, speed and service. It should not be viewed as simply a means of collecting payments. For many retailers, the only time they have actual contact with their customers is when they pay, so it is essential to make this a positive experience for customers.

It is important for merchants to understand fully the impact of cards and e-commerce upon their customers. In order to achieve this we often recommend that our clients should conduct some cards-specific market research.

Whether it be payments or loyalty, it is vital that you deliver to your customers exactly what they want and that you understand all the relevant issues, barriers, potential roadblocks and opportunities. Properly structured market research allows this to occur and allows new concepts to be properly tested. It also provides better data on which to base economic evaluation of the programs being developed.

Card Acquiring & Merchant Services

The cost of card acceptance is typically the second or third largest variable cost incurred by most retailers today. TransAction Resources has considerable experience in re-negotiating card acquiring contracts to reduce your costs. We will work with you to analyse your payments data and identify ways to reduce your monthly bill for merchant service fees.

Merchant fees are only one element of the cost of accepting cards. Efficient processing systems, card terminals, detailed reporting and automated reconciliation systems also play a vital role in minimising and managing costs.

We have a track record of delivering substantial annual savings to clients in most cases due to our detailed and specialised knowledge.

Transaction Banking

The efficient collection, management and payment of value are critical for all organisations, large and small. We can provide advice and assistance to ensure the most effective and most appropriate methods and available services are used to manage your organisation’s receivables and payables. The effective utilisation of transaction banking services (such as locked box facilities, purchasing solutions and electronic banking) can deliver significant cash flow benefits.

Loyalty & Database Marketing

Loyalty is an over-used term these days and many so-called loyalty programs do anything but create genuine loyalty from the customer. Most programs look the same and the market is suffering from ‘points fatigue’. TransAction Resources can help you develop a ‘no points’ program which effectively builds a long term relationship between you and the customer.

Most merchants have no means of identifying which of their customers are the most profitable, how frequently they visit their stores, what products they buy or where they purchase. Similarly, they have no means of tracking how many customers they have lost, let alone who they are, nor of taking any action to slow this attrition.

A database marketing program allows merchants to track this information and to identify and target their best customers. Retailers that have implemented these programs successfully have found that their best customers not only visit their stores more often but also spend more on each visit.

Technology Support

As payments technology continually develops and evolves, it requires specialist knowledge to implement with the most cost-effective business outcome. We can help you to achieve a secure and minimal-cost transaction processing platform.

PCI DSS, EMV, ISO 8583, 3DES, PIN Pads, Chip & PIN, 3D-Secure and an array of other technical terms and issues can be a complete mystery. They can also have a big impact on the performance of your business.

As an example, retailers and merchants that are not PCI DSS-compliant may face stiff fines, public exposure of card data breaches and possible loss of card acceptance from their acquirer.

We can help you understand and deal with all these issues and more, in a way that will minimise your risks and cost. Where necessary we will liaise with Visa, MasterCard and the other card schemes on your behalf.

Project Management

Effective project management can make the difference between realising or not realising the expected benefits from a payments and/or loyalty strategy. It can also increase returns by more rapid implementation of programs that will deliver bottom-line benefits each month. As experts in electronic payments and loyalty, we know where a lot of the pitfalls are and how best to avoid them.

Talk to us about our project management skills and how best to employ them in your organisation.

Application Testing

When a new or upgraded payments application is to be rolled out to all points of sale, it has the potential to impact upon all customer-facing staff and all customers. It is absolutely critical that any problems or inconsistencies that may exist are found and resolved before they go into production. Professional end-to-end testing by people with many years of specific experience is the best way to avoid problems in this area.

We have people with exactly this skill set who can do the testing for you, train your testing team or design a testing program for you.

Regulatory

In many parts of the world today legislators, competition authorities and financial regulators are beginning to take a long, hard look at the inner workings of the international payment schemes and their members. TransAction Resources has provided expert support to both merchants and merchant associations in many parts of the world to assist in achieving the best outcomes from such inquiries. These regulatory reviews offer the potential for retailers and merchants to achieve substantial annual savings.

This is very specialised work that requires a considerable body of knowledge and the experience of how best to present that information. In some cases we have worked as part of a team with lawyers and economists to get the best results. A different approach is often required in each country or market depending upon local competition and antitrust laws.

We have worked in the cards regulatory area in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe and the USA.