Have a minute?  That’s all it takes to see the latest news from Mercury®.  The Mercury Minute is a fresh new way to let our partners know about new products, programs, promotions and more.  We know you’re busy, and we know you want to stay abreast of news and resources to help your business.  So we’re giving you a short, entertaining way to learn more in less time.

In this week’s Mercury Minute, you’ll learn about Mercury VirtualTerminal™, our sweet mobile payment processing app.  Click on it below to see what all the buzz is about.

We’ll post the Mercury Minute here on our blog, on our Facebook page, and we’ll Tweet it too.  Share it if you like it!

By now, most of us are aware of the most common dangers we face on the World Wide Web.  We know not to open suspicious attachments for fear of unleashing a computer crashing virus on ourselves and our contacts.  We know not to put too much private information on our online profiles, and not to buy things from sketchy sites we’ve never heard of.  We’re wary, and internet thugs know it.  These scammers have found a way to use our caution against us.  Enter phishing.

What is phishing?  It’s an internet criminal’s favorite pastime.  But the catch of the day isn’t a trout.  It’s your credit card number, passwords, banking information, social security number, merchant ID numbers, and other sensitive info.  In basic terms, phishing is an attempt to lure you into sharing sensitive information that can then be harvested and/or sold on the black market of stolen information. 

Here’s how the scam works.  You get an email that appears to be from a company that you do business with, such as a bank or credit card company.  The email may warn you that your information has been compromised, or your account is closed or there is some other urgent matter.  The email urges you to click on the link provided, which emulates a legitimate address.  Thinking to protect yourself, you may follow the instructions and click the link.  The website will emulate the legitimate site, using the same graphics, colors, and logos, tricking you into thinking you’re on a trusted site.  From there, if you log in or provide any information, it is collected by the scammer and your security is compromised.

Know how to spot a fake.  The site may look similar but if you look closely there are often discrepancies.  You may notice subtle misspellings in the message and/or the URL.  The end of the address may be different, such as .biz instead of .com.  Here’s an example:

Derived from Microsoft Safety and Security Center

Protect yourself.  If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of a site, don’t click on the link.  Instead, go directly to the site as you normally would, or call the company directly.  This will prevent you from accidentally giving out your information to crooks, and allows you to report the phishing scam to the company or agency that the scam impersonates.  Also, be aware that phishing can occur by telephone as well.  If you receive a call or message asking you to confirm your account and/or personal information, you’re likely being targeted in a phishing scam.  Be very suspicious of these types of requests. 

Learn more about this type of fraud by visiting Visa’s website.   

Reports confirm that consumer spending online and from mobile phones is growing at a rapid pace. Merchants who want to capture every possible sale are looking for secure online and mobile payments without footing the bill for card data security compliance.

Online retail spending reached $36.3 billion for the third quarter of 2011, up 13 percent from 2010, according to comScore, Inc. The digital measurement and analytical firm also reported that U.S. online holiday spending for 2011 hit $19.6 billion in the first 34 days of the November-December shopping season, up 15 percent from the previous year.

Mobile commerce sales are expected to hit $31 billion by 2015, according to a December, 2011, eMarketer analyst report.

“There’s no question that mobile commerce is growing at a fast clip and mobile acts as an engine of overall ecommerce growth, by converting potential brick-and-mortar sales to digital sales as consumers use their smart phones while shopping in-store,” said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst.

Keeping up is pretty easy with a comprehensive solution such as Mercury HostedCheckout™ for ecommerce, mcommerce and point-of-sale (POS). Integration by POS software developers offers merchants a customizable payment page on their website, where card data is collected for secure payment processing by Mercury.

A POS software developer who provides their own hosted ecommerce, mcommerce or POS solution to merchants may be considered a service provider by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. If so, they are required to complete costly and time-consuming PCI compliance audits of their hosting environment.

Mercury HostedCheckout™ shifts the responsibility of handling sensitive card holder data to Mercury, helping remove both software developers and merchants from the scope of the Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Mercury’s proprietary tokenization technology handles all transactions without storing sensitive card holder data. Supported browsers include Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari. The POS solution includes an optimized version for Apple iPad. Mobile phones include iPhone, Android, and Blackberry.

Besides the obvious applications by retailers and restaurateurs, secure hosted payments open doors for municipalities, utilities and other organizations that want to expedite online and mobile payments without incurring additional card data security compliance costs.

Watch a Mercury HostedCheckout demo!

NRF’s 101st Annual Convention and EXPO starts this weekend at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Besides looking like who’s who in retail, the show offers the perfect venue for engaging the retail community in philanthropy.

The Retail Orphan Initiative (RetailROI) will host Super Saturday on January 14, “bringing together retail’s most prominent thinkers to discuss the convergence of marketing and IT.” RetailROI’s mission is to “raise awareness and provide real solutions for the more than 400 million vulnerable children worldwide.”

The organization encourages retailers, vendors and manufacturers to create programs internally for their companies to get involved.

One way to do this during the NRF show is to visit the exhibitors who are sponsoring RetailROI this year. In lieu of massive amounts of branded giveaways that often wind up in the hotel dumpsters, many exhibitors are donating funds to RetailROI.

Mercury Payment Systems is among them. Besides being a sponsor of Super Saturday, Mercury will participate in RetailROI’s program to raise funds during the EXPO January 16-18. For starters, point-of-sale developer integration partners CAP Software, ERPLY, Island Pacific, Retail Anywhere and Retail Pro will be sending merchants from their booths to ours (#2827) to turn in a token worth a donation of $28.27. In addition, every retailer who requests a demo of Mercury VirtualTerminal™ at our booth will generate an additional donation of $150 to RetailROI.

Mercury’s donations will go to Safe Families, a foster care diversion program that seeks to keep families together. Every $1,000 raised can return $1.6m to society.

We think it’s a great way to kick off a new year.

Advertising, direct mail, coupons…there are many ways for merchants to get their customers’ attention. But what will ultimately motivate shoppers to spend their money? A marketing plan that includes MercuryGift cards is a smart way to engage customers and keep them coming back. Following are a few ideas for your Mercury Payment Systems merchants:

Partner-up
Attract new customers by networking with other local businesses.
How to do it:
Find a complementary business and partner with them to both your advantage. For example, a restaurant advertises a local bank to their patrons in exchange for the bank offering $10 gift cards to that restaurant to customers who open a new account.

Drive future sales
Use gift cards to encourage return visits.
How to do it:
Offer customers who purchase $50 in gift cards during December, a free $10 gift card that can be used the following month. This is an effective way to push holiday sales into January, a traditionally slower buying time. You’ll recoup your investment quickly since consumers spend an average 45% more than the value of the card.

Capture impulse purchases
Capitalize on the convenience of gift cards – seventy percent of all gift card purchases are impulse buys.
How to do it
Display gift cards and carriers near each cash register to make it easy for customers to buy on a whim. Remind them that gift cards make a good last-minute purchase for hard to buy for people. Print a message on their receipt such as, “Don’t forget a gift card for your friends and family!”

Open up a conversation with your merchants about marketing gift cards by giving them this flyer that lists the top six reasons why consumers prefer gift cards over traditional gifts.

Merchants with a new or existing gift card program can always benefit from additional marketing, and it doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. Help your Mercury Payment Systems merchants get creative with their MercuryGift card program by offering these affordable “outside the box” marketing ideas:

(1) Promote your gift cards to other businesses to use as employee incentives, performance rewards, end-of-year bonuses and thank you gifts.

(2) Remind customers about gift cards by highlighting them in email newsletters and flyers posted near product displays and at the point of sale.

(3) Print gift card messaging on the back of your business cards. Post the cards on community bulletin boards or leave a stack at other businesses your clientele visit.

(4) Advertise your gift cards in local shopping and dining guides and special holiday inserts in the newspaper.

(5) Offer pre-loaded gift cards at a discount to community organizations who request donations for fundraising events.

If your merchants are still unsure about putting forth extra effort or money toward marketing their gift card program, remind them that gift cards encourage full price shopping – 40% of shoppers using a gift card purchase items at full price compared to 16% of shoppers using other payment methods. The return on investment will not disappoint!

The holiday shopping season traditionally generates a jump in sales and an increase in foot traffic for most merchants. Many merchants hire on seasonal employees to cover the busy season making this the perfect time to retrain employees on credit card payment processing best practices and fraud warning signs.

Fraudsters see the busy holiday season as a prime time to take advantage of distracted merchants. The following are possible warning signs of fraud:

• Customer makes an unusually large purchase without questioning the price.
• Customer tries to distract or rush the merchant during the sale.
• Customer makes purchases, leaves the store, but then returns to make more purchases.
• Customer requests overnight or rushed shipping.
• Card will not swipe or the magnetic stripe has been altered.
• Customer tries using alternate credit cards when one previously declined.
• A wire transfer is requested on a phone order.
• Customer gives invalid call back phone numbers.
• A phone order is placed through a hearing impaired service.

It is also important that merchants follow basic best practices when processing credit card transactions. Below are a few of the most important tips for secure payment processing:

1. Make sure that all cards are swiped or imprinted for card present transactions. If a card will not read when swiped, you should get an imprint of the card and have the cardholder sign the imprint in place of your POS receipt.

2. If a customer’s card declines, you should ask for another form of payment. Do not continue swiping the card as the issuing bank may not honor a transaction that initially declined.

3. If in doubt about the validity of a card, call for help. Merchants should call 800-944-1111 for voice authorizations or Code 10 calls. NEVER call the number on the back of the card or a number given to you by the cardholder as this may be part of a fraud scheme. Merchants may also call Mercury Payment Systems at 1-800-846-4472 for assistance in verifying a transaction. It is important to call before processing a suspicious order or letting the customer leave with merchandise. The few extra minutes spent on a phone call may save the merchant significant money in the end. It is important that these phone numbers are easily accessible to all employees and they know where to call for assistance.

For additional information, please refer to the Credit Card 101 booklet sent to you when you opened your account or log on to www.MercuryPay.com , where you can find a copy of the Credit Card 101 booklet under the tools option.

When a merchant doesn’t sell many gift cards, one of the main reasons is because their customers simply don’t know they are available. Following are five easy things your merchants can do to keep gift cards top of mind for their customers:
(1) Make sure your employees mention gift cards to customers at every opportunity from greeting to checkout.

(2) Offer gift cards as an alternative to popular items. For example, place a sign next to a sold-out item that reads, “We’re sorry this item is currently sold out. Gift cards are available!”

(3) Remind customers that gift cards are the perfect gift for people who are hard to shop for because recipients choose exactly what they want when they want it. Use a sign like: “Not sure about the perfect gift? Buy a gift card and let them decide!”

(4) Offer special occasion gift card designs that entice shoppers to buy for everyone on their lists. Choose from these new MercuryGift designs.

(5) Use eye-catching gift card displays and signage to remind customers to add gift cards to their shopping lists. Tent displays, acrylic displays and more are available from MercuryGift.

The busiest shopping time of the year is just around the corner and gift cards remain the #1 gift. Yet, at Mercury we hear from POS resellers that merchants don’t know how to promote their gift cards to maximize on sales opportunities. We’ve got lots of tips for you to pass on to your merchants. Here are a few that are cost-effective and easy to implement:

(1) Create excitement with a gift card give-away by inviting customers who purchase gift cards to put their names in a drawing for a free gift card.

(2) Recognize loyal customers with pre-loaded “thank you for your business” gift cards to use for themselves or give as a gift.

(3) Offer shoppers fun incentives to purchase gift cards such as a surprise wrapped gift they can use for themselves or give away when they purchase a designated amount of gift cards.

(4) Encourage customers to reload existing gift cards by rewarding them with a bonus amount on top of their purchase, ie. $5 on a $50 reload.

(5) Host a special event like this merchant, who had tremendous success offering a two-hour half-off gift card sale on Black Friday.

If your merchants are concerned about the costs of running a gift card promotion like one mentioned above, remind them that they will more than recoup their investment. On average, consumers spend 140 percent of the actual gift card value when they redeem the card. And, for every gift card sold, at least two customers visit the store (the purchaser and the recipient who may also bring a friend).

Help merchants get the most out of this holiday shopping season by offering the number one gift choice—gift cards! MercuryGift® has new special occasion gift card designs to choose from so merchants can maximize their holiday gift card sales year round.

We’re encouraging merchants to get a head start preparing for the holiday shopping season by offering a discount on gift card orders. Orders placed by the end of September will receive a 10 percent discount.

Fall is the best time of year to start a gift card program or restock gift cards. Getting a jump on the winter holiday shopping season helps merchants avoid the pre-holiday rush on gift card orders. It also gives merchants plenty of time to make sure their staff is well trained on selling and redeeming gift cards before the heavy shopping traffic begins on Black Friday.

Need help selling your merchants on a gift card program? Discuss these top ten reasons to start a gift card program.