Make Sure Your Online Payment Processing is Ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday Online Payment Processing

Get your credit cards ready because it’s that time of the year again! Shopaholics’ favourite season – Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest two days for shopping apart from Boxing Day and it’s when the most desirable items such as electronics, clothes, gadgets and toys will go on massive sale allowing for major savings for consumers. Not only should store owners be ready for early birds lining up in front of their store beginning before sunrise, e-tailers also should look to implement efficient online payment processing solutions to achieve maximum success and never miss an order.

Brief History of Black Friday

In the U.S., Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, which falls on the fourth Thursday of every November. It has been traditionally regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the States.

The earliest documentation of the phrase “Black Friday” dates back to 1961, originated from Philadelphia. The phrase was coined by Philadelphia police to describe the heavy traffic after Thanksgiving, during which they weren’t allowed to take the day off and often had to work overtime. The term was forgotten and later regained momentum in the 1980s when the day was being marketed as a huge shopping day. As the phrase became widespread, retailers began to associate the term with pulling in huge revenue as Black Friday became the shopping event of the year.

Prior to the turn of the Millennium, it was a common practice for stores to open at 6am. As the years went by, stores started opening earlier every year. Since 2012, most stores open at midnight while others cause customers to camp outside stores for hours. However, this became a health issue because customers camping outside of the stores posed safety risk by blocking emergency exits. Moreover, workers often call in sick on Black Friday to enjoy the shopping deals themselves and get a four day long weekend, so retailers have had to clamp down and line up their reserves to ensure adequate coverage (Brief History of Black Friday).

It is speculated that many retailers in the US make most of their profit during Black Friday, offsetting an overall financial loss for the rest of the year (Jan – Nov). It’s an exciting time when red ink turns to black! Black Friday is the beginning of the holiday season when retailers would no longer struggle to keep their heads above water (Black Friday for Americans).

Black Friday & Online Shopping for Americans

From a Canadian perspective, residents in the densely populated Lower Mainland in Canada have always been attracted to cross-border shopping into the U.S. As this holiday has become more popular, more and more Canadians have flocked across the border to look for superior deals. However, since 2008, given the weakness of the Canadian dollar, several major Canadian retailers ran Black Friday deals to discourage shoppers from leaving the country. A turning point occurred in 2012, which saw the biggest Black Friday event in Canada, as Canadian retailers embraced it in an attempt to keep shoppers from travelling across the border. Canadians are generally used to shopping for big sales on Boxing Day, but Black Friday has certainly established itself as another popular avenue for bargain shopping.

According to the Globe and Mail, here are 7 useful tips that consumers can use for this year’s Black Friday shopping:

Cyber Monday Online Payment Processing Solutions

Online payment processing solutions are web based systems that accept and transfer payment electronically. The technology allows brands and organizations to accept payment through credit and debit cards via web purchases. Cyber Monday is a shopping event catered to E-Commerce. Therefore, implementing reliable and safe credit card payment processing solutions is critical for strong Cyber Monday payment solutions and sales!

For a business to accept online payment service, they must have an Internet Merchant Account and Payment Gateway. An internet merchant account is a type of account that allows businesses to accept payments through various methods such as Debit and Credit cards.

Payment Getaway is a merchant service that authorizes payment transactions for businesses, such as authorizing a customer’s credit card and finding out whether they have passed the credit limit, and then it either accepts or declines the transaction.

A customer fills out the payment information on the checkout webpage and the information is sent to Payment Gateway. Payment Getaway encrypts the information and transfers it to a series of approved online payment processor intermediaries. The system authorizes the payment and the payment is either accepted or declined. This cycle takes about 2 seconds. The gateway sends the transaction to the payment processor and ultimately allows the transaction to transfer funds from customer’s bank to the merchant (Online Payment Processing Solutions).

Cyber Monday Payment Processing vs. Black Friday Credit Card Processing

Deal News found that Cyber Monday has better deals on the following: Androids, data storage, laptops, travel, clothing and beauty vs. better Black Friday deals on the following: tools, toys and headphones.

Benefits of partnering with MONEXgroup’s Safe and Secure Online Payment Processing Solutions