So you’ve altered your gift card program to adhere to new mandates set forth by the Credit Card Act of 2009 and are ready to sit back and revel in the sales? Not so fast!!

Your disclosures must also specify the exact amount of each additional fee to be charged in conjunction with a gift card, and how frequently it will be subtracted from the balance (for example, a $3 dormancy fee every two months).

While the advanced features of a good restaurant POS system can be instrumental in cutting costs, there are other benefits to be reaped from using a configuration that isn’t just a cash register. The ability to generate repeat business and bolster incremental sales tops the list.

If you’re like most restaurant operators, you’re constantly thinking about ways to cut costs—even with the recession’s ugly head beginning to retreat. Leveraging the advanced, yet easy-to-use features of a comprehensive restaurant POS system like pcAmerica’s Restaurant Pro Express can yield significant savings—in more areas than one.

If you’re among retailers and restaurant operators that have yet to jump on the credit and debit card acceptance bandwagon, you’re almost definitely doing your business a disservice. For one thing, offering customers the convenience and option of paying with “plastic” increases their satisfaction—a boon to repeat business. Accepting credit and debit cards also improves [...]

Experts have long pegged the average return from a computerized POS system at five times the annual investment, reflected in higher profits—for example, a $20,000 hike in profits would be garnered by a store with sales of $200,000 per year and a $4,000 annual in investment in computerization.  But where do these increased profits come [...]

It may only be mid-March, but retailers and restaurant operators that are reaping the benefits of offering gift cards must look five months ahead to August 22. That’s the “effective date” of new gift card rules introduced by the Federal Reserve Board in conjunction with the credit card reform law enacted in 2009.
The new rules [...]

Gift Cards Keep On Giving (Part One of Series)
If you haven’t thought about introducing a gift card program, there’s no better time than the present.
Consider the popularity of gift cards among consumers. Aite Group, a consulting firm, says the volume of private-label (store) gift card transactions processed in the U.S. rose from 810 [...]

In the first part of this series, we defined the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and explained why retailers and restaurant operators can’t ignore it. Now it’s time for a closer look at the actual mandates of the standard, which is built on several principles that incorporate a total of 12 requirements. To be in compliance with PCI DSS, you must…

(Part Two of a Series)
Like customer loyalty programs themselves, customer loyalty program applications aren’t created equal. The most effective customer loyalty programs are based on the most comprehensive solutions. When evaluating different options, look for the following features:

Multiple vehicles for rapid access to individual customers’ information–for instance, by swiping a [...]