Downtown Lumber eliminates phone-based payments and reduces fraud with Payments

Downtown Lumber, a well-established building materials supplier in downtown Toronto, relied heavily on phone-based credit card payments when taking last minute orders over the phone.

Alongside cash and cheques, it was one of the primary means of collecting payment from their customers. For customers it was fast and convenient, but for Downtown Lumber securing payment over the phone put them in a compromising position. Like many businesses, Downtown Lumber faced several challenges with collecting card payments over the phone:

• Time to process payment: In situations where Downtown Lumber was unable to take payment over the phone, customers would be forced to pay in-person. This was time-consuming and inconvenient for the customer and often led to lost sales.
• PCI compliance: The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is the payment industry's security standards that all companies involved in accepting, transmitting or storing credit card data need to comply with. Adhering to these standards when taking phone payments is extremely difficult and often impractical.
• Chargeback risk: Phone-based payments presented an increased risk of chargebacks, primarily due to fraudulent transactions in card-not-present environments.
• Cost and effectiveness: The combined impact of staff time, call costs, chargeback risk, and customer inconvenience made phone-based payment collection costly, inefficient, and ultimately ineffective.

Downtown Lumber chose our online payments product to transition from phone-based payments to a secure, web-based payment processing system. By integrating our solution with their ecommerce store, the company was able to accept credit card payments directly for any outstanding invoices (not just online orders), streamlining the entire payment process.

After implementing our online payments product, Downtown Lumber realized numerous benefits:

• Increased efficiency: The online payment system enabled staff to focus on more productive tasks, as payments were processed more quickly and efficiently. The ease of sharing a payment link with a customer meant they could remove themselves from the process entirely.
• Enhanced customer convenience: Customers found the web-based payment method to be easy to use, more convenient and in line with their expectations for modern, digital transactions. They could even settle payments outside of business hours.
• Improved PCI compliance: The new payment system simplified adherence to PCI DSS requirements, making compliance more manageable and less resource-intensive.
• Reduced chargeback risk: Our solution's integration with 3-D Secure technology shifted liability away from the company and reduced the risk of chargebacks due to fraudulent transactions.
• Greater cost-effectiveness: The overall cost and effectiveness of payment collection improved as a result of the streamlined process, reduced chargeback risk, and increased customer satisfaction.

Downtown Lumber's success in transitioning to our online payments product demonstrates the numerous benefits of moving away from over the phone transactions. By adhering to PCI compliance standards, reducing chargeback risks, and improving the overall payment experience for customers, Downtown Lumber has optimized its sales process and paved the way for continued growth.