Spend less time chasing payments - add a simple link to an email or invoice and customers can pay securely, anytime.
Promotional products provider Everythingbranded.co.uk, which is part of the Charles Alexander Distribution group of companies, offers hundreds of different promotional items and marketing services to organisations through its UK website and its sister site EverythingBranded.com, which covers the USA nationwide.
Promotional products range from classic branded pens and mugs to all types of printed clothing. Everythingbranded.co.uk has supplied promotional products to a host of global brands, which include the likes of Netflix, Google, BMW and LEGO to name a few, but it also serves the small business market, which was the building blocks of the brand.
The challenge
For all customers, EverythingBranded would take all orders of promotional products and payments over the phone. Staff would input the card data into an online virtual terminal system, which then processed the payment. As the cardholder relayed card details over the phone, EverythingBranded needed a more secure way of handling this sensitive data.
Not only that, but EverythingBranded was growing and the increased amount of orders and payments were eating up increasing amounts of staff time. The company needed a way to move customers to self-serve and pay online, but its existing payment processor failed to provide a flexible way of doing this.
“In the fast-paced promotional products industry, our payment process needed more efficiency to ensure that our sales team’s time was optimised.,” says Paul Rowlett, Founder and CEO at Charles Alexander Distribution.
“With Pay-by-Link from Elavon, we could attach a link to an email or invoice that then takes the customer to a payment page. Once Elavon had explained the process, we felt it was the ideal solution.”
The solution
EverythingBranded wanted a payments partner that would understand its business and be committed to help it grow.
The Elavon team provided a Pay-by-Link option for EverythingBranded to use in emails and invoices. Just one click brings customers back to a hosted online payment page that integrates easily with the CRM system and includes the added security of 3D Secure.
With more payments being made through Pay-by-Link online instead of over the phone, staff time is freed up to concentrate on other focus areas. Next-day settlement is good news for the company’s cashflow, too.
The additional security also means EverythingBranded has reduced its scope for PCI DSS and therefore lowered its processing costs. Customers are empowered to self-serve, making online payments easily at any time they choose. Pay-by-Link accepts all major cards, and alternative payment methods such as PayPal can be offered for extra convenience.
Pay-by-Link benefits include:
- Less time chasing unpaid invoices
- Removes the need for over-the-phone payments
- 24/7 self-service payments
- More ways for customers to pay
- Staff time savings
- Customer relationship marketing (CRM) integration
- Increased security and PCI DSS compliance
- Next-day settlement
Flexible and straightforward
Integrating the Elavon payment gateway with the EverythingBranded website was straightforward for the website developer responsible: “From a technical point of view, it was one of the smoothest payment gateway integrations we’ve undertaken in recent times,” says website developer at 1st WebDesigns, Gareth Mueller.
“The flexibility of the Elavon system is great and everyone is happy with the end result. It’s outstanding how Elavon’s gateway integrates so transparently and seamlessly with the rest of our system, which is not often the case with hosted payment solutions from other providers. The technical support and help we received before, during and after integration was also second to none.”
Jennie Rowlett, Finance Director at Charles Alexander, says: “It has been a pleasure to move to Elavon after poor support with our previous card processor. From the moment we had our first meeting, Elavon has been incredibly supportive, helpful and readily available to deal with any questions or difficulties.
“They also gave us a direct technical agent who worked very closely with our own web developer to make the integration process seamless. The Elavon back-office portal is very user friendly and easy to use — and it’s great to be able to receive payments into our bank the very next day for our UK businesses. I would absolutely recommend Elavon to any other business and cannot praise the team enough for their wonderful and personal service levels.”
To discover more about Charles Alexander Distribution, visit: