Swiping Cards and Customers with Brooklyn’s SwipeFast

In the dog-eat-dog world of the credit-card processing industry, retail merchants get barraged daily by calls and in-person visits from processing firms – brokers between merchants and banks that largely make money via transaction fees – luring them to switch with promises of lower rates.

Given the volatility of the business, processing firms often cut fees and offer freebies, like credit-card swipe machines, to maintain merchant accounts. As an alternative strategy, a new processing firm in NY is focusing on technology-based services to break the cycle of transient clients and leeching competitors.

SwipeFast, a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn-based processing firm that offers swipe-card and mobile-payment services, is launching an electronic reward card next month that will replace its clients’ existing punch-or stamp-based frequent buyer cards and will allow those without a customer loyalty program to launch one. Furthermore, SwipeFast’s e-reward card, which resembles a credit card and is compatible with swipe machines, will be managed through an online account that will allow its merchants’ customers to manage purchase points and merchants to gather and analyze customer information.

The e-reward card was created via a partnership with SparkBase, a tech firm that specializes in white-label loyalty programs.  A handful of SwipeFast’s 40+ clients, of which about 75 percent are based in NY and (including a day care center in Long Island and a wine store in Brooklyn), have signed on to participate for the tentative cost of $10 per month, said SwipeFast president Joe Nisanov.

“A large part of this business now is focused on e-commerce in order to build up and obtain the processing business,” said Nisanov, 35, who, along with co-founder Michael Venzke, 31, launched SwipeFast in January, employing a handful of sales agents. “That’s where the sales are going to come in, having clients happy with the rewards program and then gaining their credit-card business.”

Despite the crowded industry Nisanov and Venzke, who worked for a decade on the sales and development side of the processing business, saw an opportunity to create a niche by offering tech-driven simplicity.

“It was really looking at the industry and our competition and realizing there is a place for a company to do things different,” said Nisanov. “This is certainly an industry that is in the ‘80s and early ‘90s as far as technology.”

To capitalize, SwipeFast offers clients four tiers of services at fixed rates (ranging from $15 to $35 a month plus set fees) while putting applications and statements online via an easy-to-navigate user interface. Its tech-savvy approach includes e-commerce services such as setting up online shopping carts and features social media promotion with offers for free iPads and plug-ins for businesses that use QuickBooks.

“Focusing on tech gives an advantage,” said Nisanov, who, along with Venzke, launched the company with $10,000 of their own savings. “It’s inevitable that the industry is going that way with near-field communications coming out. We want to try and stay ahead of the game and capitalize.”

While SwipeFast is still in the red financially, it’s close to reaching profitability and is on pace break even by the end of the year, said Nisanov.

SwipeFast’s tech services and e-reward card come at a pivotal time in the industry. On Oct. 1, the Durban Amendment went into effect, adding to the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation drawn up by Congress by dramatically lowering debit-card processing rates on swipe transactions. The Durban Amendment is expected to reshuffle merchant accounts and reshape the industry, according to processing firms and industry consultants.