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CompanyProfile
ISO/MLS contact:
Anthony Aker
Co-founder
818-259-7978
aaker@tranzlogic.com
www.tranzlogic.com
A bigger payday for ISOs and MLSs
ow much can ISOs and merchant level sales- How it works
people (MLSs) expect to earn when they
promote value-added products that help mer- Tranzlogic uses wholesale and retail approaches. First
H chants prosper? Tranzlogic LLC claims its the company compiles information from payment
payments-oriented data, analytics and customer engage- transactions through integrations with larger ISOs,
ment tools can boost margins on merchant accounts by 30 acquirers, gateways and POS companies. In its wholesale
to 50 percent. approach, the company sells the data back to those same
entities, and they can mark it up and make it available to
Business owners willingly pay that premium because the merchants. Information is gathered in the same way for
company uses big data to help them identify and stay in the retail approach, but agents and smaller ISOs market
contact with their best customers, said Charles Hogan, co- a Tranzlogic-branded version to merchants. Resellers
founder and Chief Executive Officer of Westlake Village, receive either residuals or an upfront payment. Merchants
Calif.-based Tranzlogic. It's a matter of providing small pay for the service in various ways determined by the
and midsize merchants the sophisticated powers that the companies that sell it, Hogan noted. "There are a number
big guys employ, he stated. of flavors in the market – as you can imagine," he said,
adding that resellers most often charge merchants a
So far, approximately 50,000 merchants nationwide are licensing fee of about $30 per month for each merchant
getting to know their shoppers through the service, identification number.
and that number will double in the next year, Hogan The technological precipice
predicted. Such prodigious growth means opportunities
for resellers, he added. Tranzlogic entered the market in earnest in 2013, Hogan
said. He foresees change in his company and the industry
Flying on autopilot
overall. "We are looking for additional ISOs and acquirers,
Shoppers don't have to sign up for loyalty programs although we've penetrated that market deeply," he said.
to get into the loop of a merchant's communications, "We're beginning to expand beyond that to focus on
Hogan pointed out. Tranzlogic automatically captures point of sale companies, gateways, VARs – even loyalty
the clientele's names, addresses and habits, enabling companies because we're complementary to traditional
merchants to reach their best customers with emails, text loyalty." Meanwhile, some payment companies have
messages and postcards, while also targeting them with become more tech-savvy in the last three to five years;
Internet advertising, he said. others continue to lag, Hogan stated. "We're at the
precipice of this big transformation of payments to value-
In addition to helping to refine marketing and growth add, technology and big data," he said. "But it's very
plans, the product can assist in healing wounds a difficult for a zebra to change its stripes."
company suffers when its affairs go awry, Hogan stated.
Take the example he provided of a Florida business that At one end of the spectrum, acquirers have purchased
experienced a 20 percent decline in sales over a six-month tech companies and greatly expanded their product
period because management had made serious mistakes. offerings; at the other, companies have stayed on the
sidelines or tried to develop their own technology with
Tranzlogic helped that company send apologies to limited success, Hogan noted. But it's not just a matter
alienated shoppers and provide "welcome back" of finding the right technology. ISOs and MLSs should
coupons to entice them into the stores, Hogan said. At make the cultural shift required to learn how to promote
the same time, the company added to its customer base the technology to merchants, Hogan said. He cautioned
by expanding the marketing push to include potential that "the barriers are many and large to making that
customers with characteristics matching those of its best, transition" but emphasized it is imperative to make the
lapsed customers. effort.
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