Give this former student credit for recognizing a need in retail

As a professional speaker, I enjoy networking with conference attendees after I deliver a presentation. This often takes place in an exhibit area or trade show where sponsors aim to promote (and sell) their products and services. I will often autograph copies of my book for anyone interested in having a chat with me.

Recently, I have noticed that these “back of the room” book sales require customers to pay in cash. But in many cases, some people want to pay by credit card. Unfortunately, credit card processing is just too technically difficult to administer in such a short-term (small volume) business setting. Clearly, I’m not the only one to have experienced this.

It was summer 2011 and my former MBA student Lorne Lantz was visiting a friend selling jewellery at an artist show. The friend was upset that she had just lost a $300 sale because she couldn’t accept the customer’s (preferred) payment by credit card.

As Lorne walked around the show he noticed that other vendors were also selling expensive items and had no way to accept credit cards either.

Paying by cash seemed to be the only option. After more research Lorne learned that the ability to accept credit card payments through a point of sale machine was out of reach for many small merchants.

Most often, to get a credit card processing machine required at least a $2,000 commitment with the bank and several weeks to get approved.

Fast forward to a few months ago in New York City, the financial capital of the world.

Lorne was about to pitch his hot new mobile payments application, Snappay, to a room full of venture capitalists and banking executives from around the world. To understand why he was chosen out of hundreds of other startups you have to know the tough road Lorne travelled to get there (you can actually see a video of Lorne’s pitch here at www.LorneCanPitch.com).

With 18 years of programming experience, a computer engineering degree and an MBA from the DeGroote School of Business, Lorne felt confident he could build a mobile app that would allow anyone to accept credit card payments … in a Snap.

With guidance from his advisers from Innovation Factory, Lorne went out into the field for weeks and lived the problem with merchants to really understand what’s important to them when accepting money.

A key discovery was that merchants wanted to take their customer’s money as quickly as possible and typing 20 numbers from a credit card into a smart phone was tedious.

So Lorne created a credit card scanning technology that would automatically scan in the credit card number for the merchant.

All a person had to do was hold the credit card in front of the iPhone or iPad. When he put this feature in the hands of merchants, they absolutely loved it.

Trust is a big issue in the mobile payments world, and Snappay found two ways to earn the trust of merchants. First, they ensured that all the money was handled by PayPal, which according to research firm GfK is the most trusted name in the world for mobile payments.

Second, they adjusted their pricing structure so the first month was free. This allowed merchants to try using Snappay with no risk.

Since Lorne’s trip to New York, he’s focused his efforts on constantly improving the product.

With each technological innovation, Snappay becomes an even more attractive solution for mobile merchants around the world. Go ahead and try it yourself by registering at www.snap-pay.com and you can start accepting transactions in minutes.

As Snappay continues to make inroads in the world of mobile credit card processing, I’m sure it (and Lorne) will become another Hamilton success story.