Formerly known as Sell Simply, Chirpify Introduces Transactional Tweets for Brand Commerce, Direct Payments and Donations

PORTLAND, Oregon — February 15, 2012 — Chirpify, the easy way to exchange money via Twitter, today announced the launch of its Twitter Commerce platform, allowing brands and merchants to buy, sell, donate and transact on Twitter. Formerly known as Sell Simply, Chirpify enables direct, or person-to-person, payments and donations in addition to its retail sales platform.

For the first time ever, brands and retailers are able to use Twitter as a direct sales channel. By offering organizations a simple way to turn Tweets into transactions, Chirpify opens up a meaningful new channel that combines social marketing with commerce and offers an easy way for consumers to make purchases.

“Brands, retailers, politicians, celebrities and individuals have spent the past six years using Twitter to build communities and brand affinity, so why not allow them to sell on Twitter directly?” says Chris Teso, founder of Chirpify. “Customers don’t have to leave Twitter to make a purchase or donation. Chirpify removes the frictions of traditional e-commerce check-out processes.”

How it works:
Chirpify integrates directly with PayPal to offer secure transactions on Twitter. Purchases and donations are as simple as replying to a Tweet: “@favoritebrand Buy,“ or “@politician Donate,” for example.

Additionally, Chirpify offers deep integration with existing e-commerce storefronts, including Magento, for back-end fulfillment, listing and transaction management. To use Chirpify, merchants simply click the “list on Twitter” button when drafting an item listing for sale in their e-commerce dashboard. Inbound sales information appears as either an email or as part of the retailer’s back-end system, as well as via a DM on Twitter.

Because it works anywhere Twitter does, Chirpify is device agnostic, allowing any user on any mobile device, tablet or desktop computer to access Chirpify for seamless transactions.

“We identified Chirpify as solving a huge problem in the market: how to monetize social-media efforts,” says Greg Rau, founder and CEO at Upstart Labs. “Chris built an effective and elegant platform to deliver actual ROI based on revenue.  Chirpify offers individuals, companies, organizations—anyone—the ability to monetize their Tweets.”

Chirpify received seed funding from Portland-based incubator Upstart Labs, which invests in early-stage companies with a combination of capital and product-development support. Chirpify is one of the first ventures to receive seed funding from Upstart Labs, which launched its program last year.

About Chirpify
Chirpify (www.chirpify.com) is a seamless payment system for Twitter commerce. With full integration to PayPal, Chirpify enables businesses to buy, sell, donate and exchange funds on Twitter, turning Tweets into immediate transactions. Based in Portland, Oregon, the Chirpify platform is the first social commerce system to offer direct monetization through Twitter. To learn more about Chirpify and begin sending or receiving payments today, visit www.chirpify.com.

About Upstart Labs
Portland, OR-based startup accelerator Upstart Labs (www.upstartlabs.com) invests in early-stage technology companies with a combination of capital and product-development support. Upstart Labs focuses on developing new businesses, and providing emerging companies with support in design, development and go-to-market strategy.

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In some respects, the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) is to Common Short Codes as ICAAN and Whois are to Domains. Common short codes are administered by the CSC Administration (CSCA) for wireless carriers. In addition, the CSCA oversees the CSC Registry, which provides the technical and operational aspects of CSC functions and maintains a single database of available, reserved, and registered CSCs.

With mobile messaging exploding, CSC’s are certain to become as valuable as URL’s. Businesses cannot buy short codes, rather they lease them for a specified period of time, and for a specific campaign type. Leases are offered at different prices fromt the four provider types (see below).

What is a Common Short Code (CSC)?

Common Short Codes (CSCs) are short numeric codes to which text messages can be sent from a mobile phone.

• They’re compatible across all participating carriers.
• CSCs are either five-digit or six-digit numbers.
• CSCs can be leased by anyone.
• USA CSC’s are not recognized by phones issued in other countries, which are developing their own CSC’s.
• Applications route all messages addressed to a registered CSC number from any and all wireless networks initiating a message.
• There are four (4) groups of companies that work together to bring CSCs to wireless subscribers; they include content providers , application providers , connectivity aggregators, and wireless service providers. Merchants lease short codes from a provider.

Should I lease my short code directly from the CSCA?

Not necessarily.  If you’re ready to begin a campaign, research what solution you’ll be using for delivering and managing your SMS messages and payments first. They may offer a bundled package. If you’re not ready and have the funds to spare, you may want to reserve your short code to ensure availability when you need it.

501(c)(3) Non-profits must lease directly from the CSCA to be eligible for a 60% reduction in published rates.

How much does a short code lease cost? On the CSCA site 1/1/2012, registering and leasing a CSC costs $1,000 per month for each “Selected CSC” and $500 per month for each “Random CSC.” THESE FEES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE REGARDLESS OF WHETHER ANY WIRELESS CARRIER AGREES TO ACTIVATE YOUR CSC. The Registry must receive payment in full for the duration of the registration at the time your application is approved. The CSCA offers Registration Terms of 3 months, 6 months and one year. Because fees are due up front, if you register a Selected CSC for three months the cost is $3000.00, and Random CSC for three months is $1500.00.

Do I need to register a CSC for each type of campaign? Yes.

Are there discounts for charities? Yes, provided that all conditions of the Mobile Giving program are complied with. That includes donations only, no recurring billing, and not product sales.

LINKS:

More information about the Mobile Giving program.

Official Common Short Code (CSC) directory (links to CSCA) and information center.

Official CTIA Guidelines for Mobile Giving (links to CTIA PDF)

CTIA-The Wireless Association® Releases “Guidelines for Mobile Giving”

October 12, 2011

Adherence to the Guidelines provides qualified charities a 60 percent discount for text-to-give campaigns that use dedicated short codes

WASHINGTON, D.C. – CTIA-The Wireless Association® today released its “Guidelines for Mobile Giving” to provide qualified charities a framework and 60 percent discount for mobile giving campaigns that use short codes. Created after months of collaboration among carriers, mobile giving service providers, major non-profits and non-profit accreditation groups, the Guidelines provide charities with “best practices” to help them create successful and reputable mobile donation campaigns.

The use of text message short codes for charitable donations was initially developed after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, and gained prominence after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

The “Guidelines for Mobile Giving” will provide qualifying charitable organizations greater control over their unique short code. While charities may continue to conduct campaigns on shared short codes, a dedicated code mitigates donor confusion for qualifying organizations.

To qualify to lease a unique code at the discount, a charity must be accredited by the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance or receive three- or four-star rating from Charity Navigator. Accredited charities can mix communications, solicitations and mobile giving with their code as long as they follow the Mobile Marketing Association’s guidelines and provide consumers with a separate opt-in for each type of activity. In addition, a single code may be leased by chapter-based groups and used by all chapters or for unified campaigns.

“After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to Haiti’s earthquake to Japan’s tsunami, Americans have generously sent millions of dollars in charitable donations via their wireless devices. The ‘Guidelines’ will help provide consumers with peace-of-mind when sending a text donation while ensuring their accredited charities are in accordance to their donors’ intent,” said Steve Largent, President and CEO of CTIA-The Wireless Association.

For more information about CTIA Guidelines for Mobile Giving, please visit: http://files.ctia.org/pdf/CTIA_Charitable_Giving_Guidelines_101211.pdf

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CTIA-The Wireless Association® (www.ctia.org) is an international organization representing the wireless communications industry. Membership in the association includes wireless carriers and their suppliers, as well as providers and manufacturers of wireless data services and products. CTIA advocates on behalf of its members at all levels of government. The association also coordinates the industry’s voluntary best practices and initiatives, and sponsors the industry’s leading wireless tradeshows. CTIA was founded in 1984 and is based in Washington, D.C.

A reader asks, “I noticed your video about non-profits being able to take advantage of emerging markets rates. I’m curious how that works if you do not fit into the emerging market categories as you address in your blog? I am a religious 501c3 and am in the process of getting rate quotes from various merchants and one mentioned this program to me. But, they have high monthly fees and we will have a very low amount of processing in our first year (less than $25k).”

Response: I’ve written about this before. For low volumes like yours it really makes almost no difference who you’re processing with. Most of the fee you pay cannot be avoided and the difference from low to high end costs isn’t worth the effort in my opinion. Maybe you’ll save $100 a year, maybe nothing. You’d be better off focusing on doubling your donations than trimming a very small amount in fees.

Related articles:
Monthly fees for non-profit merchant account under $25000 in credit card processing.
Industry insider reviews merchants fees for non-profits, large volume.

The Fed has opened the comment period for proposed debit fee reductions. There are many facets to this, including impact on card issuing banks, acquirers, merchants and consumers. This article is to address only once aspect- putting your company in a position to take advantage of low debit fees.

Pull out your merchant statement. Do you have a section titled INTERCHANGE FEES?

Below are examples that might appear on this page:

This is an example of a MasterCard swipe debit transaction. The customer signed a receipt and did not enter a pin number.

This is an example of a Visa debit, card not present, ecommerce transaction for a non-profit.

The items above are listed in INTERCHANGE FEES. The image below appears in FINANCIAL ADVICE. They do not appear in interchange fees chart because these are pin entered debit transactions that went through the debit networks, in this case, Star, Pulse etc.

Are you on a PASS THROUGH INTERCHANGE price plan that enables you to take advantage of low debit fees like those shown? If you do not see the data above on your merchant statements, the answer is no. To maximize low debit costs now and in the future you need:

• The right price plan.
• The right software/ hardware solution to drive transactions to the lowest cost.
• The right software/ hardware solution to eliminate cashiers, order takers, and gateways from having any impact whatsoever that can increase which debit fees you qualify for.  See related article What is interchange management?

If you’re processing at least $1,000,000 annually, please contact us to discuss solutions to reduce your credit card processing fees. Don’t put this off! Call 3D Merchant now at 954-942-0483. You may even be able to keep your existing processor if you wish to.

See also
Federal Reserve proposes debit card interchange fee standards

I made a video about Non-profit credit card processing rates telling non-profit merchants what to look for on their merchant statements to know if they are qualifying for special credit card processing interchange rates they are entitled to as a non-profit. If a non-profit does not see this data on their merchant statement, I tell them to call me and I’ll help them out. I give free information to non-profits all the time, to enable them to use more dollars for their intended programs rather than paying it in credit card processing fees.

Captain Morgan (his youtube handle) is threatening me saying this is misleading advertising. “there are NO special interchange rates for Non-Profit businesses”. He’s going to report me to the card associations and everyone else who will listen.

Here’s an example of interchange rates. All “for profit” merchants can qualify for .95% signature debit. All  501(c)(3) merchants can can qualify for .80% signature debit for the same transaction.  Is that not a special rate?  CaptMorgan would have  you believe that Visa/Mastercard simply hands over these rates to everyone. But that’s not true. By rule, any non-profit can QUALIFY for these rates. But that doesn’t mean their PROCESSOR GIVES them those rates. The card associations set the interchange rates, but it’s up to the payment processor to decide what they’ll actually charge merchants.

Technically the two rates above are called CPS/RETAIL and CPS/RETAIL2 EMERGING MARKETS. There are a select few types of businesses that can participate in EMERGING MARKETS interchange rates. If the merchant is one of the qualified types of business, the proper corresponding SIC code on the merchant account set up will drive the ability for the merchant to hit emerging market interchange rates.

If all the credit card processing companies were doing such a bang up job, I’d have never made the video. But after seeing one too many merchant statements with the non-profit not qualifying for emerging market rates, I did something about it. Here’s the kicker. On a ‘pass through’ or wholesale price plan, the merchant pays interchange plus a merchant discount. (That’s the short version, though it’s much more complicated than that.) If the non-profit is set up incorrectly, they’ll pay .95%, for example, instead of .80%. The processor does not make any money on interchange.  NONE of the .15% difference goes to the processor.  But because some salesperson has no idea what they are doing, and it happens ALL THE TIME, the non-profit frequently pays more.  The salesperson doesn’t benefit, the processor doesn’t benefit, and the merchant pays.

CAPTMORGAN comment: “Are their special credit card processing rates for non-profits….? The answer to that is NO… NOT in any way…. ? This lady is full of it….. Visa / MC considers all markets by which they have limited presence in to be “emerging markets”. These markets are specifically; government, schools, utilities, insurance, cable / broadband, and pay television (OD); – nothing more…”

I think his comment is contradictory. YES, there are other types of merchants that ALSO qualify for emerging market interchange rates. I could have mentioned all of them in the video, but then, it would have been too long. If I did mention it, I’d give the same information and advice. Because I’ve also rarely seen a merchant statement for a government, school, utility, insurance, cable / broadband, or pay television that had emerging markets on their interchange qualification. How does this happen? If the merchant has been with the same processor for a long time, the emerging markets category may have been created after the account was established. With the wrong SIC code, the merchant never qualifies for the special interchange rates because nobody at the processor is watching out for their client and the client doesn’t know these rates exist, what to look for, or they are not given enough information to figure it out.

I listened to my Non-profit Credit card processing rates video two more times to see if I have some potential liability.  Hey- who want’s trouble? I could, and probably should,  take it down just to avoid any remote chance of trouble. But after listening again, I don’t see anything wrong with it. You be the judge. Watch the video. Do you think it’s misleading or false advertising? Does this guy not have anything better to do than to try and make life difficult for others?

Please write your comments on the video or blog. Thanks!

Can I use a single merchant account if I have more than one ecommerce site? By regulation, you must have a different merchant account for each domain name.  The domain name, not the company name, must appear on consumer credit card statements. This is a field entered on the merchant application.  The main purpose is to reduce consumer confusion and thus reduce chargebacks.

What if you have single page checkouts on the same domain name?

For example, the merchant may sell something with a one page checkout. One page is mydomain.com/product1. Another is mydomain.com/product2. They do not link to a single shopping cart checkout for some internal reason. You could possibly use one merchant account for both web pages, provided it’s the same company and shares the same federal tax ID. In some cases the merchant may want to set up a separate terminal identification (TID) to assist in the reconciliation process. Each TID would have it’s own totals, but all the data appears on one merchant statement, under one merchant account. To set up TID’s, contact your merchant processor.

Non-profit organizations sometimes have this with fundraising on their web sites. The non-profit has multiple events and donor options each with a simple one page checkout specific to that event or donation. Provided the rules are met above, you can probably use one merchant account. Always check with your processor for confirmation of your situation.

related articles

internet merchant account requirements

Today’s inquiry is where can I get a merchant account with no monthly fees? The question is for a new non-profit 501c3 with less than $25,000 annual projected in credit card processing. The group needs a both a virtual terminal and online donation capability.

Answer: I don’t know any suppliers with zero monthly fees that would meet the requirements for the specifications above. My recommendation is to get a paypal Website Payments Pro account for $30 per month. The non-profit rates for the volume are as good as it gets. You’re going to pay fees whether it’s higher monthly and low rate or low monthly and high rates. I think Paypal offers some benefits for newbies with their instant online donor form, and the contract is month to month.

Step by step on paypal:

>Payment Solutions

>Accept Credit cards non-profit

>Sign up for a PayPal Business account If you don’t need a virtual terminal, you’ll select business/standard account/type of business, non-profit.

Discounted fees for nonprofits with 501 (c)(3) status

More than $100,000 in monthly volume: 1.9% + $.30 per transaction

Less than $100,000 in monthly volume: 2.2% + $.30 per transaction

There is no monthly fee. All other nonprofits are charged regular transaction rates. Discounted rates do not apply to transactions made using Website Payments Pro or Virtual Terminal.

If you need a virtual terminal, you’ll select Business>website payments pro. The non-profits rate do not apply! Pricing as of 12/15/2010:

• $30 monthly fee
• 2.2% – 2.9% + $0.30 USD per transaction* (Visa, MasterCard, Discover)
• 3.5% and no fixed fee per transaction (American Express)

Note- fees are likely to go up again in April 2010, as a result of the bi-annual interchange update.

For a new non-profit you need to estimate how many transactions you’ll have a month, and a dollar volume. Assume 50% of your transactions will be a the lowest quoted CARD NOT PRESENT rate. Assume 50% will be at the highest quoted ECOMMERCE rate. This is a general guideline to help you compare different options you may be considering.

The above information does not apply to larger volume non-profits. Click this link for related article:

industry insider reviews merchants fees for non-profits