It’s been about two and half years since
Vantiv is the second-largest payment processor in the country, but it expects to become the largest in 2017, said Lori Stafford-Thomas, a spokeswoman for the company.
The Durango office is the second-largest office within the Vantiv system, and it is home to one of the fastest growing parts of the company, said Matt Taylor, group president of integrated payments and emerging channels.
Becoming part of Vantiv – a company with more expertise, products and influence in the marketplace – allowed the Durango office to grow much faster than it otherwise would have, he said.
There are 420 employees working in Durango and about 30 open positions, and Taylor is expecting the local office building will soon fill up.
New ways for consumers to purchase products on their phones and for businesses to track shopping trends are helping open new opportunities for the company, which works with companies that develop point-of-sale technology.
It also works with these companies to aggregate data for businesses on several levels, he said.
Many larger companies are already using this kind of data, but small businesses want more data aggregation this year, he said.
The company provides the data as an additional service. By helping merchants increase their sales, it increases the payments that Vantiv processes for them, Stafford-Thomas said.
Vantiv’s systems can track where people are shopping, how often they make purchases and how they are paying.
Working with point-of sale systems, Vantiv can track what people are purchasing.
This can help businesses understand seasonal trends and make better decisions, Taylor said.
“Shopper activity is really important to figure out what to buy, how to sell it, what price to sell it at, et cetera,” Taylor said.
Vantiv can also help large businesses with point-of-sale systems better understand their customers.
For example, Vantiv helps casinos understand where their patrons are spending money on the gambling floor and in their retail outlets, Taylor said.
Some customers opt-in to loyalty programs, like membership cards, and that allows their habits to be tracked by name.
Many of these store-card or gift card programs for small- and medium-sized businesses are managed at the Durango office.
The mandatory transition to chip debit and credit cards has also opened up new opportunities for the company to help small businesses start accepting mobile payments from cell phones, Taylor said.
Point-of-sale systems that can accept chip cards can also accept mobile payments and encrypt the data as the phone is swiped.
Paying with a phone app is the idea behind Amazon Go’s headline-grabbing concept that a customer will be able walk into one of its grocery stores and walk out without stopping to pay. This is called a frictionless payment.
Taylor expects this type of technology to become much more widespread.
“The merchant will just know that consumer is present,” he said.
Making it easier for consumers to purchase items on their phone, makes it more likely consumers won’t change their mind about an item, Stafford-Thomas said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
