Garmin 255W Reviews

Shark Vacuums are recognized for its durability and very very powerful suction. Anybody who has to clean an space or room with teeny grime and debris will for sure be conscious of the reliable suction of shark vacuums.

Along with Shark hoovers the equivalent from Dyson is the DC14. Chekout the Dyson DC14 Review for a comparison.

The best thing about Shark hoovers is the incredible suction. In all assessments and homeowner ratings, more or less everybody raved about the suction of these vacuum cleaners. Shark has a number of well-rated and popular models to boast. Here are a few of them.

Shark EP602 Bagless Stick Vacuum

The Shark EP602 fits more to modest areas like apartments or small establishments. This model offers 1200w of powerful suction and naturally and easily switches from a hand held cleaner to an upright vacuum model. It has a HEPA filtration system and dust glass that ensures to trap and keep dust particles as you thoroughly clean. It even has a chrome telescopic handle and shoulder strap that are both engineered to save you from wear and tear. This stick model has 1.5x suction power when put next to that of a full-sized vacuum, no problem to maneuver and light weight.

Another alternative to the Shark is the Dyson DC17. Find more by reading the Dyson DC17 Review and see how they compare.

Shark EP724 Pursuit HEPA Bagless Canister Vacuum

The Shark EP724 is one perfect unit advised to be used in any home or office. This light-weight model offers the trademark cyclonic action prevalent in Shark models, 1200w motor, a sealed, secured, and certified HEPA filter that catches 99.97% of dust particles, large wheels, and 15-foot long cord.

Along with Shark hoovers the equivalent from Dyson is the DC16. Chekout the Dyson DC16 Review for a comparison.

Shark EP238 HEPA Compact Canister Vacuum

The Shark EP238 vacuum cleaner is a small & convenient yet strong vacuum cleaner. It has a telescopic handle arrangement, instant cord rewind making this an efficient option for users with back trouble. This bagged hoovers has disposable bags and has two nozzles completely for carpet and bare floors, and a dusting brush. It boasts a shoulder strap for cleaning furniture and drapes.

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February 22nd, 2010

If you are not the type of person that wants to spend their time managing an elaborate fruit or vegetable garden, you might consider planting and maintaining an herb garden. While the product might not seem as significant, you will still enjoy the constant availability of fresh, delicious herbs to flavor your meals with.

First you will want to choose the herbs that you will plant. You might have a hard time doing this because of the huge scope of herbs available. But the best way to choose is to do what I did; just look at what you have in your kitchen. By planting your own collection of these herbs, you can save money on buying them from the grocery store while having the added benefit of freshness. Some of the herbs you might start with include rosemary, sage, basil, dill, mint, chives, and parsley among others.

When choosing an area to put your herb garden, you should remember that the soil should have extremely good drainage. If the dirt gets watered and stays completely saturated, you have no chance of ever growing a healthy plant. One of the best ways to fix the drainage problem is to dig a foot deep in the soil, and put a layer of crushed rocks down before replacing all the soil. This will allow all that water to escape, thus saving your plants.

When you are ready to begin planting herbs, you might be tempted to buy the more expensive plants from the store. However, with herbs it is much easier to grow them from seed than it is with other plants. Therefore you can save a bundle of money by sticking with seed packets. Some herbs grow at a dangerously fast rate. For example, if you plant a mint plant in an open space then it will take over your entire garden in a matter of days. The best way to prevent this problem is to plant the more aggressive plants in pots (with holes in the bottom to allow drainage, of course).

When it comes time to harvest the herbs you have labored so hard over, it can be fatal to your plant to take off too much. If your plant is not well established, it is not healthy to take any leaves at all, even if it looks like its not using them. You should wait until your plant has been well established for at least several months before taking off any leaves. This wait will definitely be worth it, because by growing unabated your plant will produce healthily for years to come.

Once you have harvested your delicious home grown herbs, you will want to use them in cooking. Why else would you have grown them? Well first the process begins with drying them out. This is easily achieved by placing them on a cookie sheet and baking them 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 to 4 hours. After they are sufficiently dried to be used in cooking, you can consult the nearest cookbook for instructions on using them to effectively flavor a dish.

If you want to store your herbs for later usage, you should keep them in a plastic or glass container. Paper or cardboard will not work, because it will absorb the taste of the herbs. During the first few days of storage, you should regularly check the container and see if any moisture has accumulated. If it has, you must remove all the herbs and re-dry them. If moisture is left from the first drying process, it will encourage mildew while you store your herbs. Nobody likes mildew.

So if you enjoy herbs or gardening, or both, then you should probably consider setting up an herb garden. It might require a little bit of work at first to set it up for optimal drainage, and pick what herbs you want to grow. But after the initial hassle, it is just a matter of harvesting and drying all your favorite herbs.

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February 22nd, 2010

A major cause of house being destroyed buy flames is buy candles. Extensive research leads to an alternative for safe candle lightings. It turns out that, this alternative of being safe becomes a better one. Turing into wickless candles has give the public especially candle lovers to a better, more cost effective method of scenting their world. The Scentsy Wickless Candles are prepared out of the same soft wax as a jarred candle, which is a soft wax that permits for the utmost amount of scent to be held in it. It have much more fragrant than votives, tarts or wax chips, one bar will live longer than most jarred candles thrice their size!

To produce a pool of melted was, secret recipe of ingredients is used. After that, the waxes are made into a wickless candle bar. Only the finest scented oils are hand-picked to give a collection of aromas. The melted wax is poured into reusable containers for easy storage.
It is amazing thinking that the wax does not evaporate resulting to no soot formation. Enjoy an eye catching décor by placing your Scentsy wickless candles to the beautiful wickless candle warmers collection. Choose from the wide variety of warmers: nautical, smooth stone, safari, renaissance, Olympus, Isabella and island collection of wickless candle warmer. Plug-in warmers, mid-size, full-size, choose from and there is a warmer for every room, every style and every budget.

After the disappearance of the scent, you just pour the warm liquid in to a disposable container, then clean the wickless candle warmer and lastly put a new scent. Changing scent is easy; just pour the wax into a container and save it.  Aside from being wickless, Scentsy wickless candles will give you the benefits of a lead free, flameless and smokeless candle experience with 60 to 80 hours burn time per bar and a safer and healthier alternative to wicked candles

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February 22nd, 2010

The world is getting health conscious day by day; even kids are trying to maintain their bodies by joining gyms. People are getting selective about the food they consume; most health conscious folks avoid eating non-vegetarian food because of its fat and cholesterol content. People who have a non-vegetarian diet try to consume meat in moderation to stay healthy. For healthy body you should not only limit the intake of non-vegetarian food but also include more and more fresh foods in your diet.

People who have never tasted fresh fruits and vegetables have missed out on a healthier alternative to other foods. Salads are the best way of eating fresh vegetables and fruits. Salads comprising of green vegetables and other vegetables have high content of vital nutrients that helps the immunity and performance of your body. Catering melbourne offers best Gourmet salads for your parties and events. The salads made by Catering melbourne are made from healthy, fresh and organic vegetables and fruits. With Catering melbourne you can have an all salad menu for your party or you can team it up with other menus like finger foods and drinks.

Catering melbourne offers customized salad menus for your guests. Fresh vegetable salads like Garden mixed salad, Roast tomato Couscous with chickpeas, Tabouli and Greek salads offered by Catering melbourne are rage amongst the guest. Classic salads like Waldorf Salads and Caesar Salads are Catering melbourne’s specialities. Other salads offered by Catering melbourne are Greek Salad, Summer Beetroot, Gourmet Thai Noodles, Indian Rice, Moroccan Couscous, Fruity Couscous, Potato Sour Cream & Herb Salad, Chicken Mustard Pasta Salad, Fettuccine Basil Mayonnaise and Seafood Coriander Pasta Salad.

Catering melbourne whips up such delicious salads that even non-vegetarian lovers will fall in love with healthy salads. Every salad available on Catering melbourne’s platter is not only tasty but is also unique and loved by Australians. The fresh wafts of fresh vegetable and fruit salads are enough to make your mouth water. Catering melbourne is a pro in making salads for corporate and private events. For your next Salad meeting or party try out Catering melbourne catering services. We are sure you will not be disappointed as they will leave you wanting for more.

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February 21st, 2010

What is balloon printing?

Balloon printing is quite simply the procedure of applying some type of graphic onto the exterior of a balloon. Balloon printing companies have been around for a long time, but modern printing techniques and new machinery are helping to improve the scope of what kind of balloons can be printed on, and what logos may be applied.

Balloons can have multi-coloured designs printed onto their surfaces, and this can be enhanced by using smart designs and utilising the colour of the balloon itself. It is likewise possible to print onto both sides of any balloon, so no matter where people are standing in relation to the balloon they ought to be able to see the printed images.

This article hopes to highlight just a few of the possible uses of personalised, branded balloons. I hope you find it useful.

Advantages

Balloons are great because they are not an overly expensive thing to get hold of. Even the more elaborate balloons do not have to cost the Earth, and when you do a comparison of prices with many of the alternate options you can easily see the monetary benefits of printed balloons.

One of the most interesting things about using printed balloons at any kind of event is the great flexibility they offer. Modern balloon technology allows such a broad range of shapes, sizes and shades that you can really let your imaginationrun wild and let your imaginative side to take over. There are some limitations, but most people are amazed at what can be achieved with simply just balloons.

This versatility becomes even more significant when you start using balloons collectively to create balloon strings or sculptures. You can mix different coloured balloons to great effect and create bold patterns, or use different shapes and styles of balloons to create eye-catching exhibits.

Another great benefit of utilizing balloons is that they are incredibly lightweight. This makes them incredibly easy to move around and to sculpt into various sculptures. You will not need to hire moving men or forklift trucks to get them to where you want them to be! Another great advantage is that if you are going to fill them on site, many hundreds of balloons will fit into a handbag. This means they can easily be used to decorate even the most remote of locations.

If you are struggling to find inspiration for your own balloon design, view a printing website for inspiration and information about balloon printing techniques.

For social events

Having a set of your own, personalised, printed balloons for a social gathering always adds an additional element of fun and interest to what you are doing. Whether the event you are attending is a reasonably formal affair, such as a grand dinner party, or a very informal occasion, such as a stag or hen party, you will discover that printed balloons can really make the night be noticeable.

Wedding parties

Wedding parties are the ideal occasion for usingprinted balloons to add charm to your location. They are both formal and informal events at the same moment, with a serious intent but also a focus on having fun and savoring the day. This is where the flexibility of balloon printing comes into its own.

For the wedding meal, photo-taking or any other formal announcements, you can use various smart balloons printed to match your surroundings. Then when the partyreally begins you can have a selection of fun balloons having a personalised wedding message.

Stag & hen nights

Stag and hen nights are usually fun occasions, and more often than not they will entail some form of dressing up or decoration. So why not use printed balloons as a way of “jazzing up” your night and truly making your party stand out from the masses.

L-plate balloons. One of the most recognisable elements of a hen party is the bride to be donning driving L-plates on their clothing. It is a time honored touch that usually makes the lucky lady stand out from her group of hens. But there is no reason to restrict yourself to decorating outfits. Why not print an L-plate on a good sized balloon and attach it to the bride to be. Then everyone will easily know who to look out for during the rest of the night!

Nickname balloons. Groups of males out on stag nights will frequently have their pictures and nicknames used by their good friends printed onto a t-shirt or top. But again, why stop at the clothing? You can print faces, nicknames, or just about any other humorous facts onto personalised balloons and hand them out to members of your stag group.

Decorating functions

Printed balloons at events don’t have to be highly conspicuous or gaudy. In fact, you will discover that there are many ways that you can organise printed balloons to create very elegant effects. At many formal events, such as award ceremonies or grand birthday parties, balloons can turn out to be an interesting piece of furniture as opposed to an outlandish statement.

The fantastic flexibility that comes with using balloons at events means that they can be both promotional and decorative. You could use a printed pattern on the balloons and then assemble lots of them together to give the impression of dynamic wallpaper! On the other hand you could use the surface area of the balloons to print your company branding or a message you want to get across to your guests.

If you are inflating printed balloons on location then helium gas cylinders can supply the necessary amount of gas to fill them.

For corporate events

Although many of us associate memories of balloons with birthday parties when we were youngsters, printed balloons can also be used in a more grownup environment. The use of printed balloons can actually be very beneficial in the business world.

Exhibitions

Any person who has had a space at a corporate exhibition will know just how very much competition there is for space and quite how hard everybody attempts to bring potential customers in their direction. If you use the standard methods of marketing to your exhibition display you will discover that you need to spend plenty of time, and often lots of money, to really stand out.

Advertising potential

If you are making use of helium filled balloons to help market your organisationthen you will be instantly at an advantage. As we all know, helium filled balloons are lighter than the air around them and will float upwards. With the appropriate amount of string linked to the balloon you will be positioning your corporate identity in a space over and above the reach of regular advertising.

Just like printing your logo or corporate message onto carrier bags or other packaging, printing onto balloons provides a mobile marketing space that you do not have to carry around yourself. Every single time you hand out a printed balloon to a customer at the exhibition, you are effectually giving out a promotional item for your company that will be movingaround.

Yet another great advantage of using printed balloons as a corporate advertising tool is the price tag. No matter what condition the economy may be in, firms are always looking for the most cost-effective means to promote themselves, and printed balloons are certainly one of these methods. For a relativelylow fee you can get hold of a good quantity of balloons, all printed with your customised message.

It is important to note that using a 100 percent balloon-based solution as your marketing plan will not always bring the results you are looking for. It is much better to use printed balloons as one part of your advertising plan. Think of balloons as the exclamation mark on the end of your marketing sentence.

If you are in the Buckinghamshire region you might see products from B-Loony Chesham at parties and decorating members of a stag or hen party.

Balloon printing options

There are two main types of balloon that can be printed on; latex balloons and also foil balloons.

Latex balloons are the most common type of balloon. They are the teardrop shaped balloons that are somewhat rubbery in texture. They now come in a wide range of colour possibilities, and you can even get balloons that are semi-transparent or have a metallic surface finish.

Foil balloons are actually made from mylar, and rather than being formed of one solitary piece of material they are more typically made by sealing two separate pieces together. This hemming procedure allows for a vast range of different shapes, including stars and hearts.

The environmental impact

Balloons are a consumable product, and as such people are often worried about the effect they have upon the environment. The good news is that balloons are actually quite an eco friendly solution and using them will not have a damaging effect on the natural world.

Latex balloons are made of a substance called natural rubber latex (NRL) which is gathered from trees in tropical locations. The trees are merely tapped for their rubber rather than chopped down, and the cultivation of rubber tree plantations actually helps to prevent rainforest deforestation.
They are also biodegradable and can even be used on the compost heap! Latex balloons will decompose at different speeds according to the circumstances they are left in, though testing has demonstrated that they will usually decompose entirely within 6 months. This is the same length of time as oak leaves take to decompose.

Get your own printed balloons

I hope this article will have highlighted a few of the situations that printed balloons are well suited to, and perhaps you are already thinking of an upcoming event where balloons would make a perfect party piece.

If you would like to find out more about obtaining your own customised printed balloons, there are many companies that are now offering balloon printing as a service. By searching on-line you will be able to locate a balloon printing company that can help you out. Once you have seen how well balloons help to set off your party you will want to make use of them over and over!

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February 21st, 2010

The developers of video compression and publishing software DV Kitchen make a bold claim . . . they call it the best solution in the world for publishing professional quality video on the web.

So how does it measure up?

First, DV Kitchen uses the highest quality H.264 encoder on the planet. Being an open source codec, H.264 has spawned a number of variants, and x264 has emerged a clear winner among the contenders. While DV Kitchen also encodes to flash (.flv), windows media video (.wmv) and 75 other formats, the makers are rightly proud of the fantastic x264 sample clips they make available for download on their site.

Next, DV Kitchen is the only software on the market that includes tools to help you determine the ideal encoding settings for your video. The brilliantly designed SampleLab allows you to easily compare encoding receipes and quickly zero in on the ideal encoding settings for each video you encode. It’s an extremely valuable tool you’ll find yourself using everytime you encode video . . . and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

The Bitrate Budget Calculator will give you a bitrate in kilobits per second to keep your videos under to save bandwidth costs and avoid having your viewers wait unnecessarily.

DV Kitchen also works great for encoding audio.

But the video encoder for mac is only part of the story . . . DV Kitchen will also upload your videos and audio to your server automatically when it has finished encoding. You can store as many remote folders as you want and select them with one click. There’s even an integrated FTP browser that makes choosing directories, creating folders and deleting files on your remote server as easy as on your local hard drive.

DV Kitchen also has a media publishing room that generates html code for embedding your videos in a web page, forum or blog. It will even generate complete web pages with titles, captions and poster frames with either Quicktime or flash players.

What about still images?

DV Kitchen will automatically import, rotate, resize and upload still images . . . and write html code for those too!

DV Kitchen also features TimeFreezer . . . the world’s best enviroment for exporting high quality still frames from video. With TimeFreezer, you can export stills - deinterlaced if needed - then upload them and generate html tags in seconds.

DV Kitchen is the ultimate 21st century media professional’s power toolbox. To see this great x264 encoder in action, watch the official encoder for mac demo.

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February 20th, 2010

You have boxes upon boxes of old toys that haven’t been touched in years sitting up in the attic. The clutter in the kitchen is getting to be so overwhelming that you can’t even sit down comfortably.

With all this trouble and fighting for room, something has to be done. Even when you eventually find someone interested they might try to barter down the price to the point where you’d be better off throwing the items in question away. A buyer may not even appreciate the value of your designer items and so they don’t sell at all, leaving you right where you started.

A yard or garage sale is a ton of work, and your results will likely be hardly worth it. So what’s a person to do? The answer just may be a Chicago E Bay consignment service.

Of course you could try using eBay yourself and get in on all that exciting online auction action. Unfortunately that may prove stressful and overwhelming, particularly if you are new to the online world. Letting somebody else handle all of the associated tasks may be the best way, so you don’t have to do it all alone.

Once you have selected what eBay consignment store you’d like to use, there isn’t much else you need to do. The service will set up your online auction, price your items, take pictures of them and do the promotion. This is especially helpful when you have no idea how much an item is worth.

The consignment store also has many other services. When potential buyers have questions, they will do the answering. And there’s no need to write out a fancy description about your item or worry about shipping it. They take care of that too. Collecting the payment and sending you your money is handled by the service too. It’s just that simple.

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February 19th, 2010

In 1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, professor of chemistry at Cambridge University, conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a means to rapidly cool an object. Franklin and Hadley confirmed that evaporation of highly volatile liquids such as alcohol and ether, could be used to drive down the temperature of an object past the freezing point of water. They conducted their experiment with the bulb of a mercury thermometer as their object and with a bellows used to “quicken” the evaporation; they lowered the temperature of the thermometer bulb down to 7°F while the ambient temperature was 65°F.

Franklin noted that soon after they passed the freezing point of water (32°F) a thin film of ice formed on the surface of the thermometer’s bulb and that the ice mass was about a quarter inch thick when they stopped the experiment upon reaching 7°F. Franklin concluded, “From this experiment, one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer’s day”

In 1805, American inventor Oliver Evans designed but never built a refrigeration system based on the vapor-compression refrigeration cycle rather than chemical solutions or volatile liquids such as ethyl ether.

In 1820, the British scientist Michael Faraday liquefied ammonia and other gases by using high pressures and low temperatures.

An American living in Great Britain, Jacob Perkins, obtained the first patent for a vapor-compression refrigeration system in 1834. Perkins built a prototype system and it actually worked, although it did not succeed commercially.

In 1842, an American physician, John Gorrie, designed the first system for refrigerating water to produce ice. He also conceived the idea of using his refrigeration system to cool the air for comfort in homes and hospitals (i.e., air-conditioning). His system compressed air, then partially cooled the hot compressed air with water before allowing it to expand while doing part of the work required to drive the air compressor. That isentropic expansion cooled the air to a temperature low enough to freeze water and produce ice, or to flow “through a pipe for effecting refrigeration otherwise” as stated in his patent granted by the U.S. Patent Office in 1851. Gorrie built a working prototype, but his system was a commercial failure.

Alexander Twining began experimenting with vapor-compression refrigeration in 1848 and obtained patents in 1850 and 1853. He is credited with having initiated commercial refrigeration in the United States by 1856.

Widespread commercial refrigeration use

By the 1870s breweries had become the largest users of commercial refrigeration units, though some still relied on harvested ice. Though the ice-harvesting industry had grown immensely by the turn of the 20th century, pollution and sewage had begun to creep into natural ice making it a problem in the metropolitan suburbs. Eventually breweries began to complain of tainted ice. This raised demand for more modern and consumer-ready refrigeration and ice-making machines. In 1895, German engineer Carl von Linde set up a large-scale process for the production of liquid air and eventually liquid oxygen for use in safe household refrigerators.

Refrigerated railroad cars were introduced in the US in the 1840s for the short-run transportation of dairy products. In 1867 J.B. Sutherland of Detroit, Michigan patented the refrigerator car designed with ice tanks at either end of the car and ventilator flaps near the floor which would create a gravity draft of cold air through the car.

By 1900 the meat packing houses of Chicago had adopted ammonia-cycle industrial refrigeration. By 1914 almost every location used artificial refrigeration. The big meat packers, Armour, Swift, and Wilson, had purchased the most expensive units which they installed on train cars and in branch houses and storage facilities in the more remote distribution areas.

It was not until the middle of the 20th century that refrigeration units were designed for installation on tractor-trailer rigs (trucks or lorries). Refrigerated vehicles are used to transport perishable goods, such as frozen foods, fruit and vegetables, and temperature-sensitive chemicals. Most modern refrigerators keep the temperature between -40 and +20 °C and have a maximum payload of around 24 000 kg. gross weight (in Europe).

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February 19th, 2010

Getting in shape is best when you have a personal trainer Frisco working with you. I have been working out with my personal trainer in Frisco for roughly three years now and I have loved every session! Even when I’m exhausted, my trainer finds some way to get me energetic again.

The Frisco personal trainers from Lady Trainers To Go are definitely a group committed to getting you the best results possible. Not only have I reached the goals I wanted, my Frisco personal trainer has taught me how to keep those results maintained. More importantly, I’m learning how to continuously challenge myself so I don’t become bored with exercise.

Over the years I’ve learned yoga, Pilates and strength training. Many people would think that I could continue on my own, and although that is a possibility, I like the companionship of my Frisco personal trainer. I also like how she keeps me disciplined and focused on moving forward. My in-home trainer is skilled, creative and full of knowledge. She’s assertive, yet empathetic to the obstacles I’ve faced when it comes to my fitness goals. But never has she ever made me like a failure. Instead, she has made me realize that slipups happen. You just have to refocus and press forward. There really is no better way to get in shape than to workout with a Frisco personal trainer from Lady Trainers To Go. If you need a buddy system when it comes to exercise, you should most definitely give this a shot! You’ll be so glad you did.

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February 19th, 2010

Consumers don’t like carrying cash but are wary of handing over a credit card because of the risk of credit card fraud. But what’s the alternative?

Contactless payments.

The next generation of electronic payment, contactless payments don’t require the customer to hand over their card. The whole transaction is completed electronically, and their card never leaves their hand. It’s faster, easier and much more secure.

But what about the merchant? Should cash-heavy merchants rush into setting up a contactless payments merchant account? A payments consultant would answer a resounding yes! Contactless payments merchant accounts deliver even greater benefits to merchants than it does to consumers. Read on to find out how.

What is Contactless Payment?

Contactless payments merchant accounts are the third generation of electronic payments. (The first generation was the old plastic credit card, and the second was the magnetic stripe card.) Merchants with contactless payments merchant accounts enable customers to use their credit cards for purchases without ever handing their card over. Contactless payments merchant account transactions use one of the following methods:

• Contactless readers;
• Retailer cards/fobs;
• NFC (near field communication) enabled mobile payment software; or
• Back end processing/over the air payment software.

Customers love it!

Payments consulting research shows that 86% of consumers want to carry less cash, and most carry less than $20. (Survey was conducted in 2005 by lpsos and commissioned by MasterCard). They’re growing more comfortable using credit, but they’re still quite worried about security issues when handing over their card. In fact, 91% of likely users would feel more secure if they were allowed to hold their payment card through their entire payment process.

And then there’s ease of use, speed and convenience. Nationwide, almost 75% of respondents refuse to wait in line longer than five minutes for a purchase of less than $25, and more than 25% refuse to wait longer than just two minutes.

So how does contactless payment compare in terms of speed? Very well, in fact… It takes only 1/3 to ½ of the time of the average cash or traditional credit card transaction:

• CVS Pharmacy Average Cash Transaction = 33.7 seconds
• Average Card Transaction (w/o Signature = 26.7 seconds
• Average RF Transaction = 12.5 seconds

So contactless payments increase customers’ sense of security and decrease hated wait-times. It’s no surprise, then, that customers love it!

And the growth rate of contactless payments merchant accounts shows it. According to Brian Triplett, senior vice president for emerging product development-Visa USA, “The adoption rate is the fastest we’ve seen for any new technology. I do expect we will continue to see significant growth; whether it’s double or triple we’ll have to wait and see.”

What are the Benefits for Merchants?

The most obvious benefit for merchants in having contactless payments merchant accounts is that consumers love it, so they’ll use it more often and spend more.

But the benefits don’t end there. Contactless payments merchant accounts also:

• Leverage ‘Top of Wallet’ convenience - Like traditional credit cards (and unlike cash), the customer’s card is always in their wallet, which means they’re more likely to spend, simply because they can.

• Deliver increased merchant differentiation - Particularly in the early days of adoption, merchants with contactless payments merchant accounts will ‘stand out from the crowd.’ They’ll offer consumers a new and exciting way to pay for goods and services.

• Are cheaper to operate - Transactions clear as a card-present, magnetic stripe-read transaction, but card readers are a fraction of the cost of a new POS terminal.

• Increase efficiency - Businesses with contactless payments merchant accounts enjoy much more rapid check-out times during peak hours.

• Are easy to install and upgrade - The hardware for contactless payments merchant accounts is all plug-n-play.

• Increase customer loyalty - Studies show that customers return to the participating merchant’s location on an average of two times a month.

• Leverage a general consumer movement away from cash (20%) - Even customers who don’t specifically love contactless payment probably DO specifically dislike cash. By offering them an alternative, businesses increase the likelihood of a sale.

Put simply, businesses with contactless payments merchant accounts enjoy increased transaction volume (average 45%) and increased ticket size (average 20%).

What Merchants Benefit Most from Contactless Payments Merchant Accounts?

Contactless payments merchant accounts are ideal for cash-heavy merchants. Target industries include:

• QSR
• Petroleum & C-store
• Book Stores
• Dry Cleaners
• Video Rental
• Pharmacy
• Grocery
• Parking
• Movie Theaters
• Stadiums & Arenas
• Theme Parks
• Events
• Cafeterias (Schools & Corporate)
• Taxis
• Transit
• Vending
• News Stands
• Parking Garages

Conclusion – The Future of Contactless Payments Merchant Accounts?

Contactless payment offers significant bottom-line benefits to merchants. It’s the next generation payment system that’s faster, easier, more secure and more convenient for consumers, which means it facilitates more sales (greater volume transaction) of greater value (ticket lift) for merchants. It’s a win-win situation!

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February 19th, 2010