The Team at AdSum
From left to right, Eric Pogue – Private Label Skin, Nate Lind – AdSum, Heather (Petersen) Altepeter – NMA, Chasity Thompson – Prospect Payments

Team NMA traveled to sunny Scottsdale this week for AdSum 2018, the online sellers’ summit. We’ve been a part of this annual event since its inception, and have seen the growth in attendance year after year.

AdSum is a conference dedicated to online sellers and the vendors and service providers supporting them, including advertisers, affiliates, CRM and fulfillment houses, and payment processors. As a merchant advocate, NMA attends and focuses on education, engaging merchants and vendors alike in conversation about current trends, compliance, and forthcoming changes in the e-commerce ecosystem.

This year, the conversation was serious – there’s a storm coming.

The nutra and continuity ecosystem has experienced scrutiny from both the card brands and regulators for years, but NMA along with other payments industry leaders expect a wave of new regulations and compliance expectations to crash down upon the online community in the near future.

While we don’t know how hard the storm will hit, or from what angle, we do know this: now is the time to prepare.

NMA’s time at AdSum was spent as a forecaster, conversing with the summit attendees about the myriad of methods and practices to survive the storm – and preventing getting hit in the future.

It all comes down to high-risk business. The label “high-risk” doesn’t mean criminal or illegal, it simply means that extra effort is needed to mitigate risk and keep the business healthy.

So what does that look like for the online selling industry, and those that support it?

It means investing in top-notch fraud prevention tools that forecast, prevent, and mitigate chargebacks during each stage of the transaction lifecycle. It also means instilling some sustainable business systems that support both industry and payments best practices.

Where to start?

NMA is hosting its 3rd Annual Fire and Ice event this week, immediately following AdSum, and for a reason.

The topics discussed and the solutions presented at Fire and Ice will directly support high-risk, done RIGHT. Merchants and service providers operating in the online selling space have a passion for bringing quality products to market. NMA is a dedicated advocate for these businesses, educating regulators and the payments industry about the complex billing models, integrated software products, and unique challenges that the e-commerce ecosystem faces.

Can’t make it to Fire and Ice 2018? Team NMA is on the road and wants to meet with YOU about our new comprehensive MID preservation software suite, our preferred vendor program, and the launch of the Responsible Traffic Association – all launched this week at Fire and Ice.