Mikey Hughes Militaria

Mikey Hughes is a small retailer and is typical of the diverse nature of Sage Pay’s customer make up. He talks about his business 'Mikey Hughes Militaria' and the challenge he faced finding a payment provider that could match his requirements…

Mikey Hughes, Big Brother's first ever blind housemate began his online business 16 years ago, specializing in buying and selling War memorabilia, bravery medals and artifacts. Mikey has always been particularly interested in how the military badge industry developed during the wars and the rise of the post-war collectors market.

“I dreamt of a bricks and mortar shop, but found it would be too expensive to set up due to the overheads and the large amount of stock necessary to keep it going” Mikey remarks. It was due to this that Mikey decided that trading online was the way forward.  “I set up the website in 2002 with the aim of buying and selling original military medals and badges from the First and Second World War.”

Mikey has a genetic condition called Stickler syndrome which gave him partial sight and he was left completely blind after a cataract operation in 1998 went wrong. Therefore Mikey's requirements for a payment system for his business were very specific and had to be met. Accessibility and ease of use were his main concerns.

“I already used PayPal, but as buyers require a computer in order to pay by this method I felt that I was restricting my consumer market”.

Mikey looked at several payment gateways but decided against them when he discovered that settlement times could take up to a month. “As a small business that survives on cash flow, I thought this was totally ridiculous”. Mikey was also put off by being charged a percentage of his takings per month.

Mikey's merchant bank recommended Sage Pay as they were not able to provide the software for Mikey’s requirements themselves.  “My account manager from Streamline came to visit me and suggested I try Sage Pay for taking my card payments”.