From a retailer’s point of view, one of the most important considerations in running a successful sales operation is to make it the sale process as simple and straight-forward as possible for your customer. A key consideration in this process is to make it as simple, easy and flexible as possible for your customer to pay for their goods. The standard method of accepting payment now is by electronic payment card – whether debit or credit card. In-fact cheques are becoming a thing of the past, with banks looking to phase this method out in the coming years.
In order for a retailer to accept card payments, they need to set up a merchant account, along with a compatible card payment terminal. The process may appear a little daunting at first, but in essence, the whole process is relatively straight-forward and should only take a couple of weeks to set up new accounts, and less than that if you already have an existing merchant account and are just looking to move provider in order to reduce your card processing costs.
One of the considerations you will need to make involves how you wish to accept payment – is it simply for face-to-face ‘chip and pin’ transactions, are your transactions – ‘person-non’ present’ – i.e. over the phone or mail-order? Or do you wish to trade on-line and increase your market-place to as potential world-wide audience?
There are a number of companies offering merchant savings and cheap merchant services – these companies tend to be every bit, or even more competitive than traditional high-street banks. Some of these providers actually offer a fully-managed service, ensuring that you remain on the most competitive of rates, as well as providing excellent advice on terminal support. Leading the way in the UK credit and debit card payment processing is Crystals Merchant Services – offering superb reduced cost card processing, Crystals Merchant Services can analyse your existing merchant costs and save you considerable sums of money on your monthly processing costs. Visit www.crystalsms.co.uk for further information. Few people actually look at their monthly processing costs, relying on their existing provider and trusting that they are on a competitive deal – this is a mistake – let Crystals Merchant Services analyse your costs and provide you with a competitive quote.
There are a number of different types of terminal available to allow you to accept payment by electronic card. A standard counter-top fixed terminal may be ideal for garages and traditional shops, but in addition to these, there are numerous portable and mobile solutions. Bluetooth or wireless radio technology allows a terminal to be taken direct to a customer – for example a diner in a restaurant can pay for a meal without leaving the table. Taking portable terminals a step further – mobile GPRS terminals can operate anywhere that they can pick up a mobile signal – a mobile network SIM card securely transmits the transaction data over the mobile phone network. These types of terminals are perfect for field-based sales people, as well as people who work remotely, such as exhibitions or trade shows.
It is simple and cost-effective to start accepting payment by electronic card, but in addition to this it is important to ensure that your company is on the most competitive rate – if you already accept payments by card – when was the last time you checked to see if you are on the most competitive rate? It is well worth getting a free competitive analysis of your existing card processing costs to see you can make savings on your existing merchant account.
Why not have a look around to see if you could save money on your card processing? You have nothing to lose and you could have everything to gain. If you find that you could save money, it is a simple process to swap providers – you get your money in the same time, you have no disruption or down-time in your processing – you just save money on your monthly charges.
Food for thought? How many times has your existing bank knocked on your door to offer you reduced cost card processing?
Andrew Beatt offers advice and consultation on UK merchant card processing solutions. If you would like further information, or to see if you are on the most competitive rate, why not visit http://www.crystalsms.co.uk It potentially could save you considerable sums.
