How Businesses Can Accept Credit Cards on Cell Phones
Many businesses can benefit by accepting credit cards on cell phones. This includes the ability to accept customers’ cards from the business owner’s phone or the phone of an employee, when a customer buys products and services in a brick and mortar business, as well as the customer being able to pay at the business’s online store from their own phone.
To accept credit cards on cell phones, businesses must first obtain merchant accounts online. These accounts provide services required for diverse eCommerce payment methods, as well as the security services necessary to run a business with an online component.
What are Merchant Accounts Online?
Merchant accounts online are accounts offered by a merchant account provider to businesses (or “merchants”) that need the ability to accept credit cards from their customers. Additional services provided may include software and hardware related to accepting eCommerce payments from customers, as well as swipe machine hardware.
Different merchant accounts online offer different services, so it pays to shop around for small and large businesses, those that want to prioritize high volume payment processing or those in an industry that is considered to be at high risk for chargebacks. These factors could change the account that the business needs.
Why Should Businesses Accept Cards Over the Phone?
Customers want to buy products from websites on the go. They want to support businesses that offer diverse payment methods and encrypted transactions so that mobile purchases are safe and convenient for them.
In addition, a business owner in a brick and mortar store may want to take advantage of mobile-optimized swipe machine software that merchant accounts online can provide.
They encrypt transactions to protect against hackers, provide swipe machine hardware optimized for mobile devices, and can build the online storefront that allows customers to use a store from their own phones.
Customers today want convenience, which means accessibility. Mobile-optimized payment methods that allow stores to accept debit and credit cards, echecks, and other eCommerce payments directly from a cell phone will have a leg up on the competition.
What’s more, financial advisors are saying that, because of the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns, customers have now permanently come to expect more options for eCommerce transactions and more convenient payment systems that work with mobile devices.
The Takeaway
Accepting credit cards on cell phones should be a service that any modern business with an online component offers its customers. This includes the ability to accept credit cards on a phone in a brick and mortar store, as well as a website optimized for customers to use their cards on their own cell phones from the comfort of their homes.
Visit charge.com or call (888) 924-2743 to accept credit cards on cell phones as well as find merchant accounts online that can help businesses reach success in 2020.