Why Your Growing Business Should Accept Credit Card Payments

Avoid growing pains by adopting the right credit card acceptance strategy. A recent study showed that approximately 83% of small business owners expect to expand in 2019. The payment landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years and has managed to keep pace with the tech boom. Accordingly, most small business owners today are increasingly convinced about the need to accept credit card payments.

Why It’s A Smart Move To Accept Card Payments

A recent survey shows that 75% of consumers choose to pay via plastic. Though the cost of doing business may seem high when you’re just starting out, it’s important to acknowledge that you’re not planning on staying small forever – unless you plan for growth, it often doesn’t happen.

Accepting card payments has enormous benefits:

• Stay in sync with customer expectations
• “Digital natives” look for rich customer experience, convenience, swift and easy processes
• It gives customers the feel of working with a modern company
• Legitimizes your business and builds trust because your business can piggyback on the reputation of the card brand that consumers carry in their wallets
• Sales have shown to increase significantly (12-18% higher spending) through card payment acceptance
• Shorter funding time and smoother cash flow
• Less time wasted in check clearing or depositing cash
• Safer than keeping large amounts of cash
• Prevents risk of theft or embezzlement
• Access larger pool of customers – local, national/international tourists, online shoppers
• Reach customers on the go at events, promos, fairs

Business Growth and Credit Cards

As a small business owner, you need to focus on growing your business and accepting credit card payments makes a lot of strategic sense.

• It boosts productivity: Your average collection period or daily sales outstanding (DSO) can be kept under control. A high DSO means that a lot of money lies tied up in receivables either as check payments, delays, defaults, etc. Credit card payments ensure that the funds are deposited swiftly into your account and you can leverage them to invest, diversify, explore newer, smarter ways of doing business.

• Ready credit: Business owners get a source of ready credit for personal and official expenses. You can also give your staff cards for official use and it becomes easier to monitor and track official expenses. This helps business owners to plan and control the outflow.

• Value adds: Credit or debit card users collect points, rewards or discounts when they use their plastic. You can build a strong and loyal group of returning customers by giving them a little extra especially when they purchase big ticket items or are regular shoppers.

• Partner with card associations for strategic advantages: In 2018 Visa offered huge cash rewards to certain restaurants that had completely gone cashless.

• Give back to the community: Studies show that nearly 48% of spending at local, independent, small businesses returns directly into the community as compared to expenditure at big name franchises and chains.

For more information on why your growing business should accept credit card payments, or to sign up for a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.