Your Small Business can Benefit from Accepting Credit Card Payments

Running a small business can be challenging, but not in the ways you’d expect. Sometimes, business owners may be focusing so much on keeping expenses low that they might put themselves at a disadvantage.

For example, you may think that your business volumes don’t warrant credit card acceptance. It may seem expensive or unnecessary, like opening a current account for your business before you have the right transaction volume to justify it. In fact, by failing to accept credit cards, you may be preventing your business from growing–or even from getting off the ground.

Because your business is small, you’ll probably want to spend as little as possible, so zero in on payment processors with no application fee. This payment processor should offer other advantages to entice you. They may offer a free shopping cart for your online store, or free POS terminals for your physical store. All these bonuses can trim your expenses.

But SHOULD you accept credit cards?

Yes, because studies have proven that customers spend more when they pay by credit card. Some of the reasons why this is true may seem obvious. For example, their credit cards give them access to larger amounts of cash than they can comfortably carry in their pockets. So they may walk into your store with a $20 bill then walk out with a $100 credit card purchase, even if your business is on the smaller side.

The second reason is – as studies have shown – paying by credit card reduces what Duke University researcher Dan Ariely has called the ‘pain of paying’. That is, when you give the cashier your card, they swipe it, and then they give it back to you intact, so you don’t feel the same sense of loss as giving out a stack of $20 bills and getting back just a bit of change or nothing at all. Indeed, many customers actually get a jolt of pleasure from swiping their card.

Another reason to accept cards at your small business is to craft a loyalty program. Even if a customer only spends a few dollars each day, you want them to spend it consistently at your store, and accepting their loyalty-program-linked credit card could keep them coming back.

Applying the easy way

It helps that signing up to accept credit cards is quick and hassle-free. Approval typically takes a day or less, even with a bad credit score. Accepting credit cards makes your business look professional, both to customers and potential financiers, so it’s worth looking into.

For more information on how your small business can benefit from credit card payments, or to sign up for a merchant account, please call (888) 924-2743 or go to Charge.com.