No matter what type of business you run, accepting credit card payments is strongly recommended. When I was 18, I used to work at a minimum wage telemarketing job where I’d call small business owners to persuade them to buy our company’s credit card processing machine/system.
I knew very little about what I was selling at the time but now that I’m an entrepreneur, I completely understand the importance of accepting credit cards. Sure, there may be some fees involved but it’s still worth it. Plus depending on who you work with, the fees can be very minimal compared to your overall profit.
Here are a few key reasons why you should accept credit card payments despite any processing fees.
Increased Sales
It’s no secret that most businesses accept card payments. In fact, customers expect you to accept their debit and credit cards. This is why 83% of businesses that accept credit card payments see increased sales. When I went to New York a few weeks ago, my husband I were really hungry after a tour and started to look for a place to eat.
To our surprise, most of the restaurants in the area only accepted cash as a form of payment. We didn’t have enough cash on us and didn’t want to pay the high ATM fee so we passed on most of the restaurants. The places that didn’t accept cards missed out on our business and I’m sure they missed out on a lot of other business too.
Easier to Sell and Offer Payment Plans
Could your business benefit from offering payment plans? If you have some high ticket products or a subscription program, accepting credit card payments will be much more convenient for your customers.
No one wants to mail checks or time out of their day to hand you cash anymore. You can accept regular payments online via a quick and easy payment processor.
If you’re getting recurring income from payment plans and subscriptions, it will likely be worth the small fee required to accept payments.
Factor Fees Into Your Pricing
Don’t forget, you can always factor the fees to accept credit card payments into your pricing. I work with a contractor who didn’t realize that PayPal charged a transaction fee which meant that whenever I paid one of her invoices, a small amount was deducted from the payment.
After realizing that the fee was cutting into her payment, she asked if she could bill me a slightly higher amount with the fee in mind. That way, she could earn closer to the amount that we agreed upon and I had no problem doing this.
Depending on how you run your business, you may or may not feel like letting customers and clients know that you’ve increased your prices to factor in credit card processing fees. Some banks do charge high fees but Due’s rates start at just 2.8% per transaction with no hidden or monthly fees.
Summary
Being equipped to accept credit card payments is a must if you want to increase sales and outshine competitors. Even if you have the best products that provide tons of value, people won’t buy if it’s too difficult for them to do so.
Consider choosing an affordable payment processing solution that meets the needs of your business and has reasonable fees. That way, your profit will definitely outweigh any of the costs.
