Check out any store and you will find that people no longer find it viable to make payments in cash. The preferred mode of payment is the debit card or the credit card. No matter what your business, the best way to stay ahead is to give the customers the ease of making the payment in the mode they choose. This means if they dont want to pay cash, you must have the provisions to accept credit card payments. In fact studies have shown that accepting credit payments can increase your sales manifold. To accept credit card payments, you will need an online merchant account with a bank, financial institution, or acquiring institutions. All these institutions charge a minimal amount of fees for their services, but then the fee is well worth the improvement in your business. Your financial or acquiring institution should be able to provide a number of services. First and foremost they should be able to provide you personalized services in setting up your account. Your merchant account should have facilities for online trading, as also taking orders on the phone. Now, suppose your business is an online store. This means, your customers can make orders merely by the click of a mouse. They can make their payments online through credit card. For this, there will be a form in which they will submit their details including that of their credit card. To accept online payment, you can link your account to any of the Internet gateway solution providers, which include Verisign, Orbital, or Fast Transact. You can link your order forms to these gateway companies, who will then process the transactions. Then there is the phone line processing services. That means the customers can dial a toll free number, and provide the requisite information based on the voice prompts. Another service is the POS (Credit card service), which enables you to take orders over the phone and fax and process them through a terminal machine. You also have the option of a computer software program that can store your customers details, as these are beneficial for recurring payments. |
