How Your Retail Business Can Offer the Ultimate in Convenience
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Posted On :
Sep-24-2010
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Article Word Count :
856
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Your retail business might accept credit cards – but does it also accept debit cards? What about checks? Does it offer e-commerce? Can customers pay online? There’s a lot that goes into creating a successful retail business.
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Your retail business might accept credit cards – but does it also accept debit cards? What about checks? Does it offer e-commerce? Can customers pay online? There’s a lot that goes into creating a successful retail business. Merchant services can help make your business even more successful by providing the tools that are necessary to give your customers easy payment options and to give your business great organizational options.
Currently, almost everyone uses credit and debit cards to pay for things, especially large purchases such as clothing or expensive shoes. Cash is virtually a thing of the past, especially when it comes to larger purchases (Who wants to carry around all that cash in their wallet?). Therefore, non-cash payment options are a necessity for most businesses, including your retail business.
It is in your best interest as a business to keep payment processing costs down as low as possible, so that you don’t have to pay a lot just to get paid. Low rates mean that you get to keep more of your hard-earned cash.
Remember when you were toiling away in fashion school, but deep down you knew that some day, you’d have your own store? Well, now you do – so don’t let those hard earned dollars go to waste!
The times and habits of the way customers purchase retail are changing, however. Businesses shouldn’t just stop at credit cards – they should instead offer a wide variety of payment options, ensuring that they stay on top of their game—and the competition.
Merchant services for credit card and payment options will provide your retail business with real time processing and fast authorizations, as well as around the clock customer support and customized solutions specific to your particular industry. You might know clothes, but merchant support folks know money.
Gift cards are also big in the retail industry, and for good reason! As your mother always said, the best gift of all in troubled economic times like these is…you guessed it – money! Money – is it better than shoes? It just might be!
Many merchants, inside and outside of the fashion and retail industry, offer gift cards. Gift cards can work like a cash advance to your business, which increases the bottom line at the end of the month, even before the card is ever redeemed. Offering a merchant gift card specific to your store is also a fantastic method of setting yourself apart from the other retailers in town or at the mall. Of course, they increase your profits as well.
There are many benefits to gift cards, but the greatest is the fact that selling a gift card is equivalent to having cash in the bank without having to provide anything to the buyer at the time of purchase. They’re also great because people receiving gift cards are often new customers, which means that if they like what they see in your store, they’ll come back again! They might even bring a friend the next time!
Of course, not all gift cards get redeemed, so the money you’ve pocketed when the card was purchased may never come out of your pocket in the form of merchandise. Recipients of gift cards also often spend more than the face value of their card – they might see a dress they love for $100 and if their gift card is for $50, they’re likely to just fork over the extra $50.
Merchant services make gift cards easy to process - all transactions will be handled by a credit card processing terminal, so that you can implement and track your sales and redemptions.
Merchant services can also help your retail business accept checks instead of credit cards. Although this is a wireless age, many people still prefer to use paper checks as their primary method of payment. Set your store apart from the pack by accepting checks – many places no longer do so, and this can deter customers from visiting their store again.
You can easily accept your customer’s preferred method of payment and reduce deposit time by working with a merchant service provider. Your merchant service provider can set your business up to accept checks like credit cards. They’ll provide you with equipment that quickly converts checks into secure electronic documents. This makes for easier record keeping, and means that you don’t have to worry about “insufficient funds” surprises. Your system will automatically check the customer’s bank account to ensure that the check they are writing is a good check. Enabling check payment at your business is a great idea, as it ensures that you never have to turn away a paying customer – no matter which method of payment they prefer!
Merchant services can offer a wide range of conveniences for your retail business and customers alike. Find an account provider that’s right for you today.
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Article Source :
http://www.articleseen.com/Article_How Your Retail Business Can Offer the Ultimate in Convenience_34485.aspx
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Author Resource :
Nellie Janney is a freelance writer who writes about a variety of topics including merchant services.
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Keywords :
Merchant Services,
Category :
Business
:
Business
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