According to recent statistics, credit cards issued in the United States alone hold a value of approximately $2.92 trillion. Add that to the fact that 83 percent of Americans aged 30-49 own a credit card, and you have a customer segment with a spending power that can tangibly contribute to your business’ growth.
That’s why if you are looking to sign up with a modern payment services provider, you need to make sure your payment systems are equipped with a few essential features.
The first thing you should look for in your new payment processing service is its ability to integrate with other key business tools. Overall, an integrated payment platform makes your payments faster and more efficient. But when paired with the other features on this list, it also brings a few additional advantages to the table. With such a system, you can eliminate redundant data entry and drastically simplify the reconciliation process. The platform automatically syncs transaction data with your accounting software, making the matching of sales to bank deposits a simple, near-instantaneous task. This allows you to save time on your payment processing activities. Further, it helps you complete your payments with virtually just a few clicks.
While multichannel simply means offering multiple ways to pay, a true omnichannel platform unifies all payment streams (in-person, online, mobile, invoice, recurring) into a single system. This is crucial for simplifying reconciliation, providing a seamless customer experience, and ensuring all data is tracked in one place. It goes a long way to have a POS system that supports the key forms of payments for your audience and that is able to be flexible in adding new ones later down the road.
There are several ways to accept payments today, including but not limited to digital wallets, phone and mobile payments, and ACH payments. Your best bet is to look for a system that can support a wide variety of payment types and doesn’t limit you to using only 2-3 ways to pay. While you may not need to pay attention to all aspects of this process now, over time, that could change. Overall, this lets you broaden your horizons and expands your ability to accept all kinds of credit cards and alternative payment methods in the long run.
All payment providers hold different charges for credit card processing. It is always important to research and compare pricing models to avoid overpaying. You must understand how the interchange rate (the fixed cost) is passed on to you.
In addition to platform service costs, you will find that most modern payment processing software comes with unique cost-saving measures. Automated features such as tip acceptance, real-time sales data syncing with accounting software, and automated invoicing are ways modern payment platforms can reduce manual administrative costs day-to-day. This is usually possible due to the way these payment processors deploy their services. But it also has much to do with their backend systems. By finding a company that offers a payment processing platform with the key features that your business can directly benefit from rather than a generic, one-size-fits-all solution, you can make the most of your platform.
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