The benefits of accepting
credit and debit cards far outweigh the cost. Various studies show that when
people are given more payment options (beyond cash) they are more likely to
make impulse purchases, join loyalty programs, and spend more per purchase – and that can only help your business to grow.
Credit and debit cards are almost as common as
cash. Nearly everyone in the USA has at least one in their wallet, including
business owners. But data show that 55 percent of the nation's 27 million small
businesses don’t accept credit cards.
Sixty-six percent of all point-of-sales (POS)
transactions are done with plastic – credit, debit, or gift
cards. That is a lot of sales for millions of businesses to miss out on. Only
27 percent of purchases are made with cash. In fact, it’s estimated that cash sales will drop to only 23 percent by
2017.
Technology is making it easier for any business
to accept and manage credit card transactions. Gone are the days of complicated
machinery via dedicated dial-up lines. PayPal, Square, Intuit's GoPayment,
WePay, and a host of others are making it simple and relatively affordable to
accept cards.
So why do many merchants refuse to accept cards?
The common reason is the fees. The argument I hear from most merchants is that
it is too expensive to accept credit cards. But with $127 billion being added
to the economy between 2008 and 2012 through the use of plastic cards, merchants
everywhere are starting to pay attention to accepting credit cards.
In a survey conducted by WePay, which offers an
online payment mechanism to accept credit cards (not dramatically different
from PayPal), it found that 58 percent of small businesses are regularly asked
by their customers to accept credit cards. So that tells me that many are still
missing out on potential revenue by not accepting credit cards. Sure, there are
fees, but you can account for them in your pricing. Customers seem to
understand that the cost of processing plastic is greater than cash and most
seem willing to accept that cost from smaller merchants.
Moreover, our company – handling more that $75 million in credit card
transactions every year – actually minimizes those
costs by giving our customers the absolutely lowest credit card rates. You can
check that out by calling us at (570) 966-0080.
