Different Types of Merchant Services for Startup Businesses

Best merchant service providers could provide you a diverse set of options to simplify your payments processing online. With retail sites booming, it will be your business advantage to perk up its customer service.

There are different merchant services capable of handling transactions from various locations worldwide. This will not just improve the convenience of your customer, but increase your revenues all at the same time. You get to retain customers by trust and amplify your business brand by increased credibility.

Different Types of Merchant Services for Startup Businesses

Before choosing a merchant service provider, you have to be informed on the different types of merchant services for startups.

The first type of merchant service is the online credit card processing. You may have encountered it yourself. The credit card processing in retail sites is common. CreditCard.com statistics proved this by showing a pie chart that explains 2013 and 2014 data declared credit cards as preferred payment methods of people for online shopping. From 41%, the number of people preferring credit card increased by seven percent in 2014.

The process of credit card payments online is straightforward. When a customer purchases a product from your website, the credit card issuer bank will pay on behalf of your customer. Your customer could pay his or her bill depending on the cutoff, which is usually monthly.

The customer will present his or her credit card information to the merchant site in a form. The merchant then verifies if the end user is the genuine owner of the card through bank authorization. Once the card brand company approves the credit card information, the transaction will be paid by credit. The sales slip will be kept by your system.

The sales slip is submitted to the bank, and in just two days, you will get the corresponding payment. The bank, on the other hand, will request from the card brand company to clear the amount of credit. In turn, the firm will get the payment as well.

Apart from credit card payments, another merchant service is the use of mobile for payments. The development of smartphones and dependence of people on the gadget gave groups of merchant service provider reason to use it as a payment platform. It is hardly a surprise that smartphones also now work for online banking.

One of the popular payment technologies using mobile is the digital wallet. Digital wallet is also known as the virtual wallet, electronic wallet, or e-wallet. You could simply download an app that will link to your bank or payment card. Once done, you could use your configured digital wallet in any retail store locally and online.

Apart from digital wallet, you also have the mobile billing for online purchases. Payments could also be done via SMS. Retail sites will send authorization pins or confirmation codes for verification upon checkout.

If you are uncomfortable with the use of credit cards, mobile payments also developed a means of transferring a small amount of your savings to a virtual account. You could use this account locally not only for buying products online, but also in clearing rent, purchasing lunch for a friend, or paying for a ticket.

Lastly, the most basic merchant service is the acceptance of credit cards minus the complex technology. The merchant will get a copy of customer’s credit card. The credit card’s information would be input in a form, which will be sent to a merchant service. This could be a tedious process, but could be reliable for businesses that do not handle large amount of credit card processing.

Types of Merchant Services for Small Businesses

Your business is just starting online and you find it hard to compete with pioneers in the field. Basically, everything roots from customer’s convenience. By making things easy for your customers, such as in terms of payments, you could have the edge in the industry.

There are different types of merchant services that will suit your small business, starting with credit card payment processing. It is the easiest and most affordable solution for a startup. There may be charges associated with the service, but this could be very cheap depending on your choice of provider.

Credit card processing works under compliance to PCI/ SAS 70 standards. Apart from the payment gateway itself, getting a package for credit card payment includes monitoring feature for sales and reporting. This will make your business strategies smarter in the future.

Apart from credit card, retail sites may also accept debit card as payments. According to a Federal Reserve report in 2013, debit card accounts for 38% of all non-cash payments in 2012, which is way bigger than 21% for credit cards. In addition, the report showed that young people prefer debit card over credit cards or cash payments.

This only means that your startup business may also gain a lot from debit card payments. The two basic types of debit payments are signature and PIN debit. Signature debit transaction works by swiping the debit card through a terminal for credit cards. The generated receipt will be signed for verification.

PIN debit, on the other hand, works by asking the customer for a PIN that would verify the transaction. The process is done by ATM/ banking networks, such as SHAZAM, ACCEL, NYCE, and STAR. PIN debit is considered to be the online version of signature debit.

Some companies also use loyalty cards for this merchant service solution still adds business value. Loyalty cards that could be used online are similar to the ones you used locally after gaining rewards with your purchases. This reward points system could keep your conversions simple. For instance, for a purchase worth $50, you could provide them an extra item or the customer collects certain amount of points for future use. These accumulated points could then be used to purchase products instead of cash amount.

With several options available for your new business online, you could surely improve your customer service instantly. Simply choose what suits your budget and the method that will bring you more sales for growth.

Top Featured and Recommended Merchant Services’ Providers

Choosing a company to support your online payment system is not limited to comparing merchant service provider fees.  There must be a proper selection based on services offered, scope of packages, and the sub-features of payment solutions it offers. Comparison of merchant service providers is also inclusive of the company’s record of supporting its previous clients. Were the clients satisfied with the service or there are loopholes in its service?

To give you ideas on reviews of merchant service providers, given below are among top featured and recommended firms for e-commerce today:

National Processing Company for High Virtual Payment Security

National Processing Company is one of the strongly established firms providing merchant services worldwide. As of now, it caters to 240,000 merchants across all nations. It was founded in 1979 and since 2010, it became a subsidiary of Vantiv.

The company offers different products and services for e-commerce sites, such as the NPC Secure. The payment solution is a virtual terminal based on your website, which will give you the same features of locally available Point of Sales (POS) system.

Moreover, it also caters to mobile payments processing. If you want to give your customers utmost convenience anywhere they go, this is an option. You could use Vantiv Mobile Accept or Vantiv Mobile Checkout to check out its features.

PayPal for Any Business Payment Requirements

PayPal is a worldwide known company holding as many as 169 million accounts across 202 countries worldwide.

PayPal became popular as a platform where you could receive payments online. Far from other’s expectations, it could also provide business support by addressing its common concerns, such as quick access to funds, finance management, and higher sales.

It promotes a straightforward merchant service. You could integrate it with your retail so you could accept major payment types from your customers within minutes. With a large pool of PayPal accounts, you could take advantage of this in order to market your company. When people knew you are accepting PayPal payments, they are usually attracted to deal with your business.

As per the company, it is now safer with its 24-hour transaction monitoring, protection policies, and automatic fraud screening.

NETBilling for Greater Online Competitiveness

NETBilling is among fastest growing merchant service providers today.  As claimed by the company, it has 9,000 new merchant accounts every year. Moreover, it processes 10,000 payments every hour. NETBilling also boasts increasing its clients’ revenue by an average of 20%.

It has a diverse set of features that guarantees to maximize your revenue. Primarily, it promises to lower your cost since it offers lowest rates in credit card payments. Moreover, it assures highest security measures with its fully customizable fraud detection. It also promotes its add-ons, which are free shopping carts, ACH check processing, and affiliate programs.

Aside from the aforementioned companies, you could get more options in CrowdReviews.com. The site had collected its community-based reviews of merchant services, which could help you find the firm that would best boost your e-commerce sales.