6 Reasons Why Your Small Business Needs to Take Card Payments

When it comes to running a small business, it’s important to ensure that things are as convenient as possible for your customers. From filling out forms to paying for the goods and services that they want; customers don’t want to put in any more work than is absolutely necessary. Also, higher competition than ever before means that customers can easily go and shop somewhere else if it’s taking too much time or too much effort to get what they need from your business.

How your customers pay for the items or services that they want from your business can have a huge impact on the entire customer experience. These days, customers expect to be able to pay easily using their credit or debit card or even a contactless method of payment like Apple Pay. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been ongoing since 2020, many cash-only businesses have been forced to set up contactless methods of accepting card payments to keep customers safe and ensure that they don’t go out of business. While cash has historically been a more convenient payment option for businesses since there are no processing fees, the truth is that fewer people are carrying cash with them today, so not providing an alternative could impact your company’s bottom line.

The good news is that accepting credit cards, debit cards, and contactless methods of payments is becoming much easier and more cost-effective for today’s small businesses. Here are some top reasons to take the plunge and start accepting credit or debit card payments from your customers.

Choose from Various Options

Compared to in the past, card readers are no longer large, expensive, and clunky things that are going to take a lot of setting up. Along with this, you can also find card readers and processing services that don’t charge a fee each time a customer makes a payment, allowing your business to accept card payments without having to raise your prices or charge a fee for paying with a card. Check out NadaPayments’ article to find out more about the lowest credit card processing fees and learn more about how you can accept card payments from your customers without cutting into your profits.

Improve the Customer Experience

Today, customers expect the option to pay by card and most people are going to have their credit or debit card ready when they arrive at the checkout. If you turn around and tell them that you only accept cash at this point, there’s a high chance they might leave their items and walk away. Along with this, companies that have a cash-only sign in the window might avoid this issue but are also repelling any customers who aren’t carrying cash. The fact is that fewer people than ever before have a need to carry cash with them, so not accepting card payments seriously reduces your target market. And while there are certainly plenty of ATMs that customers can use to get cash if they really want to make a purchase, this just adds more steps to the customer journey and can damage the customer experience.

Improve Your Business’s Reputation

A better customer experience tends to lead to a better reputation for your business. In 2022, it’s important that your business is seen to be modern and on top of the latest technologies when it comes to customer experience and convenience. If you’re not accepting card payments from customers, then this might send the wrong kind of message around. On the other hand, customers that enjoy a quick, effortless experience when shopping at your small business are more likely to leave positive reviews, share their experience with their friends and family, and return to shop again, all of which work towards building a great reputation for your brand.

Reduce Your Workload

Accepting cash payments might be cheaper, but it can also increase your workload substantially. When you only accept payments in cash, not only do you need to count all this cash at the end of the day, but you’ll also need to regularly go to the bank to deposit it. Over time, the amount of work that you’ll put in dealing with the cash payments that you take can add up to hours and hours of your time that could be spent on doing something else, like building relationships with your customers or figuring out new ways to market your business. On the other hand, accepting card payments means that the money will immediately be transferred to your business bank account, with no need for you to go there in person or count the cash.

Encourage More Purchases

Getting customers to spend more money is the main aim for many businesses. However, companies that don’t accept card payments are limiting themselves when it comes to how much money they can make, since customers may only be willing to spend up to the amount of cash that they have in their wallet at the time if they don’t want to make a trip to an ATM to get more. On the other hand, customers who can pay using a credit or debit card aren’t quite as limited. They can buy whatever they like from your store as long as they have the money to pay for it in their bank account or are available to spend on their credit card at the time.

Secure Your Business Premises

A cash-only business can often be a massive target for thieves, who know that there will likely be cash kept on the premises at some point. On the other hand, when you accept card payments, there’s likely to be much less cash available in the till, and if you do experience a robbery, you’re not going to lose the entire day’s takings.

Card payments are no longer the future – they are here to stay, so it has become more and more important for every business to start accepting them.

Karan Jain

Born in the family of entrepreneurs and have inherited the same. Started building applications in order to pay for my tuition. Later founded a tech company, marketing agency, and media outlets.