The Top 5 Merchant Account Benefits For Your Small Business

Digital and card payments are quickly taking over cheques and cash transactions.

It is hard to believe that small businesses are still not accepting debit and credit cards. Even though the world has become digital, cash continues to be the most common form of payment accepted by small businesses. However, if you are thinking of diversifying your current payment options or starting a business, consider accepting card payments.

Fortunately or unfortunately, a majority of customers prefer the use of plastic over cash. If you want to cater to a diverse audience, you need to think about having a merchant account, along with maintaining cash transactions. A merchant account is an account that enables its holders to accept payments in more than one ways.

Here are 5 great reasons that prove merchant accounts are beneficial to small businesses.

# Allows the acceptance of debit and credit cards

By obtaining a merchant account, you will be able to accept card payments. This gives customers a lot of flexibility when it comes to payment. If your online or brick-and-mortar store is a cash-only operation, you might end up losing a lot of customers or the transaction amount will not be very high. For safety purposes, customers abstain from carrying huge wads of cash every time they step out. If your business begins accepting credit and debit card payments, you will get the opportunity to broaden your customer base. The more customers you attract, the more likely you are to make additional sales.

# Convenience for customers

If you have a merchant account, your customers will be able to make purchases in multiple ways. They can make payments, via debit or credit cards, online payments through a shopping cart, recurring billing or mobile payments. This will give your customers the freedom to shop when they want and how they want with complete ease.

# Opportunity for more sales

The recent market trends suggest that customers are willing to spend more when they are given the option of using credit or debit cards over cash. So, if you expand your payment options, you will be able to increase your sales and boost the overall growth of your business.

# Better organisation and management of money

By deciding to use a merchant account to accept card payments, you will be able to stay much more organised. Managing your cash flow will also become a lot simpler. Your merchant services provider will provide you with a detailed monthly statement of all the transactions that have been made. The statement will even contain information regarding the payment methods used, the currencies used and so on. When you have to keep an eye out for your profits or deal with taxes, the monthly statements will help you to better manage your money. The holders of merchant accounts are also able to keep a track of all their payment activities.

# Ability to avoid bad cheques

Cheque transactions come with a lot of hassle, as well as, expenses in terms of bounced cheques. One bounced cheque can not only take a big chunk out of your profit for the day, but you will also be wasting a lot of time tracking down the customer. By accepting electronic payments, you can avoid all of that trouble. Since card transactions are screened whilst they are being processed, it can help you to avoid the risk of fraud in a major way.

In addition to the 5 above-mentioned key benefits of having a merchant account, there is also the factor of security. Keeping a lot of cash at hand is a huge risk for business owners. This risk can be minimised by obtaining a merchant account. If you want to open an account, avail the services of a consultant company offering great advice on merchant services providers. They will help you to get the best deals as per the requirements of your business.

Independent Merchant Services are one of the leading advisors on merchant services providers in the UK. Even though, they have their own network of merchant account providers, they do not owe their allegiance to anyone. These professionals operate fully independently and strive hard to offer the best advice to businesses of all sizes.

License: You have permission to republish this article in any format, even commercially, but you must keep all links intact. Attribution required.