Accepting payments online is vital to the success of your business. There are a number of other advantages that are important to understand, all of which can easily outweigh some of the initial hurdles you may encounter.
Not only do online payments let you reach a much wider market, but you can accept payments online around the clock instead of only during normal business hours. And because customers can submit payments on their own schedules, both you and your customers can focus their time on other important tasks. The convenience factor has also allowed paying via mobile devices—whether on tablets or smartphones—to surge in recent years, and is very important to today’s modern businesses, regardless of size. Another part of convenience is the ability to allow customers to create scheduled, recurring payment profiles for automatic payments. All of this allows the merchant to keep better track of payments and their statistics.
The actual act of accepting payments online is typically handled by an online payment portal. The process may seem like something that’s time consuming and expensive, but it’s actually quite straightforward. Here’s a brief overview of how PaymentVision’s automated payment processing system works:
1. Customer initiates payment from your website: When customers visit your website, they can initiate an online payment on their desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone.
2. Customer submits payment information online: The information is entered securely into an online portal that represents your business.
3. PaymentVision securely processes transaction: Customers can submit a one-time payment or recurring credit card, debit card or electronic check payments. All of this is processed securely in a Level 1 PCI certified website.
4. Collect funds and get real-time payment details: Finally, you can collect your payments and use our online administrative hub to get a centralized view of activity across all of your payment channels.
All of the same traditional payment methods can be accepted online. These include ACH/check, debit and, of course, credit cards. The most common online payment method is the credit card. However, while ACH is used less, processing fees are far lower than those or credit cards. Depending on who you’re planning on serving, this could be the sole way to go. But to most customers, the convenience of using a card is worth paying extra in potential convenience fees.
Once that’s taken care of, it’s easy to start showing it off. For example, you can broadcast your new payment capability via your weekly newsletter, or through your existing call center scripts. This is important, as people can quickly transition from the old fashioned payment system to something modern.
By now, hopefully you’re convinced that accepting payments online can be beneficial for your business. As they say “every business should be doing business online.” Good luck!
