In most cases a prospective client may not want to make a direct deposit into your bank account because your country is considered a “high-risk”, that is where a merchant account comes in.
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A merchant account breaks a lot of payment limitations that may restrict prospective customers from buying your products or paying for the services you render. It opens a lot of business opportunities.
Here are the ways a merchant account can be advantageous to your business:
Boost cashless payment
Merchant accounts bolster cashless payment, which allows buyers to spend more. For safety reasons, no one wants to carry large cash around to make purchases.
An average American will prefer to use their credit cards at the Point of Sale (POS)or make online payments than to pay with cash.
Allows payments in multiple currencies
Opening a merchant for your business enables you to accept payment in multiple currencies, making it easier for international customers to choose the payment that is comfortable for them. Flutterwave, Magic Pay, and Stripe allow customers to accept different currencies.
Accept payment cards
Business owners who prioritize their customer experience would create a merchant account and allow for credit and debit card payments. It’s even becoming old-fashioned to carry large cash around for purchases.
Increase sales
In the U.S. the average cash transaction is $22, but it is $112 for non-cash transactions. This means buyers will spend more with their credit cards than carrying cash to stores.
According to research by a nonpartisan government agency based in the U.S., Government Accountability Office (GAO), at least 82% of adults in the United States will hold a credit card in 2022, making credit cards the most common consumer lending product by number of users.
This research has a significant impact on merchant accounts for businesses. Also, people are likely to make impulse purchases with their cards. So, using a merchant account increases sales for your products and services.
Cash flow management
Accepting card payments through a merchant account helps business owners to streamline the way they handle transactions. Your merchant account helps you to organize inflows and outflows, thereby simplifying accounting and for better cash flow management and forecasting.
Eliminates debtor
Using merchant account services and accepting electronic payments helps you to eliminate the issue of debtors, who might want to buy now and pay later.
Technically, it eliminates physical interaction between you and your customers. In most cases, your buyer might not even need to know who is behind the product, a review might just be what they need to make a purchase.
Except in exceptional cases, you might not need the conventional sales record because most of the merchant service providers have something similar to accounting software that shows you a record of sales and the money coming in.
They are PCI DSS certified
Most merchant processors in the U.S., Canada, and other countries that make security a top priority abide by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, PCI DSS for short.
PCI DSS is a widely accepted set of policies and procedures intended to optimize the security of credit, debit and cash card transactions while also protecting cardholders against misuse of their personal information
The fact that your customers know you’re using a PCI DSS-certified merchant processor gives your business legitimacy. However, getting such a payment security support system from your provider is one of the factors you should consider when choosing a processor.
This way, your customers are sure that their sensitive payment details such as credit card number and Card Verification Value (CVV) are secure and won’t be compromised.
This is why it is also important to work with a trustworthy merchant account provider, not just for the benefit of your customers, but also for the safety of your customers. You must take every measure in terms of security to make them return customers.
Flexibility
The flexibility that a merchant account offers can lead to happy and returning customers simply because it gives them the flexibility to make purchases in different ways.
It boosts business legitimacy
In most cases, a merchant account provider will require evidence of your business legitimacy, including your registered business address, and an evidence of registration among others.
So, the fact that you can integrate your business with a merchant account processor means you must have undergone the verification and passed security checks usually carried out by the merchant provider.
In addition, you will most likely see some businesses show on their checkout page that they are PCI DSS certified to prove their legitimacy and assurance to their customers that their card details are secure.