by Richard Adams
A merchant account has three main functions for business owners.
Firstly it makes you appear much larger and more professional in the eyes of
your visitors which boosts credibility.
Secondly, and more importantly, credit card orders can be automated unlike
other forms of payment.
As we've already discussed, cards are processed in real time, then the money
is deposited into your account.
If you're selling a digital product (an ebook, downloadable software,
password to a members-only website etc.) then the product is delivered
instantly.
Alternatively with real world products, your shopping cart can be set up to
automatically send you an email listing the customer's details, the products
ordered etc.
All you need to do once a day is download your emails to see how much money
you've made and post off the products.
In this way you'll save a huge amount of time each day by letting your
computer do the boring, repetitive jobs for you.
This additional time you have each day can be put to better use by spending
your time marketing your company, providing second-to-none customer service,
arranging joint venture deals or simply enjoying time to indulge in whatever
your passion is.
Diving, cycling, fishing or walking the dog. A few may even want to spend a
little extra time with their families!
Don't underestimate the power of automating your ordering process - it will
make your life a lot more interesting. No trying to read terrible
handwriting on order forms, no more manually processing each card one by
one, no checking that cash or cheques match the total value of the products
ordered and no waiting for cheques to clear.
Customer service can be faster and better - and everyone loves to find a
company they feel they can rely on - and that they enjoy shopping with.
The final benefit of accepting credit cards on the Internet, and the very
biggest bonus in my opinion is this - lots more orders and lots more profit.
Here's why.
Anything that makes it more difficult to buy things from you will reduce
your paying customers.
Using the example of a normal, higstreet shop, this could mean a shop in the
middle of nowhere so fewer customers can be bothered to travel all that way
when they can get what they're looking for far closer to hom.
It may be that there's always a big queue at the checkout so some people are
in a hurry or just don't feel like waiting and so they go elsewhere.
Maybe the staff haven't had any training so are totally unable to help
customers in any way with their purchase - or the staff are well trained but
have all ducked out the back for a quick cigarette so there's nobody around
to assist.
I could go on and on but I think you get the idea. Most of us have
encountered a poor shopping experience in the past - what was yours?
So you see, the harder you make it for your customers to buy from you, the
fewer will bother trying. And those you've lost probably won't bother coming
back again.
Consider the scenario of a website, your website, that doesn't accept credit
cards.
Somebody visits your site and likes the look of your product. It's just what
they've been looking for.
The more of your site that they read, the more certain they are they want to
buy from you.
At last they reach your order form - literally having decided to give you
money when they find out you don't accept credit cards online.
If they've got to send you a cheque, they've got to print out your order
form, fill it in, write you a cheque, put it in an envelope, address it,
stamp it and then put it in the letterbox.
They may change their mind any point or they might just simply forget. Or
they might surf on over to one of your competitors who does accept credit
cards and buy from them.
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