Online payment processing helps small businesses grow by unlocking the world of eCommerce. In addition to selling goods and services from brick and mortar locations, small merchants have the opportunity to sell them in any location their eCommerce website can be accessed and used.
For a small business that wants to make the globe its sales territory, step one is building a professionally optimized business website. The next step involves choosing a global merchant services credit card processor that offers a payment gateway and crucial payment processing security.
It would be great if these were the only challenges small businesses face when it comes to online payment processing. However, in many cases, other challenges exist, too. Below, we look at six of these challenges and discuss options for conquering them.
1. Accepting Enough Payment Cards
Generally speaking, the fewer payment cards a business accepts, the fewer opportunities it has to make sales in-store and online. However, it’s understandable that a new business may not wish to begin with a merchant account that accepts every card imaginable, and would rather add more brands as marketing research reveals the benefits.
If you own a new business and aren’t sure which cards to accept, processing cards from PCI DSS compliant companies is a good start. These include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover as these card brands are used worldwide.
2. Accepting Enough Currencies
If a small business plans to sell globally, how many currencies it accepts is as important as how many payment cards it processes. The easiest way to accept a large basket of global currencies is to use a merchant services credit card processor — also known as merchant service provider (MSP) — whose merchant accounts accept a large basket of official world currencies.
3. Paying High Processing Fees
Merchant accounts from a merchant services credit card processor are not one-size-fits-all. A business should use an account whose processing fees are advantageous regarding four main factors: forms of payment accepted, the number of sales transactions in a given period of time, the monetary value of sales transactions, and information on customer refunds. Other factors can also apply.
Because MSP processing fees vary by account type and can have a significant, long-term impact on a small business’s finances, take advantage of an MSP’s free consultation offer, so you can work with an account specialist to select best-in-class options for your situation.
4. Maintaining Great Data Security
Does PCI DSS compliance alone offer enough data security for a merchant and its customers? Many payment security experts say no. As noted in a report from Huffington Post, aside from PCI DSS compliance and using a PCI DSS compliant MSP, merchants should receive “tokenization, point-to-point encryption (P2PE), and fraud management filters” from the MSP.
In addition, businesses should use Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer (EV SSL) technology, which protects data as it travels from a customer’s browser to merchants’ servers.
5. Capturing Sales From all Channels
In-store and online are the primary sales channels for most small businesses, but some additional channels deserve consideration, too, particularly: trade shows, live events (e.g. sports events and seasonal celebrations), and product/service demonstration appointments at locations of prospective customers.
Capturing sales from all channels often involves more than having the right merchant account options. Additional payment processing hardware may be needed, as well. A merchant services credit card processor can provide this hardware or direct you to a customer-friendly organization that can.
6. No Disaster Recovery Plan
According to a 2016 report from Entrepreneur, “The total volume of data loss at the enterprise level has increased more than 400 percent over the past couple of years, and the trend doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. With the rise of big data, cloud computing, and BYOD policies in the workplace, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for businesses to protect their private data.”
Now, consider that the National Archives and Records Administration reports, “93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately.”
You can solve many online payment processing challenges through a reputable merchant services credit card processor, but most MSPs don’t specialize in disaster recovery that involves the classic elements of a disaster recovery plan: offsite data storage, selection of an alternate business location, a plan for emergency hardware deployment, and a plan emergency staff deployment.
An MSP can assist with disaster recovery by storing certain types of data and having a payment gateway ready for when you implement emergency hardware and go back online. However, you’ll need the assistance of an IT service that specializes in disaster recovery to implement a plan that fully ensures business continuity.
Who We Are
Allied Wallet is a global merchant services credit card processor that offers merchant accounts, consumer eWallets, and related services. We accept 164 currencies and serve 169 countries, giving us a unique insight into the online payment processing challenges small businesses face throughout the world.
We help small businesses become more profitable by increasing the number of payment cards they accept, increasing the number of currencies they accept, providing a highly secure payment process that increases consumer confidence, and offering merchant accounts whose fees are a perfect match for the volume and value of sales.
To learn more about our offerings as a merchant services credit card processor, call us today in the U.S. at (888) 255-1137, call us in the U.K. at +44 203 318 8334, or send us an email through our contact form. We look forward to assisting you with global eCommerce!
