Once you’ve learned all you can about payment processing solutions, you can stop doing research and just focus on selling, right?
Wrong. Successful sales agents and ISOs take the time to keep up with latest merchant services trends and technology, often setting aside time each day to check industry news outlets, blogs, and forums.
How does this help them stay at the top of their game? In this article, we’ll take a look at why you should stay up-to-date on the world of payment processing, and we’ll share five of the most current payment processing trends to help you get started.
Keeping Up With Payment Processing Trends
With new tech and software — and the regulations they spawn — seeming to appear faster than ever, it is important for a sales agent or ISO to keep up. Staying updated on the latest trends in payments processing is crucial for success, allowing you to stay competitive and meet customer expectations.
When it comes to growing your merchant market portfolio, you can more effectively pitch solutions to merchants if you’re familiar with the latest payment processing software and hardware. For example, more and more niche solutions are being developed all the time. Knowing about these will allow you to fine tune and personalize your offerings for each merchant, meaning you’ll stand out from the sales agents offering the same blanket solutions.
Staying abreast of payment processing trends could also help you keep your existing accounts. It gives you the ability to help merchants adapt to changing consumer preferences as well as stay up-to-date with the latest in online, in-store, and mobile payments solutions.
If knowledge is power, keeping with payment processing trends could make you very powerful indeed.
5 Current Payment Processing Trends
Mobile Wallets & Contactless Payments:
Contactless payments and mobile wallets offer convenience, security, and speed for transactions — benefits for both businesses and consumers.
Mobile wallets, which includes Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Samsung Pay, store a person’s credit card information digitally, allowing consumers to pay through their smartphones. Using near-field communication (NFC) technology, these wallets enable users to make a payment just by tapping their devices on compatible point-of-sale (POS) terminals.
While contactless payments include mobile wallets, they also encompass technologies such as credit and debit cards equipped with RFID or NFC chips. These allow consumers to complete transactions by just tapping their cards on contactless-enabled terminals.
Both of these solutions offer tap-to-pay convenience, but mobile wallets provide even more security by incorporating biometric authentication (fingerprint or facial recognition) and tokenization, which replaces sensitive card information with a unique token. However, contactless cards may be more accessible to more consumers, as some people don’t have or don’t want a smartphone. What it boils down to is mobile wallets offer more security and integration, while contactless cards provide more simplicity and usability.
Buy Now, Pay Later:
“Buy now, pay later” (BNPL) financing splits a purchase into incremental, often interest-free payments over a fixed period, with the first installment paid at the point of sale. Merchants partner with BNPL providers to arrange the financing and payment processing associated with a transaction. Late or lapsed payments incur late fees rather than interest.
This method of payment is appealing to consumers as there is usually near-instant approval and it offers the flexibility of making a high-value purchase without immediate financial strain. Merchants also usually love BNPL programs as they can drive sales and increase average order values by lowering the barrier to purchase for customers who would otherwise delay buying.
BNPL services are often easy to integrate with e-commerce platforms. Coupled with a seamless checkout experience, it’s easy to see why they’re growing in popularity.
Surcharging:
In order to offset the costs of credit card processing fees charged by card issuers and payment networks, merchants can use surcharging. This is a practice in which merchants add a fee — usually a percentage of the transaction amount — to the total when a customer pays with a credit card. Surcharging is regulated in many regions, each with specific rules on how they can be applied and the maximum amount that can be charged.
This practice can help merchants mitigate the costs associated with accepting credit card payments, but they could also face upset customers. To avoid this, merchants should be transparent with their customers, ensuring they know about the surcharge, as well as what it is and why it’s being implemented, before completing the transaction.
Merchants also need to make sure they’re in compliance with all legal requirements associated with surcharging. This will help them avoid legal issues and regulatory infractions while maintaining customer trust.
Hosted Checkout Page:
Hosted checkout pages, which are managed by payment service providers (PSPs) such as Clover, are third-party web pages where customers are redirected to complete their online transactions securely. The PSPs handle the entire payment process, including capturing payment details, ensuring PCI compliance, and managing security. When merchants use a hosted checkout page, they reduce their risk of data breaches and compliance issues by putting the responsibility of handling sensitive payment information on the PSP.
There are several advantages for merchants who use hosted checkout pages. They offer enhanced security, a streamlined user experience, and simplified integration. Additionally, merchants with a global customer base will also enjoy the support of multiple payment methods and currencies, as well as fraud detection tools.
Convenient, secure, customizable — these are just a few reasons hosted checkout pages are an attractive option for merchants who want to provide a safe and efficient payment process.
Restaurant Self-Service Ordering:
Through digital kiosks, tablets, and mobile apps, restaurant self-service ordering systems allow customers to browse menus, customize their orders, and pay … all without needing to interact with staff. This reduces wait times, improves order accuracy, and allows restaurants to operate more efficiently.
While this tech can enhance the customer experience, self-service ordering can also lead to increased sales and higher average order values since customers can spend more time exploring the menu and adding extras. Even more valuable, the data collected from these systems can provide valuable insights into the preferences and ordering patterns of customers. Armed with this knowledge, merchants can be more strategic and effective with their offerings and marketing.
The Clover Kiosk is an example of the latest advancements in this tech, offering a combination of convenience for customers with operational benefits for restaurants. Overall, self-service ordering systems are a significant advancement in the hospitality industry, and sales agents should keep informed on its evolution.
ISOs and Sales Agents Can Stay Ahead of the Curve with CardConnect
If you’re a sales agent or ISO who wants to keep ahead of the competition, consider working with CardConnect. We believe communication is key and always keep our partners up to speed with the latest product launches as well as new software and integration opportunities (such as our Integrated Partners Program where sales agents and ISOs can form strategic relationships with independent software vendors to expand offerings). Additionally, we offer the latest tech in merchant services, including the powerful Clover Kiosk for service ordering at restaurants.
We also believe in the power of human support. All new partners are assigned a dedicated Partner Development Manager to help them navigate their partner journey to success, learn to use our tools, and formulate custom strategies to help them sell at their best.
If you’re a resourceful sales agent or ISO looking to grow your portfolio with an array of powerful and patented solutions that can help you diversify your book of business, look no further than the CardConnect Partner Program.