This year brought new challenges for small businesses and their customers alike. The pandemic has put a laser-like focus on safeguarding the cardholder payment experience and providing new ways of doing business. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to prepare your business, your employees and your community for a new market reality.

Payment acceptance is an essential building block for any business. To adjust to new customer demands, it’s time to take a look at how payments can help pivot your operations and overall strategy. As we transition to a new business reality, enabling customers to pay their preferred way is key to customer satisfaction. Simply accepting credit and debit card payments is no longer enough.

The ability to accept contactless payments should be an essential component of operating safely and minimizing the spread of germs. Contactless cards, mobile wallets and smartwatches are all convenient and quick ways to pay while avoiding contact at the point of sale.

EMV/NFC-enabled POS devices are the most essential part of accepting contactless payments in-store and on the go. Contact your payment processor about special offers and equipment rental programs to get up and running quickly. 2020 was poised to be the year of contactless adoption before business changed as we know it, and now its adoption is increasing exponentially. 31 million Americans tapped a Visa® contactless card or digital wallet in March 2020, up from 25 million in November, with overall contactless usage in the U.S. growing 150% since March 2019.[i]

Additionally, as online shopping and ordering reach a tipping point, the ability to add eCommerce payment functionality to your business is key to future success. Look for flexible solutions that multitask – including accepting payments in-store, online, via mobile or phone. Cloud-based POS solutions can help you simplify your operations and uncover strategic insights that can empower your small business to grow.

Want to reduce business costs and expenses? You can access your payment proceeds faster and control payment processing interchange expenses with new funding speed solutions, surcharging and Commercial Card Optimization. Cash flow is the core of keeping a business open and running. In fact, 66% of small businesses say that funding timing has the largest impact on their cash flow management.[ii]Whether it’s paying invoices or payroll, investing in a new technology or upgrading to new customer engagement channels, having money in your account enables you to achieve your goals.

Benefits of cash flow management:

  • Have cash on hand ready to invest in any opportunity
  • Balance deposits versus withdrawals to avoid delays in paying bills, invoices or other costs
  • Know when cash will be available to schedule payments
  • Easier reconciliation of batch versus funding deposits

Ensure you’re ready to adapt to a new business landscape. Our payments processing program can provide you and your business with strength and stability during uncertain and changing times.

[i] Visa

[ii] ACI Worldwide

This article is posted on behalf of our payments processing program partner, Elavon.