The Importance of Setting up a Merchant Account

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<h1>The Importance of Setting up a Merchant Account</h1><strong> Author: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/profile_Karen Zabel.aspx'>Karen Zabel</a></strong><br /><p>As a business owner, you know how important it is to monitor trends and determine which trends yield the greatest profits for the least initial implementation cost. Obviously, the best trends to follow are those that result in the greatest increase in customer satisfaction, as well as profits, while requiring low financial and time involvement. Today, opening a merchant account is one option that satisfies each of these requirements. Merchant accounts allow businesses to accept credit cards for payment of goods and services, making them an ideal complement to nearly every business, and an essential component of online businesses. These days, merchant accounts offer lower costs and a simpler application process, thanks to increased competition among merchant account providers. Most applications are approved with several days, and your account can be up and running in less than a week following approval in most cases, meaning that if you applied for an account today, you could be accepting credit cards in less than two weeks. Finding a merchant account provider that suits your business needs takes time, but thanks to the Internet, the search can be conducted from your home or workplace, and multiple websites allow you to compare a broad range of service providers in only a few hours’ time. Websites also allow you to easily compare fees, and you may be surprised to see how affordable merchant accounts have become in recent years. In fact, many fees have been lowered or even eliminated as the result of competition among account providers. Now that you see how simple and inexpensive it is to set up and maintain a merchant account, it’s time to focus on the financial and customer benefits an account can offer your business. Among those advantages, perhaps the most striking is the increase in profits most companies experience once they begin accepting credit cards as a form of payment for the goods or services they offer. Studies indicate that when a merchant begins accepting credit cards, business increases dramatically, even within the first few weeks. Why? Because in today’s increasingly mobile and fast-paced society, more and more consumers are using credit cards for a wider variety of purchases, including major purchases and even for everyday shopping needs. The reasons for the increasing popularity of credit cards among consumers are varied. Credit cards are certainly more convenient than cash, especially for long shopping trips, or when the final expenditure is uncertain or unknown. Credit cards also offer an added measure of protection, since – unlike cash – they can be replaced if lost. Many credit cards also help protect their customers from unauthorized use, increasing their safety profile in the eyes of consumers. And many offer another type of protection, extending manufacturer warranties on electronics and other goods when purchased with a credit card. Credit cards also allow consumers to purchase more expensive items by offering a ready source of funds that eliminates the need to save for a long period of time. And because they allow consumers to pay for those purchases over time, many consumers realize that cards offer them flexibility by making more expensive purchases easier to afford. Certainly, one of the major reasons consumers have turned in recent years to credit cards in lieu of cash for just about any purchases is the incentive programs now being offered by many major credit card providers. Like many other businesses today, credit cards are feeling the crunch of competition. To attract new customers and retain their current customer base, many credit card companies are offering reward programs that actually pay their customers for using their card. One of the most widely known rewards are airline miles. When card users use their cards to purchase items or services, they are given points that they can redeem toward the cost of a flight. Other reward programs that have emerged in recent years include programs that reward users with merchandise rewards, hotel stays, and money. As a result of the proliferation of these incentive programs, credit card customers are in essence paid for using their cards, and have begun paying for more and more goods and services to cash in on these popular programs. In addition to attracting new customers and keeping you competitive, accepting credit cards offer additional advantages to your bottom line. Credit card users also make many more impulse purchases, and those purchases tend to be substantially higher than impulse purchases made by cash buyers. In addition, other studies of shopper behavior have shown that shoppers who sue credit cards shop more frequently and make larger overall purchases. They are also much more likely to purchase big-ticket items than those who purchase with cash. Merchant account scan offer myriad benefits for your company, making it more competitive and more profitable. And thanks to today’s lower fees and rates and simpler application process, there’s a merchant account to suit any business – even yours! </p><strong>About the Author:</strong><br />Karen Zabel is a freelance writer who writes about businesses that offer services such as <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nabancard.com">credit card processing service</a>.<p> Article Source: <a href='http://www.articleseen.com/Article_The-Importance-of-Setting-up-a-Merchant-Account_14466.aspx'> http://www.articleseen.com/Article_The Importance of Setting up a Merchant Account_14466.aspx</a></p>

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Keywords : Merchant Accounts, Merchant Accounts,

Category : Business : Business