Advantages of Mobile Merchant Account Services
Mobile merchant account services enable merchants to free payments from the front checkout and start taking them on the move, where and when they’re needed. Systems include wifi-based handheld payment terminals paired with point-of-sale systems, card readers that can be plugged into any smartphone or tablet, and digital wallets like Apple Pay that turn the customer’s device into a payment system.
Mobile merchant account services represent an important and powerful set of solutions in the modern payments ecosystem, where digital is king and consumers demand both choice and convenience at all times. The following are just seven of the most significant benefits merchants stand to gain from adopting mobile merchant account services in 2021 and beyond.
Mobile Merchant Account Service Advantages
#1: Unmatched Convenience for Customers
Offering customers a seamless payment experience is a key to generating repeat business, and there is no more customer-centric experience than offering customers payment when and where it’s most convenient for them. Mobile payment systems allow merchants to take payments directly to the customer, whether that means in-store, curbside, or even at the customer’s home or office. Tailoring the payment experience to the customer’s needs not only speeds things up and reduces friction, it sends the message that the customer is the absolute top priority.
#2: Greater Location Flexibility for Merchants
Just as mobile merchant account services allow businesses to take payments to the customer, they also allow merchants to be more creative and more flexible with their own space and location. The ability to take payments off-site makes things like pop-up shops with reduced footprints much more accessible, and, in some cases, mobile payment systems can even eliminate the need for permanent retail spaces altogether, freeing up an enormous amount of capital — an especially important benefit in the earliest stages of business.
#3: Lower Dependence on Specialized Hardware
Specialized payment hardware can be expensive, and while some mobile systems, like the ones often found in restaurants, are part of a larger, specialized point-of-sale system, many require nothing more than a smartphone and a small magstripe or strip reader. The ability to take payments without having to depend on (or fork out for) specialized payment hardware makes accepting card payments more accessible and affordable for bootstrapped small businesses that might otherwise be forced into cash-only situations.
#4: Easy Apple Pay and Digital Wallet Adoption
Digital wallets like Apple Pay are rapidly becoming the go-to payment choice for mobile-savvy consumers and are estimated to account for as much as 10% or more of global card payments by 2025. Accepting Apple Pay in-person requires contactless EMV-compliant payment hardware — the same tech used to enable tap payments on traditional debit and credit cards. Mobile payment hardware capable of accepting tap payments automatically enables digital wallet transactions and allows consumers to tap their phones instead of their cards, making mobile merchant account services a fast, easy way to access a growing consumer base that prefers to make payments with digital wallets rather than physical ones.
#5: Reduced Congestion at Checkouts
One huge benefit of mobile merchant account services is that they eliminate the checkout counter as the sole point of payment. By decentralizing payments and making them possible effectively anywhere in-store, the congestion associated with checkout areas — especially on busy or understaffed days — can be significantly reduced. Rather than forcing every customer to queue up for the same register, staff can take card payments quickly and easily at any counter, or even right in the aisle. It can have a game-changing impact on traffic flow, line size, and, in turn, the overall shopping experience.
#6: Easier Access for Hobbyists
Not every business operates on a full-time basis. Plenty of hobbyists operate small businesses that sell only on weekends or in their spare time, and mobile payment solutions like smartphone-based card readers enable those part-time merchants to access card payments without having to go all-in on a merchant account or a full set of payment hardware. Companies like Square and Paypal offer affordable (or even free) card readers that are perfect for the flea market or even garage sales, with the trade-off for improved accessibility being higher fees on each individual transaction.
#7: Potential Repurposing of Existing Technology
One major benefit of mobile payment hardware that plugs into headphone jacks or USB and Lightning ports is that they can turn almost any mobile device into a payment terminal. While some systems, like Toast POS, only run on proprietary hardware, most POS software can be run on any Android or Apple device. The result is that many small businesses might already have all the expensive parts of a mobile payments system sitting in their drawers, eliminating the need for new standalone payment terminals altogether.
Accessing Mobile Merchant Account Services
Getting set up with mobile merchant account services is a straightforward process that depends on the type of business and the type of hardware a merchant needs. Hobbyists and small startups looking for near-immediate access can sign up with third-party processors like PayPal or Square and start accepting payments online the same day and in-store shortly after, once their new mobile card readers arrive in the mail.
Most merchants will want to steer clear of third-party processors and utilize their own merchant account in order to minimize their transaction fees, and luckily, many payment processors offer a wide variety of mobile merchant account services.
BAMS offers a wide variety of mobile solutions, including EMV-compliant mobile payment terminals, digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay, and integration with most of the industry’s top mobile POS systems. BAMS also offers our merchants guaranteed low transaction fees, thanks to our interchange-plus piercing model — the lowest cost and most transparent pricing model in the industry.
To find out more about how a BAMS merchant account can save you money on your transaction fees and get you set up with the mobile merchant account services you need, get started with your free five-point price comparison today.
