A fast cash flow is a great problem to have if you’re in business, as long as it goes alongside a decent profit margin. And the faster or higher your turnover the more competitive your profit margin can be.
It is a business model that modern financial technology is making much more achievable, through the use of digital payments. With these payment solutions, a business ends up taking less time in making and receiving payments. The cost and effort per transaction have diminished and are less likely to provide a brake on the growth of your business.
So how have digital payment solutions simplified business transactions?
Instantaneous Payments
The traditional payment methods, for instance, cash and cheques, tend to be time-consuming. For cash payments, there is a need to physically count the notes and this takes a lot more than the micro-seconds in digital payments. For cheques, a customer will usually have to visit a bank to do the depositing, although some banks are now introducing online cheque deposit systems. Nevertheless, you can save all that time and hassle by adopting e-payments.
Transacting online leaves your business with much more time to dedicate to customer service and communications. Online transactions also transcend geographical barriers. In just a couple of clicks, customers can browse, purchase, pay and organise delivery from almost anywhere in the World. Of course, the delivery may take a while, but the payment can be instant. Online businesses are thriving in the click economy.
Improved Customer Experiences
Companies that prioritise customer delight or happiness have a major advantage in the digital age. Alongside instant payments, we now have instant reviews. Companies that do not have a customer-focused culture have no place to hide.
Firms have many ways to make this happen, and one of them is through being time-conscious. Apart from digital payments benefiting you as a business, your customers gain a better experience. The moment you allow a client to procure something from your online store and pay online, you save your customers a lot of time.
Those digital benefits don’t just apply to the purchase of goods. The hospitality industry has been transformed too and that’s accelerated under the Covid-19 crisis. Now you can book a reservation at a restaurant or order a takeaway from the comfort of your home or phone. You can order your meal and pay without leaving your table in the restaurant. This all saves you and your customers’ time, ensures their order is more likely to be accurate and keeps everyone safe. And it also adds their details to your marketing database so that, with their consent, you can keep them informed about relevant offers and events.
Mobile-Friendliness
The majority of transactions are now made on mobile phones rather than desktop PCs or laptops. All businesses need to think mobile-first and ensure that their websites and payment systems work seamlessly on platforms.
On the flip side, mobile phones are also increasingly being used to make payments. There are options for taking credit cards through the phone. What is essential is ensuring that the merchant service provider (MSP) gives a business the relevant tools to make it possible to accept the customer’s credit cards.
After keying the customer’s information from the card, a company will need to have a virtual terminal to assist in processing payments. This helps businesses easily accept payments from a wide range of clients. There is a range of mobile payment services out there and you should do some research to make sure that you get the right one for your business. Check out this guide https://www.helcim.com/guides/accepting-credit-cards-over-the-phone/ on what makes an excellent mobile-friendly payment strategy. It is a good thing to check the options of the payment methods which the programs accept.
For international companies, there are payment options that favor their comprehensive framework of payments from clients. This helps in making the different branches effective regardless of the increase in the growth rate.
High-Security Levels
Companies are operating in delicate times where there are many cases of cybercrimes. However, digital payment methods come with robust end-to-end encryption features, which make all transactions well-secured.
With electronic payments, firms now have the opportunity to choose from different types of transaction security. Many businesses are opting for encryption and tokenization features in e-payments. Others prefer using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which is a security protocol responsible for linking web browsers and web servers.
Businesses are finding it necessary to incorporate SSL certificates in their websites to secure every online transaction. It also helps in keeping the customer information secure and private. And it’s worth bearing in mind that Google prioritises websites that have SSL certificates, if your site is not SSL secure then it is much less likely to rank well in Google search results.
Saving Processing Costs
Traditionally, a firm will never be an island of its own when it comes to payment initiation. It will always need a service provider for the payment needs. However, what makes the difference is whether a business is finding help from a payment processor or a service provider. Technology is assisting companies in saving more money involved in processing costs. When using an electronic payment method, you need to pay the subscription fee to your service provider, and you are good to go.
However, the traditional payment processors will result in you incurring more expenses through the fixed costs. These processors are the ones who are responsible for all the money exchanges. Being the only gateway to your payments, a firm ends up committing to all the fixed costs attached to the services. Therefore, through the modernization of payments, firms can save a considerable chunk of their cash.
High Transparency
Traditional payments through cash and cheques pay critical attention to records to avoid any loss of valuable information on transactions. However, this doesn’t mean firms are entirely safe from data losses, as has happened in many cases. Retrieval of the data also becomes a challenge with such methods.
Digital payments bring a different story. Businesses these days are finding it faster to trace back all the documents with payment records. The high accuracy makes it efficient in dealing with the embezzlement of funds, which tend to occur when there is a lack of precision.
Digital payment solutions are proving to be highly beneficial to businesses. This comes in the form of improved accuracy in recording transactions, high security of customer data, and boosting customer experience. It is also becoming effortless to use mobile-friendly options when transacting with customers. All these factors are making companies more efficient.