Should All Small Businesses Accept Mobile Payments?

While consumers have become accustomed to pay for goods and services by using smartphones, many small businesses remain hesitant to accept mobile payments because of the associated equipment purchases and fees.

However, over the past decade, huge strides have been made in mobile technology, and the near ubiquity of smartphones and tablets among consumers indicates that mobile payments will eventually become a standard point of sale option.

Why it’s important to accept mobile payments 

Commenting, Gerald Irwin of Sutton Coldfield-based Licensed Insolvency Practitioners and Business Advisers, Irwin Insolvency said “for service-based businesses, accepting payments via a customer’s smartphone may not make much sense at this point but brick-and-mortar shops and restaurants that want to speed up transaction times and ultimately, improve customer turnover rates might find it helpful to offer this option to consumers. “

One advantage of mobile-based payments is a decreased fraud liability for businesses. This is an especially strong selling point in light of the numerous high-profile retail credit card breaches that occurred over the past couple of years.

For those businesses convinced that they might benefit from offering mobile payment options, there are a number of factors to consider before deciding on a technology and/or service provider. Business owners need to think about not only the cost of the equipment and associated fees, but also whether their customers would be interested. Indeed it could be beneficial to look at a system that allows them to do more than just accept a payment. “However, if budget is a concern, owners should shop around and ask service providers about terminal exchange programs. There is little doubt that paying with a phone is faster but ultimately it needs to make sense,” added Mr. Irwin.