When reaching out to your small business customers about their websites, there's one question that towers above all others:
Does your site accept credit cards?
It's simple: Websites that don't accept credit cards aren't doing their optimal level of business. Period. Customers love the convenience of using credit cards; it's what makes online shopping so appealingly easy. So, if your clients' websites can't accept credit cards, there's a good chance they're missing out on a substantial amount of business. And that, of course, is unacceptable - for you, and for them.
It's an important issue, but not necessarily a simple one. There are many reasons why some online businesses resist adding credit card processing to their websites. Many times, it's a matter of mindset - they're in "small business" mentality, not realizing that an online business doesn't suffer from the same size restrictions as a brick-and-mortar store. (Some, yes; but not all.) Other times, it's a simple safety concern. The statistics on identity theft are staggering, and most consumers are very aware of the danger of having their credit card information - or other sensitive data that's submitted during a purchase - stolen.
(Late last year, the non-profit Identity Theft Resource Center published a report stating that identity theft occurs about every 19 minutes in this country. The report cites the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics as stating that "an estimated 3.6 million households were affected by identity theft during a 6-month period in 2004". Such sensitive information is often stolen directly from less-than-secure online data, as many people know. In fact, a poll that showed a staggering 91 percent of the American public are aware of and concerned about this trend. Read the entire report here.)
That's why it's so important to be able to offer your customers the very best, the very safest in payment processing services. If your processing service is proven to be safe and secure, you're giving your customers a measure of safety and security that's sometimes hard to come by.
So be sure that the service you offer can handle a task that monumental. Cutting corners will hurt far more than it helps. Luckily, there are professional companies (such as the company I represent, InternetMerchant) that specialize in providing this service safely, securely, and quickly. When it comes to credit card processing, or ANY kind of payment processing, I recommend finding a partner like InternetMerchant to take on the burden of safety, leaving your customers free to focus on their business with confidence and peace of mind.
Read more on this topic here.
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