Merchant Services
What are merchant services?
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Merchant services is a broad term used to describe a range of financial services tailored to businesses. These services generally include things like processing payments, setting up payment gateways and even loyalty programs.
Finding a solid merchant service provider who can help you take payments with ease is invaluable. Merchant service providers can support your business with intuitive software, efficient payment processing hardware and more to take the hassle out of payment processing.
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What do most merchant services include?
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Credit card processing
The way businesses accept credit card payments is crucial to the day-to-day functioning of the company. Merchant services usually offer both online and in-person credit card processing services.
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Payment gateways
If your business accepts online payments, you’ll need a secure payment gateway that a merchant service provider can offer. This is a piece of software that works in tandem with your website or e-commerce store to help you take payments.
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Online transaction processing
Similar to a payment gateway, online transaction processing requires some work behind the scenes. Online transaction processing is essentially a piece of database software that manages customer orders, processes payments and updates stock levels to complete an order.
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Point of sale systems
A point-of-sale (POS) system usually consists of hardware required to take payments and the software to process them along with it. These systems allow you to take payments, process sales and even keep track of inventory.
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Check services
If you have customers who are likely to pay via check, you will need a system that can process checks as well as cash and digital transactions. Some merchant service providers will be able to offer this.
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Loyalty programs
Some businesses offer loyalty programs that automatically reward customers after certain purchases. In order for this to work, a merchant service provider can help you set one up which connects your payment processor to your loyalty program.
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Credit card terminals
Another common merchant service that businesses use is a credit card terminal. This is for those accepting in-person credit card payments and is a physical device you can swipe or tap to make a payment.
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