Have you ever wished you could accept credit card payments quickly and easily, without committing to set up charges, equipment costs, and monthly fees charged by most Merchant Services vendors? Well, you might want to consider using PayPal. They have a very flexible service, which allows you to offer customers the option to pay by credit card or through their own PayPal accounts. Check out the video and information on PayPal’s Website Payments Standard site.
What a great way to test out some e-commerce ideas, such as selling specialty merchandise and closeout items, accepting payments for design services, subscriptions, tickets for special events, etc. You will be charged only on the actual transactions your site generates. From many angles this could be a convenient win-win experience for customers, and a simple affordable solution for small business. If all goes well, why not expand to a full-fledged Shopping Cart program.
Looking for mobile solutions? Take a look at Square and GoPayment by Intuit, here is a blog post by William Lewis, titled “Mobile credit card processing made easy“, which gives an overview of mobile phone or tablet computer options. Interesting idea for designers and contractors to get payment on the spot, as they close deals.
Please share ideas of other ways to enhance convenience for consumers, and at the same time help small businesses to compete realistically with deep pocket competitors.
