When any holiday shopping season draws near, many business owners will usually rush to upgrade their existing POS systems to accommodate to a pre-season shopping rush. If you are considering the same thing, here is how you can go about upgrading your systems or payment terminals, in order to maximize sales and increase profits during each year’s holiday shopping rush.
Consider becoming EMV compliant
EMV simply stands for Europay, Mastercard and Visa which are all a standard payment option in many parts around the globe. These debit or credit card types have actually become a norm where payment of goods is concerned. That being said, a retailer that is hesitant to upgrade their POS systems to accommodate EMV-ready payment options may face higher risks of business losses or even credit card fraud.
Apart from preventing any losses and frauds, retail stores will also be able to perform better by being EMV compliant as it attracts foreign shoppers. Many international customers own EMV cards and will sure appreciate the benefits of increased security that is offered by an EMV compliant retail store.
Try to offer an expanded range of in-store payment modes
If the idea of taking your products online is not suitable for your business for any reason, it is recommended that you try and invest in a broader range of different payment options. When you open up more payment options, you can expect to enjoy various benefits such as faster purchase processing, more point-of-purchase chances as well as shorter lines. To get you started, here are some of the most popular payment options you can explore as a merchant:
- Credit card processing using mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones
- Mobile payment that incorporates contactless payment technology like near field communication (NFC)
Train your staff well on how to use your upgraded POS systems
Your efforts will be in vain if your employees do not fully comprehend your upgraded payment systems or highly-secured processing technologies, and know how to utilize them to the fullest. As such, training all your staff well is paramount to more successful business operations. Below are some of the important lessons that need to be taught:
- Issuing returns and charge-backs for mobile credit cards
- Processing mobile credit card transactions
- Handling contactless payments in a safe and secure manner
- Accepting and processing EMVs
You will want to conduct your trainings before the holiday season for better success.
Expand your online presence
This is one of the first things that you can actually start doing beforehand. You can actually avoid the traffic madness and congestion by allowing your valued customers to shop online and in the comfort of their own homes. Today, it is very easy to set up an online store and if you accept debit or credit cards, it means you already own a merchant account.
Merchant accounts enable the online shopping experience and it’s the thing that builds your online presence. If you do not offer such payment options yet, it will be ideal to start immediately or as soon as you can to cater to seasonal shopping periods. Best of all, there is a wide variety of hosted payment forms and payment gateways to choose from.