Embracing Mobile Payments: A Guide for Small Business Owners
As a small business owner, it’s essential to meet customers where they are, offering the right products and convenient payment options. Mobile payments processing is becoming increasingly important, and while it requires some upfront investment in a compatible point-of-sale (POS) system, the benefits are worth it. In this article, we’ll explore the world of mobile payments and discuss why embracing this technology can lead to success for your small business.
Bottom Line: Discover how incorporating mobile payments into your business can provide better convenience, security, and efficiency for you and your customers in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
Understanding Mobile Payments
Mobile payment is the process of making payments for goods and services through a mobile device, such as a smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch. This can include payments made in stores, online, or through peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers. There are five main types of mobile payments:
- Mobile wallet (e.g., Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay)
- Mobile ecommerce (also known as m-commerce)
- Mobile peer-to-peer (e.g., Venmo, PayPal, CashApp, Zelle)
- SMS payments
- Mobile payments at a point of sale
Why Your Business Should Accept These Payments
Accepting mobile payments can offer a variety of benefits for both you and your customers, making it a worthwhile investment for your business.
Convenience for the Customer
Mobile payments eliminate barriers to finalizing a customer’s purchases. Customers can pay by tapping a phone or credit card at a point of sale, or make online transactions using their credit card or other payment apps like Google Pay, Shop Pay, or Apple Pay. Having these options available to customers means that you conversion rates are likely to be higher and you’ll spend less time and money recovering sales that might have been lost due to high friction.
A Secure Payment Type
Making payments on phones are among the most secure forms of commerce. Performed on mobile devices that often require authentication (fingerprint, facial recognition, or passcode) and encrypted transmissions, thieves have minimal chances of intercepting customer data.
Speed of Transaction
Financial institutions process mobile payments swiftly, making mobile checkout as fast as credit card transactions, if not faster. By accepting these payments, you remove friction and barriers for your customers.
Popularity among Consumers
More customers are spending more money using mobile payments, and it is expected that global consumers will spend $6,007 billion per year using mobile payments by 2027. Financial analysts expect this figure to more than triple within the next five years.
Getting Started with Mobile Payments for Your Business
As shopping continues to shift to mobile platforms, embracing these types of payments is crucial for business owners. Customers increasingly seek convenience and flexibility, and mobile payments provide security and ease of use.
Merchants will also benefit from certain mobile payment apps like Venmo and Square, which charge similar fees to credit card transactions. Apps like Apple Pay do not charge merchants, allowing business owners to benefit from the convenience and security of mobile payments without taking a significant financial hit.
Enabling your business to accept mobile payment methods will likely provide numerous benefits, making it a smart investment in your company’s future.
If you’re currently using Shopify, then you’re in luck – Shopify natively offers many types of mobile payments and if needed you can add more to the mix – just make sure that you know what your customers need (or don’t need) before spending time, money, or effort on integrating a new payment system or processor.
The good news is that these payment methods are getting easier to implement as time goes on – it will be easier and easier for store owners to offer more and smoother payment methods as online payments continue to become increasingly popular.
