Convenience Aside, What Are The Other Advantages Of Being Able To Accept Credit Card Payments?

According to studies by Visa International accepting credit cards can push sales up by 30 to 100 per cent.

Another appealing aspect is instant payment of bills. At a stroke, cash flow will be transformed with no more long 30 day waits for money to roll into your business bank account. Administrative work, too, will be reduced. Time and effort chasing late payments that slice into profit margins will also be drastically cut.

Various studies have shown that merely having the familiar MasterCard/Visa logo visible helps increase sales volumes. As unlikely as it sounds, the branding prompts shoppers to spend more, by either upgrading to a better model or service, or buying on impulse. Somewhere along the line, whether off or online, the brain fails to register the extra expenditure when it's not a cheque or bank notes being tendered.
And it gets weirder still. According to the book, Influence by Robert Cialdini, the mere sight of the MasterCard and Visa logo inexplicably boosts cash sales as well.

Not all consumers carry cash now a days and if you are a business it would be un-business like not to accept credit cards. There are clear advantages for accepting credit cards. For example one can use emerging technologies such as this:

itunes.apple.com will allow you to easily charge, interact with your customer via on screen signature capture and tip collection all on the same transaction. Then once done you can email a complete receipt with signature as part of the complete transaction. Clients like the security of using credit cards and will always come back to you as a result. It is both convenient and secure for both you and customer. Another advantage is that you can easily do electronic subscription payments which allows you to bill automatically per customer/card holder as per the specified service or product. You would not be able to do this effectively via cash transaction because this would require the customer to physically be there to pay in cash per the frequency of that subscription and this is not ideal for ether parties. These are just two technological advantages of accepting credit card payments versus not.

Well besides the obvious accepting credit cards is a great way to make your business appear more professional to your audience. The general population knows that by accepting credit cards you are registered with a merchant provider or service like PayPal, Google Checkout and etc. And must have passed some form of fraud screening.In addition how many people are going to shop with a business that doesn't accept credit cards? Especially if your doing any kind of online selling using a service that isn't online, requesting cash, checks, western union and etc. It's very professional and many will assume that your not legitimate or not profitable in your business venture.As you probably already know accepting credit cards, and e-checks online can greatly increase your sales growth, increases the likeliness of making a sale, and increases the trust level your customers have while shopping with you.There aren't many drawbacks to accepting credit cards, I've been a business owner for over 5 years and wouldn't even consider not accepting cards... In my opinion I don't see how in this day in age anyone can make it buy without being able to accept multiple forms of payment; of which credit cards account for a large market.I personally use Prosper Merchant Services (www.prosperms.com)But there are plenty of alternatives out there for anyone interested in getting setup, it's surprisingly quick and normally has no upfront cost.