Mike from Allbusiness.com describes his recent experience in a REI store located in California.  It is a warm 80 degrees on a December day.  He went there looking for some clothing and the first thing he noticed is it was warm in the store.  This definitely did not encourage him to try on any clothing.   I think most business owners would agree, nothing turns a shopper away faster than an uncomfortable experience.  Society as a whole is becoming more picky on what they expect and will tolerate.   It doesn’t matter if you or your employees are comfortable, but your customers.   How can this apply to your business?  I personally go to a local gym here in Denton and at times, it feels like they try to save money by not keeping the place at a cool temperature.  I would think most fitness people would agree, that is one of the most important things for a gym.  Another area that can cause inconveniences for your customers is the speed in which you handle your credit card processing. For example, the speed it takes to process a credit card transaction can be critical for a fast food restaurant. Not so much for a sit down eatery, but is for many types of businesses. Also, older credit card machines process transactions slower than newer units. Such as the Verifone 3200 machine is awfully slow compared to a newer units introduced in the last five years.

It looks like 2009 has been a good holiday sales season for Internet merchants.  From Nov 1 to Dec 11, online stores received a total of 19.9 billion in sales, compared to 19.2 last year.  That is a 3% increase over last year during this tough economy.   According to ComScore, last week was the Internets best opportunity to get the last minute shoppers and receive their finale sales for the holiday season before shoppers direct their focus onto retail stores.  We still have some ways to go.  Compared to 2007, Internet merchants have seen several billion less than just two years ago. A 3% increase is great news for the credit card processing industry as well. That means our merchants have processed more compared to last year, which should result in a slight increase in our processing profit as well. I hope this is a sign of a positive 2010.

Being close to the holiday season, I figured it would be a good time to give thanks to the POS.  I feel the payment industry has been very blessed for many years and all of this is due to the POS, also known as the credit card machine.  Who was the very first company to introduce the POS and when exactly was that?  If it wasn’t for credit card machines, this whole industry wouldn’t exist.  Gotmerchant.com wouldn’t exist nor the thousands of payment processors out there as well as Internet commerce. 

Now, with all of this, you still need consumers to buy and pay with their plastic.  So we should also give thanks to all the consumers that do use their plastic.  Without them, the industry wouldn’t have grown from something very tiny to the behemoth that it is today.  If we are going to thank these two, we probably should also thank all the technology companies involved as well, as they helped make all of this happen by bring products & solutions to the table that made the acceptance possible.  Such as Authorize.net being created over a decade ago, creating a whole new industry known as Internet commerce.   In short, I’m grateful for the invention of the POS.  Without it, I wouldn’t have a job today with stable income and an opportunity to do something I really love.  So whether you are a merchant, consumer or one in the same industry as us, lets all be grateful and appreciate everything we have today.

Many small and even large businesses find themselves spending a lot of time on collecting from their clients.  You do not want to lose their business and even though they haven’t made any payments, you may extend them a little bit more.  And then guess what, they don’t make any payments!  First, get strict when lending new credit, especially to new clients.  Insist on some type of credit card payment or guarantee.  Secondly, give more scrutiny when considering new clients.  Do your research thoroughly.  Do a background check on the company and talk to some of their references.

Thirdly, maintain control over account receivables.  If an account is 30 days past due, give the client a call and start letting them know their payment is due and you will insist prompt payment.  Lastly, find a good debt collections agency.  A good agency can do wonders for you.  They will know all the laws they must abide by and are worth their 20% commission.  From my experience, you have better success when going after owners that have semi-good or great credit as those people generally care about their personal credit.  Ones with horrible credit will generally not care as much if any at all.  Interestingly though, most credit card processing service providers will not take debt collection agencies as a merchant so they can accept credit cards from the clients. Their are processors out there that will, but very few do.