Six Methods for Remote or Virtual Payments for your Small Business

As the world changes, so does the way businesses and consumers think about shopping and services. For many reasons, consumers seek to avoid in-person services that involve direct or physical contact. Whether it’s the desire to shop from the comfort of their own home, or the need to quickly purchase something on the go in a streamlined fashion, contactless payment methods are becoming more and more prevalent.

Many businesses are considering implementing touch-free transactions and remote payments so that they’re able to collect payment from customers more efficiently. In this post, we’ll discuss a few simple ways that you can implement safer and faster payments for your business on the Internet.

Accept Contactless Payments

Contactless payment methods have become more popular than magnetic-strip cards because they are a more secure method for transactions.

A contactless payment reader involves Near Field Communication (NFC), which enables a smartphone and the reader to communicate wirelessly to make a transaction. With this technology, you can accept contactless payment cards in addition to mobile payments through Apple Pay and Google Pay. Because of their flexible nature, contactless payments are also referred to as mobile payment transactions.

This payment method does not require any physical contact between customers and your Point of Sale (POS) system, or the technology or tool that you use to accept payments, allowing you to avoid passing credit cards back and forth between customers. All you need to accept contactless payments is an NFC-enabled terminal. Once you purchase this technology, all customers need to do is hold their card or device over the terminal for the transaction to occur.

Disable the Signature Screen on Your Terminal

In the U.S. and Canada, card providers no longer require signatures for credit card payments because of the higher level of security provided by chip-enabled credit cards. Most payment systems allow businesses to disable signature requirements in the settings for credit card payments. If you’re looking to skip the hassle of signatures and speed up transactions for both your business and your customers, this is a great way to do so.

Skip the Receipt Screen

Another unnecessary point of contact that occurs during a typical transaction process is the handling of receipts. To avoid this, you can skip the receipt screen within your payment system. This will allow you to finalize a transaction with customers without printing a paper receipt. If your customers would like to receive a receipt, you can simply ask them for their email address and send it to them digitally, further mitigating any unneeded contact while also saving money on the paper required to constantly print receipts.

Charge with Invoices

Many business owners may believe that invoices are only used for businesses that strictly provide services as opposed to products. On the contrary, all businesses can consider using invoices as a method to charge customers for products or goods. This will allow customers to pay electronically and limit the need for physical payment, both in large and small amounts. If your business takes orders over the phone, invoicing is an effective way to securely bill your customers without having to take their credit card information over the phone.

There are many invoicing tools that are inexpensive and easy to use, such as QuickBooks and Square. These tools allow you to send and manage invoices and conduct business on the Internet no matter where you are. The fluidity of online invoicing allows customers the option to pay from either their phones or desktops at their convenience.

Set Up Recurring Payments

You can also consider implementing recurring online payments as a remote transaction option. This may be applicable to your business if you charge customers for recurring services, bill for subscription plans, or split costs for higher-priced items into multiple low payments over time.

Use a Virtual Terminal

For more remote businesses, a good option for remote billing needs is a virtual terminal. This may be applicable if you have transitioned to an Internet business and, as a result, need to shift away from in-person payments altogether. An online-hosted virtual terminal allows you to turn your computer into a credit card terminal so that you can easily process payments from your company’s website.

Square’s virtual terminal is one great option that is secure, easy to set up, and doesn’t require any additional hardware or software.

Given the ever-changing way of the world, now is the best time to incorporate a remote payment option into your business model. By selecting and implementing one of the above methods, you will ensure the safety of your employees and customers, and your small business will be set up for success.