Mobile readers: a vital tool to keep your business relevant and your sales booming.

For you as a brick-and-mortar or online business owner, cultivating and maintaining a strong link with your customers is one of the most crucial steps you can take to gain brand recognition, garner profits, and work toward longevity. Along with offering superlative products and customer service beyond compare, giving your customers ways to pay such as mobile card readers that are in keeping with technological innovations can go a long way toward furthering these goals.

A brief history of credit card transactions.

You might be surprised to learn that credit cards have been around for more than seven decades. The first primitive type was born when a businessman named Frank MacNamara took a group of his clients out to dinner in New York City in 1949. Only after the bill arrived did he realize that he had forgotten his wallet. Out of frustration and mortification, MacNamara invented what was to become the Diners Club card that thousands of New Yorkers began to embrace just two years later.

By the 1970s, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express were gaining wide brand recognition, offering buy-now-pay-later solutions to ordinary people at prices they could afford. Of course, merchants needed to have equipment to process these buyers’ payments on. This led to the use of the manual imprinter, a machine that copied the names and numbers from the customer's credit card onto a receipt, a copy of which was mailed to the bank for payment.

Fast forward a few years, and for a brief time, manual imprinters were replaced by phone authorizations. Particularly for large purchases, the merchant would call the card issuer to receive verbal approval of the charge. However, this method proved to be both inefficient and time-consuming.

In the 1980s came the first point of sale (POS) systems. The common magstripe reader they used registered the information contained on a customer’s card and communicated with the other players in the payments process. 

However, magstripes were riddled with security flaws. It was all too easy for criminals to copy the numbers on the magstripe and then use them to make purchases of their own. To promote a safer digital payments landscape, the industry rolled out Europay, Mastercard, and Visa (EMV) cards in 2015. These had an embedded computer chip that provided an extra layer of security. With EMV chip cards, customers could sign their receipt or input a preset password, thus minimizing the likelihood of fraud or data breach.

In recent years, customers and merchants alike are embracing tap-and-go or contactless payment technology. Using a mobile card reader equipped with near-frequency communication (NFC) technology, the seller makes it possible for customers to pay using their chip-enabled credit cards, smartphones, or wearable devices. In just a few seconds, sensitive information can be conveyed back and forth to all of the parties involved in the payment. Best of all, encryption and tokenization promote a much more secure process.

It is the customer’s mobile wallet that makes many of these digital payments possible. Built into all modern smartphones, this repository allows users to enter credit card data and store it securely for later use. At the time of purchase, a customer simply opens their wallet app, confirms their identity, and places the device within less than two inches of the merchant’s Bluetooth card reader.

As you can see, credit card and digital technology have come a very long way in recent decades. Businesses that fail to keep up with the latest payment trends may be left behind as our society moves ever further away from cash. Take some time, for example, to consider some of the most compelling benefits of bringing mobile card readers into your retail business.

A simplified and more flexible payment process.

In an era when all of us seem to be in a rush, every second counts — and that includes minutes spent at the checkout counter. At the same time, neither you nor your patrons can afford human errors or carelessness that could lead to an incorrect charge or compromised payment information. Allowing your customers to pay using their smartphones or other devices means that they remain in physical possession of their information at all times, minimizing your level of risk. All the while, built-in encryption, and tokenization precautions ensure that data remains resistant to hackers throughout its journey.

Enhanced efficiency.

If you aren’t already using a smartphone or tablet connected to a reader to accept your customers’ physical plastic credit cards, you are missing out on numerous advantages. For one thing, when your associates can accept payments from anywhere on the floor, or even curbside, you can drastically cut back on lines at your checkout counters. No one enjoys waiting in line, and providing this service allows customers to complete their purchases quickly and safely.

Furthermore, the hand-held tablet carried by your associates allows them to answer customer questions and make product recommendations in real time. With competition stiffer than ever, this immediate attention can help you to cement a positive relationship with your customers that keeps them coming back and prompts them to refer their friends and family to your store.

Enhanced security.

It goes without saying that you will be required to pay fees for every credit card transaction you process. However, some of those interchange fees may be lowered if you’re using payment methods that possess cutting-edge security features. If you offer digital payment options, swipe, chip and sign, and chip and pin, as well as tap-and-go options, the likelihood that you and your customers will be victims of fraud is significantly reduced. As a result, the interchange fees you will be asked to pay may be significantly lower.

An enhanced customer experience.

Whether you prepare gourmet food or sell chic clothing and accessories, one maxim holds true: Providing a stellar, holistic shopping experience is essential if you want to set yourself apart from your rivals. Accomplishing this feat involves offering a complex combination of atmosphere, products, services, and rapport, including everything from the way your wares are arranged to how you and your staff address returns and exchanges.

While curating that perfect shopping experience, it is all too easy to neglect what happens when customers step up to the register to make their payments. Think about it: This is often the last impression a buyer has of your business before they walk out your door. Therefore, it stands to reason that you want to do everything in your power to make this interaction as fast, safe, efficient, and positive as you can.

Simply by using a mobile card reader that allows for speedy payments, you are sending a strong message to everyone who buys your products or services. It speaks of your commitment to buyers’ physical safety. It also shows that you continue to make it your mission to ensure that they receive the first-class service and security they deserve.

Integration with other systems and features.

Your mobile card reader is not a stand-alone unit; it is designed to interface with your entire suite of systems and software. As a result, you can use the information obtained during customer purchases to further develop your loyalty program, send out targeted emails and promotions, and even reach out on social media to increase your brand awareness. 

Although your mobile card reader may be highly portable, it will be equipped with powerful features that will help you run your entire business, including inventory and employee management, sales forecasting, and report generation.

Mobile credit card readers and the software they include are just the most recent innovations in a long line of payment technology advancements. Today’s customers have numerous choices when it comes to how they pay, and many are increasingly demanding that the businesses they patronize provide several options. Thanks to digital wallets, mobile card readers, and cloud-based technologies, businesses of all sizes can easily meet these increasingly savvy buyers’ requirements.

In difficult times when every penny counts, you might be wondering if upgrading your systems to allow for mobile payments makes financial sense. The good news is that these solutions are more affordable and easier to install than you may think. Not to mention, they have a learning curve that is comfortable for most staff to master in just minutes. Considering the range of benefits this portable payment technology can bring to your store, why not talk with your merchant service provider about which system would be the right fit for your operation? It just might be one of the best business decisions you ever make.