Merchant Services and Features
From commercial lending and deposits to cash and treasury management, a lot goes into a successful small business. Many small business owners realize the advantages of working with a merchant services provider to handle certain aspects of their business—things like providing efficient and secure credit and debit card processing. In this article, we’re exploring these merchant services: what they are, why you need them, and how partnering with Indiana Members Credit Union (IMCU) can help.
What Are Merchant Services?
The term “merchant services” broadly describes a range of financial services that enable businesses to process customer transactions in a streamlined and secure manner. You can also think of merchant services as serving an intermediary purpose between a business and its customers. By working with a bank, credit union, or similar financial institution, companies can ensure that payments can be made conveniently and securely.
What Is an Example of a Merchant Service?
Any list of merchant services examples is likely to be topped by online credit card processing—in other words, enabling a company’s customers to conveniently pay for their products or services. When they work with the right merchant payment providers—like IMCU—companies can save time and money, while increasing customer trust through seamless payment processing.
Taking a wider view, additional types of merchant services include things like:
- Setting up secure and reliable payment gateways that make it easy for customers to experience efficient transactions.
- Using a database or similar software system to manage customer orders, process online transactions, and monitor stock levels in real-time.
- Configuring credit card terminals and point of sale (POS) systems to meet the needs of the business and its customers.
- Leveraging services that enable customers to pay by check, cash, or via digital payments.
Whether you’re looking for cash management services, remote deposit functionality, wholesale or retail lockbox solutions, or more, IMCU is ready to partner with your business and help you find the tailored solutions that will meet your needs best.
Why Do You Need Merchant Services?
To put it simply, customers want—and expect—to be able to conduct business online. With that, they also expect their transactions to be efficient and secure. Customers, after all, have plenty of options when it comes to where they take their business, so small businesses are wise to work with a merchant services provider to ensure that they can provide the level of service customers expect.
As NerdWallet points out, merchant services “allow a business to accept credit and debit card transactions by transmitting the customer information to card networks and issuing banks, thus giving businesses access to the payments they receive from customers.”
While this might sound fairly routine, you don’t want to underestimate the importance of enabling quick, secure payment options for your customers. In 2021, McKinsey & Company found that “more than four in five Americans used some form of digital payment in 2021, continuing a long-standing trend.” In 2022, the number continued to grow, as McKinsey & Company found that it was closer to “nine in ten Americans” that preferred digital payment options.
What Are the Benefits of Merchant Services?
By making it easy for businesses to accept multiple payment methods (including digital), merchant services benefit companies as well as their customers. As discussed above, customers increasingly expect to be able to make seamless and secure online payments—and working with the right provider can help businesses to meet or exceed their customers’ expectations.
Ultimately, merchant services can save businesses time and money, ensure secure and seamless payment processing, and provide the type of customer experience that is becoming a competitive differentiator in today’s small business landscape.
How Do I Find the Best Online Merchant Services for My Small Business?
There are plenty of providers to choose from, so here are a few of the most important things to consider when comparing different providers:
- Secure and Reliable Technology: If you’re going to offer online payment processing, you’ll want to make sure your provider has high-quality, reliable offerings. To provide the best experience and features to our members, IMCU has partnered with BancCard to enable secure and seamless credit and debit card payment processing.
- Competitive Pricing: Getting the features you need at a price you can afford is an essential consideration. What is a good rate for merchant services, though? It depends. We can say this, though: when evaluating providers, make sure to consider working with a credit union like IMCU. Because credit unions are not-for-profit organizations that exist to serve their members, they typically offer much more competitive rates than traditional banks.
- Tailored Solutions: You don’t necessarily need every possible feature or function that a services provider offers. What you do need is to partner with an organization like IMCU who will listen to your needs, help you evaluate solutions, and connect you with the solutions that will best suit your company and its customers.
- Customer Service: Your merchant services provider should be easy to contact, and there when you need them. With IMCU, our members’ success is our primary focus. When you work with IMCU, you can trust that your interests are our interests and that we’ll always just be a phone call, email, or live chat away.