Though the final numbers aren’t tallied yet, online retailer shop.org estimates that more than three-quarters of all shoppers over the age of 13 did their 2007 shopping via the Internet.
Window shopping has merged with Web surfing and that can mean increased profits for companies that offer goods and services on the Internet, as well as the ability to accept payments online. This is especially important for companies trying to reach the growing Generation Y consumer.
Members of this age group, the bulk of which are in their late teens and early 20s, have more than $100 million in disposable income and influence more than $50 million in household purchases. And they are the next generation of retail as the baby boomers transition into a fixed-income lifestyle.
As such it is not longer just a good idea for your Web site to offer the option of paying with plastic – it’s imperative for future growth and survival. Generation Y has probably never known what it’s like to order something, write out a check, put it in an envelope, slap on a stamp and put it in the mail.
They want to be able to point, pull out their plastic, and click.
And if this will take some getting used to, consider that:
• People who shop on a site that will accept payments online are more likely to make their purchase
• Those same people are also prone to purchase additional items
• And even if they are just “window shopping” the ability to by with their card makes them more likely to make impulse purchases
Do you really need any other reason to set up credit-card processing services?
And if the prospect of setting up merchant account services is causing anxiety, relax. It’s no more complicated or time-consuming that opening a checking account or securing a domain name. But if you’ll invest some time in researching provider companies, you can save a lot of money.
The rate plans for offering credit card acceptance services can be all over the map. Some will charge $200-300 just to evaluate your application, while others do this for free. The cost per transaction can vary by two or three percentage points. That may not sound like a lot of money but think about being charged two extra points per purchase. In the course of a month those teeny little points can add up.
