Technology has given every business the opportunity of becoming more than just a simple brick and mortar shop or store destined to cater to a limited number of customers. Nowadays becoming an ecommerce merchant and catering to virtually the whole world is easier than ever before. Of course, for those that still want to maintain a physical presence but keep in trend with the latest developments in payment processing in order to reach more clients mobile merchant services are the way to go.

What Is An Ecommerce Merchant?
An https://www.bams.com/e-commerce-merchant-account/ ecommerce merchant isn’t something very easy to define. Some might confuse the term merchant with seller. But, unlike an online seller, a merchant doesn’t just buy products from one party and sell them to another party with a mark-up on the price. According to https://ecommerce-platforms.com/glossary/merchant, an ecommerce merchant sells his own goods and services using the internet and has a more complicated business than that of a mere seller. As simple as it may seem to some, ecommerce is a high-risk activity that involves having to face fraud and data breaches that might lead to buyers information being leaked. Luckily there are a series of measures any online merchant can take in order to make sure their business is safe.

There are a few ways somebody can become an online merchant. They can opt for using an already established virtual marketplace, such as eBay or Amazon, or try and use one of the many third-party sales channels available to them. There is also the possibility of creating and operating your own platform, but that means you’ll have to find the solutions that best suit you on your own. It’s not like you’re not expected to do so anyway, but when you join an already established merchant community there are a few suggestions they can make to help you along.

One of the reasons that ecommerce has become so popular is that the merchant has a virtually global reach when it comes to his customer base. Thanks to the internet practically anybody from anywhere around the globe can buy anything from anyone. Of course, your reach depends on how good you are at promoting your business, and that’s another thing a merchant has to take care of for himself as opposed to a seller. Any good e-merchant will tell you that, just like in any other business scenario, you have to take care and promote your business so it can grow. Although internet promoting might seem easy there are a lot of things about before starting any campaign. You have to set your budget and compare it with potential gain so as to not come up in the red. You also have to determine who your target audience is and how to best target them. All these and many more can make creating a name for yourself as an ecommerce merchant quite difficult, but there’s always someone to help you when needed.

How Does An E-Commerce Merchant Account Work?

One of the biggest helping hands that a merchant gets is from the people that help him set up their online merchant accounts. These are accounts that enable merchants process payments over the internet using credit cards. The way this work is somewhat similar to how a POS solution works for a conventional merchant. The only difference is that instead of using a physical terminal for gathering and processing information, an online merchant uses an ecommerce card processing service in the form of an online shopping cart to collect orders and payment information.

An e-merchant account is relatively easy to obtain. Although the procedure of opening and account is very similar to that of ordinary merchant accounts, the ones used by ecommerce merchants have several more layers of security in order to prevent breaches and data leaks. Any e-merchant that wants to open and account and use it for processing payments from his own website will have to make sure the website itself is firstly secure. Firstly, their website will have to be SSL certified. This is a service that encrypts data that is communicated over the internet and doesn’t allow unauthorized access to it. There are many providers that offer such services so this step is more or less easy to take care of. Only after making sure that his website is secure, an e-merchant can apply for an e-merchant account.

What Are Mobile Merchant Services?

In recent years people all over the world have switched from carrying bulky wallets and purses to using alternative, cashless form of payment. First it was the credit card that took over where paper money left off and it was a veritable revolution in what https://www.bams.com/mobile-payments-merchant-account/ mobile merchant services meant. People could now pay by simply swiping a card against a card reader and the transaction was automatically made. But even this wasn’t enough.

As mobile technology evolved so did mobile merchant services. For instance, using a credit card to pay for things as opposed to actual money is fine, but what of you have several credit cards? Also, you had to keep them somewhere. That meant that although a progress, you still had to carry around at least a wallet. That wallet could get stolen or you could drop it somewhere or the cards could become demagnetized due to friction on the material. This all changed when virtual wallets came along.

More and more consumers nowadays prefer using mobile wallets such as Android Pay or Apple Pay when they do their shopping. All of their information is in one handy and secure location – their mobile phones – and they don’t need to carry anything else with them. Payment is done by simply putting the phone up close to the card reader, without having to search for your cards or trying several is one fails. This trend marks the new era in mobile services for merchants, a trend that businesses should get ahead of, if they want to remain relevant in the years to come.

How Can Mobile Merchant Services Help You Grow?

Mobile payments are leading the way in combating fraud and theft among consumers. Authorizing a payment requires a series of simple but effective steps such as biometric validation or entering a passcode. Mobile wallets, such as the ones from Google or Apple have changed the way people approach shopping and this is why mobile services for merchants is the next big thing that will help your business grow.

Here are just some of the ways that can be done (https://www.fisglobal.com/en/insights/merchant-solutions-worldpay/article/5-mobile-merchant-services-to-help-your-business-grow) :

1. Find an experienced and reputable payment processor to partner with
One of the best mobile merchant services you can find for your business is integrating as many mobile payment options as you can. But before committing to anything be sure to check up on your payment processor provider that he is able to integrate and safely operate everything you need. As in any area or field, the more experience he has, and the more clients he has, the better it is for you.

2. NFC technology
If you’re looking to expanding to a physical location as a way to enhance what your virtual presence already does, make sure you invest in NFC technology. NFC enables contactless payments to be done between devices that are in close proximity one to another and thus helps more clients to interact with you.

3. Gift cards
Start implementing customer reward systems such as gift cards for your store. This is one of the easiest ways of getting customers to interact with you, both in the case of a virtual store and of a brick and mortar one.

4. Don’t forget to let people know what you’re offering
Once you’ve integrated your mobile merchant services into your business model, make sure that your customers know that you’ve did so. Most of these services offer a notification option for valued customers and can generate messages to remind them of how important they are to you and how you try to make their lives easier.