With new businesses opening at the rate of over 500,000 per month, there is a consistent need for a variety of merchant services. One of the most important, of course, is credit card payment solutions.
What are the largest credit card processors? When comparing brick-and-mortar stores with online shopping opportunities, the former generates 94% of annual retail sales. According to Forrester Research, Inc., online retail sales figures were $335 billion in 2015. This figure is expected to rise to $523 billion within the next five years.
Just as consumers engage in comparison shopping at local stand-alone stores or malls, so, too, do online consumers. It’s been found that there are 72 million consumers engaged in online comparison shopping on a monthly basis.
When considering the largest credit card processors, both brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping sites are using some form of credit card processing software or services. Since most Americans have at least one credit card, small business credit card machines are usually an option when shopping at local retail stores. When shopping online, however, consumers will usually use their credit or debit cards.
In 2014,1,000 consumers that had both a debit and a credit card were surveyed by TSYS. This online survey found that approximately 43% of American consumers preferred to use their debit card when making a purchase. Of the 1,000 consumers surveyed, 35% stated that they preferred to use their credit card, while 9% preferred to use cash when they made their purchases.
Having some type of merchant point-of-sale (POS) software makes sense for small as well as large-volume businesses. It could be argued that the larger the business, the more important it is to have a sophisticated POS software system.
When polled, it was found that 88% of companies with a POS software system have had it in place for less than five years. This demonstrates that these types of software systems are becoming part of the solution to streamline the way that business is conducted. Furthermore, when an efficient technological system is in place, it can assist with driving sales.
The expenditures for these systems vary, and 48% of the companies polled claimed to spend under $1,500 per year on their systems. Overall, technology spending for small businesses has already reached $130.1 billion.