On the lower side of Manhattan there’s a sidewalk hotdog push-wagon that’s been serving up the same natural-casing hotdogs for 25-years. For a quarter of a century — same great dogs, same spicy mustard, same hot-steamed buns –-everything’s the same … except one thing. That popular sidewalk eating spot just added something that’s very today: it now takes credit cards with a cell phone merchant account.
Now, anytime, anywhere – no matter how mobile your business is, no matter where it is – if you can get a cell phone connection, you can do cell phone credit card transactions.
If you’ve got an Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows smartphone, tablet, or a Windows wireless device, you can now take credit cards with a simple swiper attachment. This attachment allows you to swipe your customer’s credit card right on the spot. Of course, you’ll want to ensure compatibility between your device and the cell phone merchant account before you make a decision.
Beyond the anytime, anywhere benefits of wireless credit card transactions, there are many other reasons why mobile merchants should consider such a system. Among those are instantaneous authorization and multiple users on one account. There’s also the ability to e-mail a receipt to a customer right from a wireless device.
Because fewer and fewer people are carrying cash these days, a cell phone merchant account spells opportunity for merchants, vendors and delivery people who have no access to a landline. Considering the relatively small fees charged by the providers of wireless credit card processing, this means a greatly increased customer base for businesses on the go.
Clearly, we’re living in a progressively more cashless world, at least where transactions are concerned. And the more businesses can take advantage of this age of plastic, the more profitable they will be.
No longer will hungry businesspeople have to pass by that hotdog stand or corner newsstand just because they don’t have any cash in their pockets. But most important, the people running those establishments will not miss out on the business that otherwise would have walked right by.
All thanks to the ubiquity of smartphones and the increasing availability of cell phone merchant accounts anytime, anywhere.
Recent Comments