Editorial Team
5 min read
Accepting different payment types–from credit cards to contactless payments–anytime, anywhere you need to has never been easier for retail business owners.
In the third of this four-part series, see how Clover POS has helped these local retailers accept a wide variety of payments—from anywhere they do business.
Take payments on the road
The Clover Flex and Clover Go easily travel with you wherever you’re doing business. This serves merchants well who make sales at trade shows, or—for Amanda Hromadka, owner of Gee Gee Equine in Torrance, CA—at charity events.
“Once a year, we do a charity show for Children’s Hospital Los Angeles,” Hromadka shares. “And now we have the Clover Flex that we can travel with and swipe cards there.”
Hromadka, who sells wares like boots and riding gear to equestrians, is regularly meeting her clients where they are.
“I’ll also use the Flex if I go to a barn to meet a client to drop off their goods, and we’ll swipe their credit cards right there,” says Hromadka.
Drum up business hype before your storefront launch
Krystal Offord, owner of AK Cycle Chic in Anchorage, AK, found the Flex helpful for a different reason. She and her team wanted to drum up business in advance of their brick-and-mortar grand opening.
“We actually got the Flex first. When we started the business, we had products to sell, and we didn’t have a storefront. We started doing pop-ups selling our custom products—like hats and shirts with our logo—before we even signed the lease on our brick-and-mortar. So the Flex was perfect. It is actually very fun to use.”
Clover Flex comes with built-in LTE capability, so there’s no need for a WiFi connection to make a sale. Ben Gloria of Your Toy Link has found Flex handy as a backup when there’s outages in the store—or even just long lines.
READ THE SERIES:
How Clover helps retailers run their businesses: Inventory edition
How Clover helps retailers run their businesses: Reporting edition
Have a backup on hand in your brick-and-mortar
“Sometimes when our WiFi is spotty or there’s a disruption, we just pull out the Flex and continue sales as normal,” Gloria explains. “Also, if we’re really busy, we’ll grab the Flex and say, ‘Hey, if you have a card, I can check you out right here.’ And that has helped a lot.”
Let your customers pay how they want
With a retail POS system, you can accept all major forms of payment. Customers can pay with cash, check (which you can immediately scan and deposit), major credit and debit cards (swipe or chip, and they can even use NFC-enabled cards or make contactless payments with a mobile device–think Apple Pay® and Google Pay™.
The convenience and speed of contactless transactions are especially enticing for younger customers, as Brandt DeLorenzo of Curious Plantaholic shares.
“A lot of our customers are younger, so they tend to prefer contactless payments, and because Clover supports those seamlessly, it makes it easy for our customers to buy the plants, planters, supplies, and accessories and pay for them the way they want to pay for them,” DeLorenzo shares.
Not all retail shoppers are accustomed to newer ways to pay, but providing the option to customers can help your business stand out from the crowd. Whitney Mayhew of Broken Spoke Boutique knows the small-town struggle of keeping up with latest trends.
“I don’t know how many people come here, and say, ‘Oh, do you take American Express?’ Or, we still get this, ’Do you take cards, or is it just cash or check?’” Mayhew laughs, “Because there are still a lot of small businesses around here who won’t take any cards, let alone American Express. And I’m like, ‘We take it all!‘”
Ben Gloria of Your Toy Link takes it one step further by offering his customers discounts for paying contactlessly.
“On Mondays, we do contactless pay days. So if you come in on Monday and use tap—Samsung, Google, Apple—we’ll give you 15 percent off if you can use contactless,” explains Gloria. “They can tap their card, watch, or phone. It makes the experience of the shop easier for them and us, and it’s a way to save. People have responded really well to that.”
Keep your processing fees low across the board
A common misconception about contactless payments is that processing fees increase when accepting them. The good news is, banks charge merchants an equal fee for all in-person, credit card transactions—regardless of whether the card is inserted, tapped/waved, or used via mobile device.
For Kathleen of London Beauty (locations in Ann Arbor and Brighton, MI), Clover made the most sense for her business. She recalls shopping for a POS provider and why she ultimately chose Clover.
“One thing I liked about Clover is you could choose to use your own bank, or choose to work with First Data, in terms of who processes the transactions,” London explains. “With an eye towards growing our business and expanding our product offerings, Clover’s swipe fees were more favorable than other POS providers. We sell at a variety of price points. We’re not like a coffee house, where it’s constantly $5 transactions, but we’re also not like a boutique where you’re selling one, expensive piece a day. It’s someplace in between, and I felt like Clover was that happy middle, which is what I liked about it. It felt fluid, and had everything I needed.”
With Clover, customers can pay however they want, and merchants can rest assured knowing they’ll pay the same low rates for all types of card transactions.
Learn how Clover can help your retail business take payments anytime, anywhere. Contact a Clover Business Consultant today.
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