Best And Fairest Software Store
Our unbiased reviews and content are supported in part by affiliate partnerships. Unless your small business consists of running a lemonade stand on the corner of your street, sooner or later you’re going to need to accept credit and debit cards as payment to compete in today’s marketplace.
Customers are increasingly relying on their “plastic” to make purchases, and consequently carrying less cash. ECommerce – something that barely existed twenty years ago – is now a serious competitor to physical retail stores. The more recent advent of smartphones, and the mobile payment features that are being added to them, promise to take this evolution even further by allowing consumers to leave both their plastic and their cash at home. While we’re still a long way away from a truly cashless society, the options for processing credit and debit card payments have increased dramatically in just the past few years, and the set-up costs have come down to the point that even the smallest business can afford to offer this option.
While accepting credit cards has traditionally required a hefty investment in card-reading terminals and expensive point-of-sale (POS) systems, today’s credit card processors leverage smartphone technology and cloud-based data storage to provide the same capabilities in a lighter, more affordable, and more mobile package. In 2009, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey introduced , the first service that allowed merchants to accept credit card payments using their smartphones. Square included a card reader which, when attached to a smartphone, could read the magnetic strip information on a customer’s credit or debit card. The Square app provided an interface between the card reader and the merchant’s account for tracking transactions. While Square is still the leading player in the field of mobile payments today, it also has a lot more competition. Today’s small business owner has a large variety of providers to choose from.
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While all offer the same core function (i.e., credit and debit card processing), each provider also offers unique features and options that differentiate it from its’ competitors. So, which one is right for you? The answer is going to depend on the nature and size of your business. Do you operate out of a traditional brick-and-mortar establishment?
Do you sell online, either exclusively or in conjunction with a physical business location? Is your business a full-time occupation with a large volume of sales, or is it just a part-time side gig? Below, we’ve rounded up our top picks among the current crop of card-processing services, and summarized what we like (and don’t like) about each of them.
Whether you’re running a large retail store or just selling fresh produce out of the back of your truck at the local farmer’s market, there’s a card-processing service that’s right for you. Table of Contents.
takes its name from the term dharma, which is found in several Eastern religions. While it can mean many different things and there is no direct translation, it roughly refers to a “right way of living.” The folks at Dharma take this seriously, offering a full spectrum of credit card processing services for a fair and reasonable price. Their fee structures are transparent – is used exclusively, and there are no annual fees. They also don’t charge account setup fees, or have a. Fees that they do charge (including fees) are fully disclosed on their website.
Dharma is unique in the world of credit card processing companies in that they donate a significant percentage of their profits to charity, living up to their motto “Commerce with Compassion.” In addition to merchant accounts, Dharma offers a variety of wired and wireless countertop terminals for in-store use. Their terminals are EMV-compliant and also support Apple Pay.
Dharma offers mobile swiping through, and also uses, one of our favorite iPad-based POS systems. Authorize.Net can also support online and mobile payments, and integrates with QuickBooks. Dharma easily offers the fairest and most transparent fee structure in the industry. In addition to a flat $10.00 per month fee for store front and eCommerce accounts, transactions are billed according to an interchange-plus cost model.
In-person transactions are charged 0.25% above cost, plus $0.10 per transaction, while eCommerce transactions are charged 0.35% above cost, plus $0.10 per transaction. For restaurants, Dharma offers a special discounted rate of 0.20% above cost, plus $0.07 per transaction. Other additional fees (such as PCI compliance fees) are clearly spelled out on Dharma’s website. While there is no minimum monthly volume requirement, Dharma that their full-service merchant accounts don’t make financial sense for low-volume businesses processing less than $10,000 per month in transactions. If your business falls into that category, they recommend either. PROS:. Full range of services and equipment for both storefront and eCommerce businesses.
Great customer support. Transparent pricing with no undisclosed fees.
Discounted rates for non-profits CONS:. Not a good fit for low-volume (less than $10,000 per month) accounts For more information about Dharma, see our complete review.
Another one of our favorite providershas been around since 1998 – long enough to have figured out what it takes to run a successful processing company and keep customers happy. CDG stands out from the crowd by not charging you any of the nickel-and-dime hidden fees that most other companies in the industry are notorious for. Their merchant accounts come with no account setup fees, no PCI compliance fees, no monthly minimums, and month-to-month billing with no early termination fees. A basic merchant account with CDGcommerce costs only $10.00 per month, and includes free use of their proprietary payment gateway/virtual terminal (a free gateway is also available as an alternative).
Depending on your needs, you can add additional features like their cdg360 security package, which provides $100,000 in data breach/theft protection, PCI-DSS vulnerability scans, customized security alerts, and a number of other features – all for $15.00 per month. While we generally highly recommend instead of leasing them, we’ve made an exception for CDG. Rather than lock you into an expensive, four-year lease, CDG only charges $79 per year for terminal insurance. Wireless terminals will also require a $20.00 per month data plan and an additional $0.05 per transaction processing fee. This is a much better deal than a standard terminal lease, which can end up costing your thousands of dollars over the full term of the lease. CDG also offers very competitive processing rates.
The company currently offers two types of processing rate plans: simplified (i.e., flat-rate) pricing that’s available to any merchant regardless of monthly processing volume or processing history, and advanced pricing that’s only available to established merchants. All advanced pricing is and disclosed on their website.
Hello i’m in the process of starting a small catering business as well selling kitchen attire( such as aprons, hand mittens,pot and skillet handle covers) to name a few, and would like to stay up with technology while giving potential customers the options to pay via credit card. Im looking for a company that has a wireless handheld POS machine with printer as my business is a hands on mobility business, and monthly income will fluctuate. What company would you recommend so I can research? Is there anyone familiar with Cardinity?
I have applied for their services. I have seen Cardinity recommended on some other websites, and it seems that they are a reliable alternative to other payment solutions.
They offer a merchant account and a card payment gateway as well as recurring billing for a relatively small price. Seems convenient. The only drawback that I have noticed is that it might be difficult to integrate if you do not have enough coding knowledge, but people write that their customer support is very good. So, I hope there will be no big problems.
Hello, I have just opened a hair salon 4 weeks ago in my home in Canada. I am the only employee and am not sure about which company to consider as I have no idea what my sales monthly will be. I had Moneris getpay and just cancelled it as the 2 times I tried to use it the app wouldn’t work and had to call them, the first time they fixed the issue, and the 2nd time they said it was my browser and then my tablet was the issue.
I cancelled due to the fact that I can’t have clients waiting to deal with this. I am looking in to Square and am worried about them freezing funds.
How big of an issue is this and what would you recommend as a good way to go? Thank you for your help. A very useful article, but I’m still left confused and uncertain. We’ve been using Cayan and I don’t think it’s the right provider for our small business.
We have a Chocolate Fountain Rental business and there are months when we charge several times and other months when there are no charges. But Cayan charges us monthly regardless and the fees are very high. I don’t know who to consider? I know certain recommendations were made to others like CDG Commerce, Fatmerchant and Square. I certainly don’t want to pay large fees during months that there are no charges made. I welcome any recommendations. Thank you, Michael.
Great article, over my head on several items. Hard for me to way the pros and cons when I have so many variables.
I’m a dentist that is looking for a processor that can handle my needs, I run multiple offices that process $50k a month or more, and I have several different points of sale, from insurances that pay via a mailed credit card number on paper, to patients paying in person as well as over the phone. I need to be able to do processing at multiple different locations, and was wanting a terminal as well, as a way to process payments using the computers and the internet that my young staff know how to operate. And the lower the cost the better, I would like no terminal lease, or refund cost when reversing payment, and as low as possible the percentages and per cost transaction fees. I found your research very informative and helpful. We have been in the carpet cleaning business 40 + years, and just within the past few years have accepted cc. I’v found in our area most people still like to pay with checks, although we have had a steady monthly flow of cc usage.
It ranges from $110.00 a month up to our peek months $1,300.00, very low-volume. I would like to find a merchant company that works with small business with low-volume usage like ours. I like the Square and that the PCI compliant is included, but have my reservations with the no merchant ID# and that they can hold your money if they think there fraudulent acts. Your recommendation would be most appreciated. Sincerely Kris.
Hello, Wonderful article. I got a lot of good information from it. We started our company in April. We have been selling on Amazon, as well as to some local restaurants.
We are in the process of setting up our website to handle ecommerce. We currently do between $8-10K per month on Amazon. We expect to start out about the same through our website. In addition, we would like the option to be able to sell directly to the public (face-to-face) at trade shows. We definitely will not need a ‘swipe device’ full-time, just for those 1-2 trade shows a year. We are looking towards CDGcommerce from the ecommerce side.
What are your thoughts on that, and how to handle the occasional need for the swiping CC capability. Thanks, Michael. Michael; CDGcommerce is an excellent choice. They offer a free mobile app and card reader, and their mobile processing rates are a little lower than their eCommerce rates.
However, the card reader is currently not EMV-compliant. With the EMV liability shift, you would be responsible for any fraudulent transactions where you swiped an EMV credit card instead of reading it with an EMV-compatible card reader. This might be a consideration if you’re going to use the mobile processing system at trade shows. However, we anticipate that CDGcommerce will offer an EMV-compatible reader sometime soon. While it probably won’t be free, it will protect you from any card-present fraud that does occur. Your other option would be to get an account with Square as a secondary processing method.
They already have an affordable EMV card reader for their mobile solution, and with no monthly fees you wouldn’t be paying anything during the months when you’re not using the account. The trade-off, of course, is that their processing rates are quite a bit higher.
We currently use Best Merchant Services but are looking to switch. I manage a small hotel and we did around 460K in CC sales last year. More than half of our transactions are over the phone reservations or are from virtual cards issued from websites like Expedia for when guests prepay for their reservations online.
So over a third of our transactions are virtual cards and have only the CC#, Exp date and Zip code keyed in only but we have very few charge backs maybe 10 total for under 1K annually. What CC processing company would you recommend we use? Thanks in advance for your help! I work at a small Farm Mutual Insurance Company that operates only in one state and currently does not accept credit cards. We are looking into accepting them for premium payments either by phone or in person at the office.
Premiums could be anywhere from $50 to $2000 and until we get rolling with this, not sure how many people will pay by credit card or how much it will bring monthly. Fees are going to be huge on a situation like this, so where do we start and what provider is recommended? Thanks for your time! Hi Chris, it kind of depends on your needs and budget. For very new businesses and especially businesses that want to take payments from their smartphone, Square is a pretty solid choice as it’s mobile and free to use (no monthly charge). It’s super easy to get started with, too.
But as mentioned, it’s not 100% reliable, and not the best choice for established, large-volume businesses. Clover is pretty good but it has an upfront hardware cost and there will probably be a monthly service charge as well ($60/month or so).
You might want to start off with a free system like Square and then as you grow, switch to another system like Clover or Vend. And if you do end up graduating to another system, you can always keep Square just to take payments on the go.
Hey Terri, While Heartland isn’t on this specific list, we are the 4th largest processor in the country and the only one with NO middlemen! We pride ourselves on fair and honest statements and the best CS.
We have an incredible amount to offer to small to mid size businesses in the way of technology, security and breach protection as well as being local to most of the U.S. Shoot me an email whenever you get a chance, I’d love to learn a little more about your business to see how we can benefit you!
At a minimum, we’ll take a look and make sure you’re being treated fairly! Look forward to hearing from you, thanks! Thank you for your article. I am starting to teach seminars for continuing education students. I plan on having about 25 students for one weekend every other month and the cost of the course is $400.
I am going to be taking all payments over the phone (deposits and full payments) so I’m probably going to need to key in all the debit and credit cards. It will probably end up being about $4,000 to $5,000 a month on average, so I’m guessing that square or PayPal is the best option? Which processing company do you think would be best suited to doing that? I have not yet started my bus. I purchased a website, training, and tax club from STORES ONLINE, ALSO GOES BY OTHER NAMES iMERCHANT, ETC.
They screwed thousands of people never built my website, so I used another expensive company and step by step I built it. When it was ready to go live (they would have hosted it too) the programmer left the company that same day and my site could not even found on the servers.
Just some of my preliminary. I got no response to my calls, emails and letters. So, I want to try again, but some of merchandise is out of style (clothing and jewelry), and don’t have any idea how long it will take to be found. I studied since I bought and paid over $20,000 for the past 10 YRS NOW I would like to try to sell what I have. Is Square still the best.
First Data contacted me and said go with us because all Visa and Master Cards are processed thru them. IS THIS TRUE? One response you gave was to use another company because they were the bitter deal. What do you recommend.
I might not get buyers instantly, and it may take months, but I have to have a merchant account before I starts. AT LEAST FOR ME.
SENT 5.18.2017. Hey Mikey, If the narrowing field still leaves you unsure, take a look at Heartland Payment Systems. We are the 4th largest processor in the country and the only one with NO middlemen! We pride ourselves on fair and honest statements and the best CS. We’re the ONLY processor endorsed by the National Restaurant Association as well as many state associations.
Shoot me an email whenever you get a chance, I’d love to learn a little more about your business to see how we can benefit you! At a minimum, we’ll take a look and make sure you’re being treated fairly! Look forward to hearing from you, thanks! Hi, I am a home based travel agent. I accept credit cards over the phone only from known clients (friends, family or their friends) for their tour package invoices. My clients would like to pay by credit card but they would also like to earn triple points as offered by Chase Sapphire reserve card when it is used for travel related purchases. Normally I use Square or PayPal but that is not accepted by Chase to give triple points to my clients.
Which credit card processing company I can use, where my business name and SIC code are associated with the payment? Since my SIC code is associated with “Travel”, my clients can earn triple points for every $ they spend.
My annual charges could be over $100K. Hi, I am running a Dr’s clinic where patient spay fee for service and sell a small amount of retail products in Canada. Gross sales are approx $20 000/mth. I used to use Chase Paymenttech but there were a lot of hidden fees. I switched to First Data a few years ago and they have been ok except they hold my transactions an extra day before depositing it in my account. I have been contacted by Elavon and they say they have recently acquired my account from First Data and my fees will be “basically the same” as they were with first Data. First Data says that theya re still offering the same services and I can choose to stay with them.
It all seems a little confusing so I have been looking at other options. What would be your best suggestion to minimize costs? Hi Patricia, I know it’s been a little over a month since your inquiry, if you are still reviewing options, take a look at Heartland Payment Systems. We are the 4th largest processor in the country and the only one with NO middlemen!
We pride ourselves on fair and honest statements and the best CS. We have an incredible amount to offer to small to mid size businesses in the way of technology, security and breach protection and have a growing footprint in Canada.
Shoot me an email whenever you get a chance, I’d love to learn a little more about your business to see how we can benefit you! At a minimum, we’ll take a look and make sure you’re being treated fairly! Look forward to hearing from you, thanks! We invoice all of our customers (kitchen/bath remodeling and plumbing services), so we do not bill on the site once the work is completed.
The last few years we’ve averaged approximately $220,000 of income, so I would guess we COULD fluctuate between $3,000 or $4,000 a month up to $8,000 a month or more once our customers learn we take credit cards. Since we don’t sell on-line or face-to-face, which credit card processors would fit our needs best?
We were looking at PayPal to start with. Any other suggestions? Thank you for the great review. We are a non-profit that only conducts business one time every other year at our one and only fundraiser, the Festival of Trees. We have averaged a take-in of $25,000 over one weekend and, in the past, we have only accepted cash. We have s price increase this year so the numbers will go up.
Due to patron request we are exploring accepting credit/debit cards. Do you know if there is a way we could just do business for this one period every other year. All business would be conducted during that weekend except for some tickets that might be issued from payment through our website (have not explored that option yet). Thank you for your advice, in advance. Hello Brenda, Thank you for your feedback. We always hope to exceed the expectations of our customers.
However, it looks like we did not meet your expectations and we apologize for that. We reviewed your account and verified that you were previously issued a refund for the issues that occurred.
We had hoped that this corrected the frustrations you experienced. We always aim to provide the best payments partnership to our customers. Please contact us if you would like to explore other options with your account.
We can be reached at – The Payline Team. Joanne; All of the providers listed in this article offer a mobile payment solution.
Depending on your needs, you’ll want either a smartphone-based system or a dedicated wireless terminal. Terminals cost around $300 or more to buy and require a $15-20 per month data plan. Smartphone-based systems are much more affordable, but many providers haven’t put out an EMV-compliant reader yet. We highly recommend using an EMV card reader, as most of your customers will now have EMV cards, and you could be liable for any fraudulent transactions if you swipe an EMV card with a magstripe card reader.
This article has been helpful. I am looking to switch my merchant service since I spent over $1000 in fees using that particular service this year. For my small business that is financially devastating. I have a business that is half consignment retail (educational items) and half services (tutoring). My transactions are usually over $1000 but have not reached $5000 in a month. What would you recommend? Also, what is my best tactic to get out of my current merchant service contract?
I feel like I was suckered in because I was new to being a business owner. Crystal; CDGcommerce would be a very good choice for your business. Compare what you’re paying now against what your costs would be with them. The nice thing about the companies profiled in this article is that they’re very transparent about their costs, allowing a business owner to make a fairly accurate cost estimate based on their current processing history. Getting out of your current merchant account contract will depend on who your provider is. You’ll want to review the account closure procedure in your contract very carefully and follow it to the letter. Get everything in writing, and submit all required paperwork well ahead of the required notice period.
Fairest Definition
Apparel shops have a unique problem with inventory. Stock is not only segmented by item and color, but by size as well. If a dress is stocked in all sizes from 0 to 16 and in four colors, that is 32 different versions of the same item.
Even a men’s shirt in small, medium and large in white, ecru and blue is nine stock keeping units (SKUs). To further complicate the issue, many fashions have accessories—for example, a hat and gloves that match a coat. Apparel inventory software needs to not only track what is in stock and in which color and size, but the matching accessories.
All of this information must be available to the point of sale (POS) system. For a chain store, in-system transfers is an important feature. (CRM) is also a primary concern. In addition to names, phone numbers and email addresses, the CRM system should track favorite designers and important dates such as weddings, mitzvahs and proms.
Combined with sales history, the CRM should also provide a loyalty program using email, text messages and social media networks such as Facebook. Accounts receivable is standard but should include layaway. Payroll is standard except that some stores have commissions, sales quotas, or both.
General ledger and accounts payable are standard. Most stores use on-premises systems, but cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) options are available and offer an attractive alternative accounting platform for clothing and fashion stores. Common Features of Apparel POS & Inventory Software In addition to core business functions, retailers should evaluate the following functions to meet their unique requirements of a clothing POS solution: Layaway The POS system should allow customers to put products on layaway and identify the item as such in the inventory system. The layaway payments should be treated as deposits in the general ledger. Holds The clothing store POS system should allow merchandise to be placed on hold, and identify it as such in the inventory. The hold should automatically expire after a defined time if the item is not purchased or placed on layaway by the customer.
Store transfer If the store is part of a chain, the inventory system should have up-to-date information on inventory in all of the stores. If a customer needs an item that is not in stock at a particular store, the system should check all other stores. The customer should have the option to hold the item for pick up at another store or have it transferred to a store of the customer’s choice. Inventory matrix The key to a successful apparel is a matrix of modifiers. The general description is entered once, and the sizes and colors are listed as modifiers to the basic description.
Erd commander for windows 7 free iso. The inventory must track each item as a separate SKU and maintain a separate reorder point. Customer relationship management Because of competition from online stores, warehouse stores and department stores, these retailers have aggressively adopted CRM. In particular, they are adopting social networking by establishing Facebook pages and tweeting coupons to registered customers. The system should also track color, style and designer preferences to notify customers when new shipments are due.
It is important to track special dates for targeted, personalized sale opportunities. Customer loyalty program As part of CRM and to further solidify customer relations, many stores have customer loyalty programs. The store system should track sales history and monitor loyalty program points awarded and redeemed. Seasonal planning Fashions and accessories change from season to season.
The inventory should make recommendations for new orders. In addition, it should track existing inventory and make sales-versus-storage recommendations. Accessory coordination Many clothing manufactures provide matching accessories, such as belts. In other cases, different manufacturers make accessories to “coordinate” with outfits. The inventory and POS system should list matching accessories on hand and available as special orders. Split tender The system must be able to accept payment over several different methods.
For example, a customer may want to pay with cash and two different credit cards. The system must properly apply the split payments to the correct ledger accounts.
Best And Fairest Software Stores
Online Customers and Apparel Retailers Apparel is one of the fastest growing ecommerce segments. Online research firm eMarketer predicts revenue around $40.9 billion in 2012, a 20 percent increase in growth over 2011. There are a number of reasons for this, including greater sophistication of online tools for shopping and a growing number of traditional retail clothing chains moving to online retail.
To be successful today, apparel shops owners can react by investing in one of the following strategies: Produce an online storefront. Store owners can enter the online shopping game themselves. Some apparel management software vendors offer ecommerce and shopping cart integration with their system. Other software vendors, like Volusion and 3dcart, offer third-party shopping cart solutions.
Retailers can then build out and optimize their website for local, regional or national customers. In this scenario, it may be worthwhile to invest in online marketing services, like consulting firms that specialize in pay-per click advertising, to gain visibility. Improve the customer experience. Another option for retailers is to focus on differentiating from online apparel websites and improving the in-store experience. A number of POS vendors offer clothing inventory software that works on tablets and smartphones to help associates answer customers’ questions and look-up apparel options from the floor. Some mobile apparel store software can even process payments from the device.
One national apparel retailer—Nordstrom—is moving to a mobile point-of-sale solution in all of its stores. Another option is to improve the experience for customers through improved signage, a more open and inviting store layout and better-trained associates.
Customer attainment is also an important consideration for these retailers. As customers transition to websites and social media to find promotions and deals, smaller clothing retailers should meet these consumers online to offer similar promotions and store information. Market Trends to Understand. CRM-enabled POS.
Fairest Of The Fair
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality is increasingly integrated with traditional POS systems. More and more apparel retailers are finding they’re able to fulfill their CRM and POS requirements with a single system.
(Some of the benefits of integrated systems are discussed in the first section above.). Internet of Things. While the IoT is very much still a nascent technology, some of its more compelling use cases are in the realm of retail. Inventory management, for example, can be improved—and to a degree automated— with peripherals such as RFID tags and scanners. Expect these systems to be more tightly integrated with other retail technologies, including POS systems, as a larger variety of stores begin exploring their use.