Your Growing Business should take Payments Online. Here’s why!
I finally found a carpet I liked in the market. I had just moved to a new apartment for my compulsory youth service year in a commercial village. I went into the shop, made negotiations and the carpet was packaged for me. Then I asked for a POS. Don’t blame me, I had just come from Lagos where it was either that or online payments.
It didn’t occur to me that cash was a big deal in these parts and that having some in my pocket was the way to live. The store did not have a POS, I settled for a direct bank transfer. Imagine the look on my face when the store owner told me he didn’t have a bank account. NO WAY!
The year is 2019. Are you still asking why your business payments should be taken online? Really? Well, it’s okay. Educating small businesses is what we do best at Triift Africa and in this post, we clear your doubts about online payments.
Convenience: Honestly, nobody likes stress. These days, the patience for extraordinary processes has worn thinner than ever. Even tweets are more likely to get a like than a retweet because it takes just one click. Since most of your business transactions take place online now either via your website or social media, it is important that you make your payments easier too. Some online payment options make it as easy as one click.
Speed: Have you ever transferred money to someone and they didn’t receive it till some hours later? That is a reason to take your payments online, especially if your small business requires confirmation of payment before service is provided or the product is delivered. Online payments make your transaction processing faster.
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Security: First of all, nobody can steal your cash if you don’t have it. Also, providers of online payment services are required to engage security protocols on their platforms to make sure that their customers are not open to fraud. Rest assured, most online payment platforms are actually safe for your business.
Lower Costs: did you know that it is cheaper to use online payment methods than physical payments? Less expensive because you do not have to take trips to the bank to deposit money or spend time and energy recording the transactions. Also, you have to agree with me that holding cash makes you more likely to spend money. As a small business, you need to keep your eyes on the costs, so do the math and you’d realize that there is a lot your business can do by taking payments online.
More Sales: Here’s a little secret, people are more likely to buy things when they can pay before they think about it. Please don’t tell your customers we told you this. Businesses that have online payment options have recorded more sales than those that do not under the same circumstances.
Less Accounting Stress: most online payment platforms will send you a report of all your transactions in a period (monthly or yearly). This lessens the stress that comes with some parts of bookkeeping for your small business.
At Triift Africa, we encourage businesses to choose better processes for better results. We consult for small businesses in Africa and payment for all our services is done online. We walk the talk.
Here is a list of some platforms that provide online payment options for small businesses in Africa: Paystack, Flutterwave, PayU, Paga, Stripe, Wepay, and Payza. Do go through their product offers and see which suits your small business best.
We hope with these few points, we have convinced your small business to take its payments online and the process to get that to happen is way more easier than you think. Even more, your business loses a lot of potential customers not being online. Loved it? Then hit the clap button as many times as you want, and use up your 50, they don’t deduct it from your bank account.
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