Dan Leberman, Vice President North American Online Small & Medium Business Unit, PayPal

For small businesses, picking a payments processor may seem like a fairly straightforward task – but it’s often not that simple. Those that take it a step further and educate themselves about the ins and outs of payment processing often come out ahead, learning that picking the right partner can have a tangible effect on small business growth. Make sure you are picking a partner that not only meets your needs now, but can also evolve with you.

 

Here are some key considerations to keep in mind:

 

Security comes first. The average data breach today can cost a company $5.5 millionwith the average cost per compromised record reaching $194. You may or may not be well versed in transaction risk modeling, dual-authentication, or PCI compliance, but your payments partner should be a world-class payments security expert. Small business owners must have peace of mind to concentrate on growing their business, while their payments partner focuses on ensuring secure buying and selling experiences.  One-stop shops are easiest to deal with, but make sure they’re willing to partner. Small business owners shouldn’t have to deal with three or four different partners in order to accept payments. There are much simpler one-stop-shops, like PayPal, that can take care of processing credit cards, sending online invoices, and other payments options across online, offline and mobile. But look for a partner that supports an "open infrastructure" to accept payments, where you can bring your existing payments partners if you want to. Businesses that have existing payments relationships shouldn't have to rip out existing systems to sell their products and services in a new channel. Understand actual processing costs – not just lowest “show rates”. Finding a good price seems simple enough – until you notice all the asterisks next to the rates you often see. Those asterisks lead to fine print that reveals dramatically higher processing fees on many of the most common types of transactions, including different types of credit or debit cards. Consider working with a processor that offers flat- or blended-rates, charging you one rate for any type of transaction instead of bucketing transactions into various categories.

 

Choosing a payment processor for your business is a big decision, so don’t act without consideration. Follow these top criteria and the other tips outlined in this white paper to make sure you pick a great partner.

 

To learn more about how to select a payments processor as a small business, join Dan Leberman, Vice President of PayPal’s North American Online Small & Medium Business, Crisloid (a PayPal merchant), and the U.S. Small Business Administration on Thursday, May 7, at 2:30 p.m. ET for a webinar on how online payments can drive small business growth.

 

Continue to follow the conversation during our #BizTipsChat Twitter Chat on May 27th from 12:00 – 1:00pm PT featuring the topic “Partnering and Picking a Payments Processor.” Throughout the month of May, @PayPal4Business will host Twitter Chats highlighting a new small business topic every Wednesday with the hashtag #BizTipsChat.

Original author: PayPal-Forward