Whether your vape shop does business in a physical store, sells exclusively online or operates in both ecosystems, it is crucial that you partner with a payment processing for retailers provider who is specifically equipped to work with you.
That’s because merchant accounts play a vital role in how your business accepts all types of customer payments. If you’re not sure why you should go to the trouble of collaborating with this type of company, the following information should give you valuable insights into the importance of this collaboration.
1. Navigate a complex industry
Vape shops operate under a convoluted array of state and federal regulations due to the products they sell and the fact that they are subject to age restrictions.
Additionally, these stores experience a higher-than-average amount of security breaches and credit card chargebacks. As a result, anyone in the vaping sector wishing to establish a relationship with a payment processor will need to get a high risk merchant account.
Since payment providers want to make money as much as you do, they work hard to ensure that they get their funds on time and in full. High-risk companies understand that vape shops expose them to the potential for more regulatory, security and charge dispute issues.
Therefore, they protect themselves by requiring you to pay additional fees and may subject you to extra scrutiny during the application process.
In spite of these supplementary requirements, a high-risk merchant account provider will make your life easier. This is because they know how to navigate the complex regulatory and security landscape that binds the vaping industry.
Moreover, they have already established positive relationships with lenders and other financial institutions that make it possible for you to take customer payments in multiple forms with minimal difficulty.
2. Provide payment flexibility
Today’s customers are no longer content to be given only one way to pay for their vape products. To accommodate their increased demands, a good high-risk merchant account company will give you the ability to configure your systems to furnish numerous purchasing choices.
Of course, some customers will still want to use their credit or debit card. However, many are now preferring to complete their purchase contactlessly via their mobile phone or wearable device.
Another segment of your clients might elect to pay using a digital wallet such as Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal. If you are running an ecommerce vaping operation, you might even have a small number who wish to pay with cryptocurrency.
Whatever their preference, your merchant account provider can furnish you with everything you need to configure your system accordingly.
3. Offer innovative payment choices
In addition to giving customers numerous ways to resolve their bill at the time of purchase, your high risk merchant account provider can stock your point of system with all the tools and training you need to launch a recurring billing model.
In the past few years, subscription plans have become popular in a wide range of company types, including vape shops. It could definitely be in your best interest to offer this option to your customers to increase satisfaction and even boost retention.
The concept is a simple one. You and your customer come to an agreement that a specific amount of funds will be withdrawn from a certain bank or credit card account on a predetermined date for a specified duration.
Once this arrangement is put in place, the buyer can rest assured that they will receive their products reliably with no risk of forgetting to pay the bill and experiencing an interruption.
By the same token, you will benefit from predictability in your cashflow, with a much lower expenditure of time and resources that are normally involved in chasing late payments.
4. Provide security assurances
As we stated above, high-risk account providers are well-versed in the threat landscape surrounding the vaping industry.
As a result, they will furnish you with the most effective and updated tokenization, encryption, anti-fraud and social engineering technologies. Although no precaution is ironclad, you can have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you are providing your paying customers with the industry standard in data and identity theft protection.
Owning a vape shop gives you the chance to make a handsome profit while meeting a growing consumer demand.
When you work closely with a reputable high-risk merchant account provider, you can meet these goals by offering a flexible and seamless payment experience that provides gold-standard security and data protection.
