Your online presence may have given your small business the ability to go global, but what happens when you are out and about in the world yourself? How do you do business then? Processing transactions and invoices on the go means you can operate your business at full speed whether you're at a trade show, business lunch, airport or the farmer's market. But with an onslaught of mobile billing options available with an array of different features, how can you know which is best for your business?
Each of the best mobile billing platforms have a particular feature that makes them stand out. Match your business' needs to the platform with the right features, and you're ready to hit the road.
1. Card-Swiping Capabilities
Square may not be the only mobile credit card reader out there, but it is certainly the most well known. According to its spokesperson, Square has more than a million users and processes more than $4 billion annually.
Those are some big numbers. All of those users received a free credit card reader that fits into their mobile device, and pay less than 3 percent in transaction fees when processing payments anywhere and everywhere. For small businesses that would rather pay a monthly fee, you’re in luck. Square recently debuted a monthly pricing option so now you have the luxury of choosing which option is best for you.
“The vision of Square is to simply create zero friction and complexity around payments, which is difficult to do in financial services,” says Square’s COO Keith Rabois to TechCrunch.
2. Recurring Billing
Mobile billing isn't just for on-the-spot, one-time transactions. Chargify allows businesses to sign up for subscriptions, handles monthly billing, refunds and promotions as well as one-time charges.
Chargify handles each element of recurring billing for the Web 2.0 or SaaS based businesses, so there is no need to develop a customized billing software,' writes Farhan Niazi for The Backup List.
The platform also integrates with other software merchants may be using.
'I run a lot of my business using Wufoo forms,' says Matthew Ackerson of PetoVera to Mashable, 'and Chargify easily plugs into them so I can capture a client’s credit card information via our sales team.'
3. Customer Service
Just because you're using a high-tech mobile billing system doesn't mean you're a techie yourself. Braintree allows businesses to accept online credit card payments, and they'll also accept your call.
'Best of all is their customer service,' Aaron Schwartz of Modify Watches tells Mashable about Braintree. 'While traveling, I had to charge a pretty massive order for a customer. The revenue was above our maximum allowed transaction, but Braintree reps called our banks and approved the one-time charge to go through.'
4. Seamless Transition to Mobile
PayPal isn't new, but its credit card reader, PayPal Here, is. For merchants who have already integrated PayPal payments into their business model, adding PayPal Here is an easy way to retain all the same payment policies and methods - including PayPal itself.
PayPal announced that it signed up more than 1,000 new users per hour in its first day when PayPal Here launched in May of 2012. For merchants, the PayPal reader is a meaningful advancement.
According to Todd Ablowitz, founder of Double Diamond Group, LLC, a Colorado-based payment systems consultancy, 'The entrance of PayPal shows that this is a very real market, with an increasing number of options for target merchants.'
So where do you imagine your small business getting the most use out of mobile billing? Are you already doing billing on the move? What tool do you find to be the best of the best?
This article was written by Allison Canty.
