Providing different payment options can help to give customers more flexibility when paying for your product. This can ultimately lead to more sales. But just what are some of the different payment options worth offering? This post lists 5 solutions worth looking into.

Credit card

Few people carry cash nowadays and those who do rarely carry more than $50. Debit cards and credit cards reduce the need to carry cash and are more convenient. Credit cards in particular can extend customers’ purchasing power by providing the option to borrow money for purchases. Many customers prefer to use credit cards for larger purchases, however many of us also use credit cards for smaller purchases, making it worthwhile for all businesses to accept credit card payments. 

The likes of the new North American Bancard website provide a variety of different credit card processing services for different types of businesses. Consider using one of these companies to help you set up the credit card processing system for your needs. Accepting credit card payments does come with fees and you can set minimum spend limits to keep purchases profitable if you deal with lots of small transactions. 

Installment plans

Installment plans allow customers to pay for a product in installments without paying interest fees. It can be a useful option when buying large value products – especially for customers who don’t have a credit card or don’t want to rack up any more credit card debt. 

Offering an installment plan to customers does have its downsides – if customers don’t pay, you have to chase up debts. That said, there are services that can manage and organize these installment plans for you. Credit checking customers could be worthwhile to get a better idea of how likely they are to pay on time. 

Third-party finance

Another option is to team up with lenders in order to offer customers loan applications there and then. This is something typically offered by furniture stores and car dealerships for customers that don’t want to pay by credit card or have too small a limit. 

Third party finance can be more beneficial to companies than an in-house installment plan because you still get all the money for the purchase upfront and it is then up to the lender to get their money back from the customer. The downside is that it still comes with interest fees, which may put off some customers. 

Loyalty points

Loyalty points are a way to make your product cheaper for return customers. Every time a customer buys a product from your business, they collect loyalty points. These points can then be spent towards future purchases to get discounts or even freebies. This is a great way to build happy loyal clients.

The most common example of loyalty points is air miles offered by airlines. However, many other companies from coffee shops to gymwear stores offer loyalty points. These points can be recorded and spent via a physical stamp card, a loyalty card, a loyalty points app or on a website customer account. 

Coupons

Coupons typically provide discounts on certain products for a limited period of time. They are distributed to various different places in order to attract new and loyal customers.

Businesses may provide coupons to loyal customers via email as a birthday gift or just as a thank you. When it comes to attracting new customers, there are all kinds of places where coupons can be distributed ranging from local newspapers to coupon sites. There are many different ways to create coupons – depending on if they are physical or digital. This handy guide at Forbes offers more advice on using coupons.