From physical storefronts to social media posts, selling across multiple channels — and making that experience seamless — can help your business show up exactly where your customers are. If a customer can order from you in the way that’s most convenient for them, whether that’s online, in store, or a combination of both, it maximizes the odds that you’ll make a sale.
If you’re considering making your customers’ experience more connected with an omnichannel strategy, accepting different types of payments is a good place to start. Here’s how to get started with each method.
Accept payments on the go
By offering mobile and automated payment options, customers can pay you more easily. If your business offers a repeatable service or product, like monthly dog grooming, wine club membership, or a clothing subscription box, recurring payments can make it easier for customers to pay automatically. Invoicing customers through recurring payments for card-on-file transactions can complement your online and mobile invoicing options, especially if you’re transitioning to eCommerce.
Whether you’re processing payments, creating an email marketing campaign, sending text messages, or sharing promotions on digital receipts, accepting payments on the go can help you connect with your customers wherever they are.
Take your business online
If you’ve gone through stages of closing and reopening your business in the past year, perhaps you’ve transitioned away from taking in-person payments. Now, it’s crucial to meet customers on the online channels they use. For customers buying items online, you can sync your ordering pages with your Square Dashboard so payments appear in real-time. Allow your customers to buy where they want, when they want, how they want, and see all their payments in one place by offering On-Demand Delivery as well as curbside or in-store pickup.
Virtual terminals, software that allows you to accept card-not-present payments, are another alternative for remote transactions like online purchases, phone orders, recurring payments, and invoices. This also allows you to take payments without needing hardware or software.
If you’re using Virtual Terminal, you can still wirelessly hook your computer up to Square Terminal hardware to take in-person, touch-free payments directly from customers.
Use mobile to build an immersive customer experience
Mobile is a huge part of a unified omnichannel experience. Eighty-four percent of online retailers already sell on social media channels or plan to this year, according to data from our Future of Retail report. Businesses are selling directly on popular channels like Facebook and Instagram in addition to other integrated methods, like allowing customers to book services directly from their profiles.
There are also ample ways for restaurants to build a connected experience for diners. In fact, our Future of Restaurants report found that three out of four restaurants plan on offering contactless payments and ordering options.
For example, QR codes are a contactless way to supercharge sales and extend your brand across channels. You can allow customers to pull up a menu right from their phones, pay for a product, or play a curated playlist that they can enjoy at your salon, restaurant, or store.
Contactless pay options enable you to create a true omnichannel experience
Creating a connected experience is at the heart of omnichannel, and it’s an important way to evolve your business as consumers’ purchasing preferences change. As customers embrace more touch-free shopping and dining experiences, they need payment options that make sense for where and how they’re making purchases.
By selling in multiple ways, and using an omnichannel marketing strategy to reinforce it, you can quickly adapt to meet the changing needs of both your customers and your business. Selling across channels gives customers the ability to buy in the way that works for where they are and what they’re purchasing, while you can adapt your business to keep revenue flowing.
With omnichannel, this kind of future is possible — and it’s already here. Welcome to the future of business.
This article has been paid for by Square.
