Low cost processing for small merchants is essential to small businesses. They cannot afford to lose large amounts of money monthly to costly payment processing. For small merchants, profit margins are often razor-thin, and need payment processors who offer payment solutions that meet this reality. 

Lowering Fees Yourself

Low cost processing for small merchants is not only dependent on payment providers. Merchants can take action to decrease their payment processing fees themselves. 

Negotiate

Shop around and compare the rates payment providers are providing. Feel free to negotiate and leverage information that appeals to payment providers. This includes transaction volume or how little credit card fraud your business experiences. Information like this makes a merchant more appealing to a payments provider. It is a great way to ensure low cost processing for small merchants. 

Reduce Fraud

Fraud and the risk of fraud is a massive expense for payment providers. If a merchant is at higher risk of credit card fraud, they will have to deal with high processing fees. Various solutions can allow merchants to reduce their risk of fraud dramatically. Physically swiping cards rather than entering card numbers, requiring cardholders to provide security information, two-step verification with text or email, or address verification are all great ways merchants can reduce fraud. 

Fraud reduction is made more accessible as both Visa and Mastercard support address verification. It is willing to offer lower interchange rates that use address verification. With fraud networks, low cost processing for small merchants is possible as it dramatically reduces costs for payment processors and card networks. 

Set Up and Use Your Account Properly

Ensure that payment providers receive the correct information when setting up a payment system. A merchant can be charged much higher processing costs by providing the wrong information. Merchants should also process transactions within 24 hours as waiting increases both the number of transactions processed in one batch and increases the fees that come with them. 

Ask for Help

Low cost processing for small merchants can be hard to find simply because merchants need to understand the payment space. These merchants must find help to navigate the implementation of their payment system. Whether it's a third party or sales team for a payment provider, merchants need to be sure they have the correct information about the payment space to get the lowest cost processing. 

Surcharges and Cash Discounts

Merchants can also choose to avoid processing fees altogether. Surcharges and cash discounts are excellent low cost processing options for small merchants. With cash discounts, customers are incentivized to pay with cash or avoid processing fees altogether. Surcharges allow merchants to directly pass on processing fees to customers, at least in part. However, there are a lot of regulations around surcharges that limit how much and when a merchant can use them. 

What to Look For

Aside from offering low cost processing for small merchants, payment processors need to meet various requirements. Your payment processor must meet the highest standards of security. This includes PCI Compliance and options for increasing your payment security with features like address verification.

 You must verify if the processor can offer low-cost processing for small merchants. Also, check reviews about the processor to see if there are any hidden fees that you need to consider. It would help if you also evaluated whether their payment system is compatible with your existing hardware, as this is a significant cost to change. 

Small merchants need to be flexible and able to meet the demands of their customers. Payment processors can help this by offering reliable service that can operate with or without Wi-Fi. And by allowing merchants to accept a wide variety of payment options. 

It is also essential that your payment provider offers a wide variety of integrations to assist with everyday business functions. These can range from inventory management to accounting, and these integrations all serve to streamline your operations and reduce costs.

Types of Fees

Two general types of fees will impact low cost processing for small merchants. The first of these are administrative fees that processors charge in order to keep the merchant's account open and often come in the form of a monthly subscription. The second is transaction fees which occur each time a transaction is processed. Many payment providers offering flat rates have higher rates, which can quickly add up for a small merchant. 

Low Cost Processing Options

Square

For several reasons, Square is a good option for low cost processing for small merchants. For merchants new to the payment space, Square offers easy-to-understand and set up payment options. While they're processing costs are not the lowest in the industry, Square provides many opportunities for small merchants. It's important to note that Square is more selective with its customers and likely is not a good fit for high-risk merchants. 

Chase Merchant Services

Chase is another option that offers low cost processing for small merchants. Much like Square, it offers flat rate pricing and the ability to process International Payments. Additionally, Chase is a direct Processor that does not require a third party to process payments. However, Chase does not have the most transparent pricing for prospective merchants. 

Stripe

Like Square, Stripe offers transparent flat rate processing rates for small merchants. It is a solid choice for merchants that only operate seasonally. Stripe also has many features that developers can use to customize their payment system. Unfortunately, Square Stripe does not work with high risk merchants. 

Low Cost Processing with Treati

With Treati, low cost processing for small merchants is straightforward. Treati has incredibly low administrative fees of, at most, $20 a month. Treati can also work with all merchants, unlike other processors, regardless of the risk level. When it comes to transaction costs, Treati's fees are much lower than major payments players like Square and Paypal.

With Treati, small merchants are guaranteed a seamless digital onboarding experience that prioritizes transparency and security. You know what you pay ahead of time and know that your customers and your business are protected from fraud. Finally, Treati offers a wide variety of helpful integrations to increase business operations dramatically.