How to Benefit from Accepting Credit Cards Through a Virtual Terminal

A virtual credit card terminal lets you leverage the full power and breadth of the internet during final customer sales. Virtual terminals are software apps that let you accept payments directly into your computer, mobile, or POS system using the details on a credit card or other type of account. 

You can improve efficiency, customer service, and brand recognition by accepting more payment options, analyzing data, and monitoring inventory. Here’s how to utilize the benefits from a virtual terminal.

A virtual credit card terminal lets you leverage the full power and breadth of the internet during final customer sales. Virtual terminals are software apps that let you accept payments directly into your computer, mobile, or POS system using the details on a credit card or other type of account. 

You can improve efficiency, customer service, and brand recognition by accepting more payment options, analyzing data, and monitoring inventory. Here’s how to utilize the benefits from a virtual terminal.

How to Create a Virtual Terminal

Setting up a virtual terminal can be as easy as downloading an app these days. There are also options you can load onto any desktop or laptop to accept your transactions, or you can add it to your smartphone as a mobile business option.   

Perhaps the most efficient way to incorporate a virtual terminal is to link it to your POS system. The leading solutions should include remote manual card entry as standard, or at least be compatible with third-party options. 

This close integration allows managers and bookkeepers to feed the sales information back through the inventory, data reporting, and customer information features of the POS solution and leverage the combination to produce a more efficient way of working.

The many benefits of incorporating a virtual terminal solution range from accepting a variety of payment options to building loyalty through tracking sales and customer interactions to managing inventory. Consider these tips to realize the benefits of integrating a virtual terminal for your business.

1. Open More Doors With More Payment Options

The ability to accept credit cards with virtual terminals is like taking the middleman out of the sales process. Rather than have a chip-and-PIN or tap-n-go device translate and pass on a customer’s details to your business accounts using the internet, you can input the details directly to your POS system.

This technology lets you accept any payment remotely that you’d take in person. By saving customers a trip and avoiding some of the transaction fees associated with traditional card payments, you can build a loyal customer base.

2. Encourage Repeat Business

The leading POS offerings store all of your customer information in a central hub. So when you receive orders over the phone, you can manage customer information and use it for personalized messages directly to personal devices when advertising or offering deals.

Utilize tracking evidence of past sales to promote customer loyalty programs or market products of proven interest directly to relevant people and places. Use all the computing power of your POS system to encourage repeat business by promoting customer loyalty programs and incentives to people who will genuinely benefit from them.

3. Analyze Customer Data to Increase Sales

Data analysis has become a standard feature of the leading POS solutions and provides practical insights into what’s selling, who’s buying, and for how much. This information can translate into an increase in concrete sales.

This is a prime example of how adding virtual terminal functionality to your business expands the potential of every sale. An order over the phone, a payment in the mail, or a remote sale can lead to valuable insights into what your customers want.

4. Digital Receipts Build Bonds

Linking your payment process to your POS system or computer means you can access all the extra features within each device during a sale. This opens up a range of communication opportunities, like using digital invoices to engage your customers. Sending a digital receipt further strengthens the connection and accessibility to your customer and vice versa.

5. Integrate Inventory to Improve Accuracy

The sales information you process with a virtual terminal can be directly linked to digital inventory in your POS system to create a real-time account of everything you have and need.

The result is an accurate, up-to-date stocktake that keeps you in control of your business. You can also automate parts of the inventory process and rid yourself of tedious tasks like chasing repeat purchase orders or keeping tabs on customer accounts.

Accept Credit Cards Over Virtual Terminals and Modernize Your Business

Virtual terminals expand the reach of your business and the possibilities of your sales. The tech enables you to track sales and inventory and further allows you to connect with customers and grow your brand by building on quality customer service. 

A talech POS solution takes advantage of every possible customer interaction. By combining the latest mobile hardware with the best business software in the world, our systems help you maximize every sales opportunity, including accepting credit cards with a virtual terminal.