Credit Cards

[Lindy]

I just went back to the Propay.com site and unfortunately for me you have to have a US based account which of course I don't. I'm not ready yet to move into credit cards so I have time to keep researching this.

Thank you so much for sharing!

*****

ETA - I just found Propay Canada (http://www.propay.ca) and I'll be calling them tomorrow for pricing since I am having trouble accessing that part of their website.

 

[Gracie]

Your display is awesome!!!

I think accepting debit/visa/mc is a must, imo. Our sales have increased 25% since we started. We rent the equipment, and it pays for itself. We have a wireless terminal we used at shows, no electricity required.

 

[honor435]

Bruce
looks good, wow, you have a lot of stuff. I only make soap, for now. I noticed most of your soaps are brown, are they the natural ones? I think women esp. like to have some pretty/good smelling soaps just for setting out? Do you have a web page, i want some beer shampoo.
Kim

 

[Bigmoose]

Hi Kim, The reason so many of my soaps are brown is because they are beer soaps. My buisness is Homebrew Soaps. Shampoos is by far where I get most of my repeat buisness. That and lotions. I have a Etsy store you can get to by clicking on the www tab at the bottom of this post. Looking at my 3 table setup the 2nd table is all beer soaps and shampoos. I have too much of a selection right now. I plan on dropping some of the slower sellers to try and make life a little easier. I use the same FO in all my beer soaps and shampoos. And against my wifes better thoughts I made a lotion with that scent and call it beer lotion. I make sure everyone knows it has no beer in it but women are buying it and I think it is for themselves, and not for that special someone in thier life.

Have a great day!

Bruce

 

[scentforyou]

credit card machine increased my sales

I have found that the credit card machine has increased my sales. When you are a vendor at these large festivals most vendors don't have credit card machines and most of the customers will spend all of their cash and have to pass up things they really want. Also If a customer only has $20 cash left and they want $40 of product they can hold on to their cash and use their credit or debit card. I found that people tend to spend more when they are using their card.

Sam's Club and Quick Books have really good rates for credit card processing for your actual terminal, virtual terminal or processing on your website.

 

[TurbidBlue]

I have been eyballing ProPay for a while now. I'd like to start accepting credit cards for my Fall shows this year. I can't tell you how many sales I have lost due to only taking cash! :shock:

I've heard lots of good things about ProPay....but nothing negative.....absolutly nothing. Which makes me a bit skeptical. Has anyone had any negative expeirences with ProPay?

Thanks!
~Becky

 

[Deda]

Nope, I use it. I love it.

I got a little baby knuckle buster through ProPay. Only issue I ever had was DH not getting the correct info (CCV, Zip Code and phone number), that was human error, not ProPay.

I think it pays for itself in increased sales.

 

[rupertspal42]

So i've been readin what ya'll have been talking about and went on to ebay and found this lil guy Manual Credit Card Imprinter Kit And I have been reading up on this propay thing... my mom says I should stay away from credit cards because it can become a huge hassell.. but I use my card 100% of the time because I hate to deal with cash.. and I know a lot of people are like that.. i'm thinking it would be a good idea to do something like this... but i'm afraid that something might go wrong with the whole credit card situation.. so what do you guys think.. could there seriously be that chance? I plan on having each person sign a log book already when they pay for something, yes it's a hassell but that way I can keep track of A.) how much I got B.) who bought it because if they bought a lot maybe the next time they'll show up and C.) if I do credit cards I want to have a zip and email address along with the amount

 

[theoldecrone]

I do think accepting credit cards is worth it.

It is absolutely worth it. There is a company online:

http://merchantwarehouse.com/

that I'm looking into when my current contract runs out in November. I'm excited, because MW is cheaper than my current plan, and they also have an iPhone app! I can input the customer info on my iPhone, and the card is processed right there. Can't wait for that!

That said, my knucklebuster has worked fine. It's a pain to bring all those slips home and call them all in, but in the end, it's only about 10-15 minutes worth of work. I've only had 2 or 3 cards declined, and I always just called the cardholder and worked it out. No big deal. Part of the process.

 

[theoldecrone]

ETA Do you feel accepting credit cards was an advantage for you? Since this post started I've been looking into options and the easiest one for me personally is the Virtual Terminal through PayPal for $35.00 a month.

In my research, that is expensive. I would look into other options. Your bank, for starters, isn't always the most expensive place. Sometimes you can get a merchant account for "a season." Mine goes for 6 months of the year. It's very reasonably priced -- $15/month, or less than that. * needs to go look *

 

[Deb]

I can tell you that for me to get a 3 day kiosk in a shopping mall costs me $180 for the 3 days max. Most of them only charge me about 150 so I would have trouble spending 180 for a one day show. However now I'm going to qualify that Statement with "since I don't know what kind of traffic you would get at that show I can't say if it's too high or not".

As far as credit cards go - because I want to keep my costs down as much as possible I am not getting a merchant credit card at this point. What I am going to do is carry a small computer with me that will allow people to log onto Paypal and pay me that way - or pre-order and pick it up at the booth. This lets people use their credit card and since I already have Paypal in place I can do it that way. At least that's the theory - I'll see how that works....

That is an absolutely brilliant idea and i'm going to see if I can borrow it if you don't mind. Thank you!