Accepting electronic payments is an essential part of running a retail business. In fact, according to Statista, cash sales through a POS have plummeted within Canada in recent years down to roughly 1% of all transactions. With digital wallets on the rise throughout the country, it’s imperative for retailers to have the technology they need in order to stay current within today’s consumer trends.
With that being said, the large volume of electronic payments that retailers are facing are often less convenient to process than a cash transaction when that retailer doesn’t have a payment processor that’s directly integrated into their point of sale system. With a cash transaction, the retailer can stay within the one system to process the payment at the click of a single button (or maybe two, depending on the complexity of the transaction).
An integrated payment processor makes electronic transactions JUST as simple as a cash sale.
What is an integrated payment processor?
There are two types of payment processors – a stand alone or an integrated one. A stand alone payment processor requires manual input of transaction totals into the pin pad itself before handing it off to the customer to complete the sale. Once completed on the pin pad, the retailer then has to reconcile the transaction on the POS system, letting it know that the customer paid via electronic payment options. At no point does the pin pad or the POS system connect on their own.
An integrated payment processor is directly linked to your POS, so the pin pad will automatically take the transaction total from the POS sale and the customer can make their payment. When processed, the POS sale is closed, automatically recognizing that an electronic payment was made.
The Benefits of an Integrated Payment Processor
1. The biggest advantage to having an integrated payment processor is the time saved on every electronic transaction. Without the need to manually input totals into the pin pad or reconcile transactions on the POS, an integrated pin pad improves transaction efficiency, which not only benefits the retailer but also benefits the customer…and the customer experience is everything.
2. Without the need for manual input or manual reconciliation, there is a lot less room for error. As human beings, human error inevitably happens, so by eliminating these steps, integrated pin pads improve transaction and reporting accuracy. This helps retailers have peace of mind when making important business decisions based on reporting insights and transactional data.
3. With the automatic transaction reconciliation, end-of-day cash out routines and balancing procedures are a lot easier to maintain and take A LOT less time to complete! And let’s face it – anything that can simplify end-of-day procedures makes for much happier retailers and their staff!
4. Both stand alone and integrated pin pads have their own security measures in place to protect customers’ security keys and PIN data. However, integrated pin pads have a bit more of an enhanced security feature over the stand alone pin pads. Integrated pin pads are designed to delete security keys and PIN data immediately, ensuring the highest level of data protection throughout the transaction. A stand alone pin pad collects and encrypts security keys and PIN data rather than erasing them. These pin pads are designed to erase all of this data in the event the pin pad is ever tampered with. While both security measures are perfectly acceptable, integrated pin pads have a much lower risk than the stand alone pin pads.
How does a retailer get an integrated payment processing solution for their POS?
The answer to this question relies solely on the type of point of sale system a retailer is using. Every POS has their own individual list of integration partners, including integrated payment processing through specific merchant services providers. Your Retail Operations Partner would be the perfect avenue to find out which options you have through the POS you’re currently using.
As a Retail Operations Partner ourselves, we have solutions for all of the different POS providers we’ve partnered with.
RETAIL PRO
The CRS EFT Link is the number one solution we suggest for Retail Pro users. This is our very own solution, developed in-house by our very talented software developer, in response to the growing need for a reliable solution for payment processing. Utilizing three of the industry’s TOP merchant services providers – Chase, Moneris and Global Payments – retailers have the option to go with who they know while also maintaining a seamless integration and transaction process.
HEARTLAND
Heartland users in Canada know better than anyone the headaches a stand alone pin pad can cause, considering there hasn’t been an integrated payment processing solution for this software in years! But now, Global Payments has finally released an integrated pin pad solution that is fully compatible with Heartland Retail in Canada! Existing merchants currently using Global Payments for their stand alone pin pad can easily migrate over to the integrated solution whenever they’re ready!
PRIORITY POS
Priority POS has a direct integration link with Moneris – the leading merchant services provider in Canada based on card volume! Moneris does about $3.5 billion in transactions per year throughout the country, ensuring their solutions are always up to date on the latest trends and consumer behaviors.
SHOPIFY POS & LIGHTSPEED X
Both Shopify and Lightspeed have payment processing built right into the POS software and monthly plans, taking the guesswork out of the entire process! This does eliminate the ability to have any third party payment solution involved if there is a specific provider a retailer wishes to use, but having both payments and POS rolled into one simplified system makes things easy and seamless!
