Computer or tablet based hardware/software used to load your products and accept payments for them.
Paradise POS Shares four emerging features all restaurants should have today. Check out their article detailing features customers and owners are looking for in a modern iPad base POS system. Contact Merchant Partner for more information or to arrange for a demo of Paradise’s cutting edge POS system for your Brainerd Lakes Area Restaurant.
Not ready to make the leap to a Point of Sale System, but want to increase efficiency? Modernize with Swipe Simple Register – harness the power of your Android tablet or iPad to take both cash and credit card payments. Eliminate dual entry! You can enter any quick sale amount to take a payment or select a product and have the option to track your inventory. Don’t want to print reciepts? you can send via text, email or choose to print. For a fraction of the cost of a Point of Sale system you can join the digital revolution. Even better you can significantly reduce your processing fees with Cash Discount processing using Swipe Simple. Additionally you can use your Swipe simple reader with the app on your smart phone for taking mobile payments
Merchant Partner is a re-seller of Paradise POS which includes an restaurant online ordering system, click here to learn more.
The pace restaurants and other business’ have been adapting online ordering to remain competitive or even just to keep their business alive has accelerated in recent months. For some partnering with one of the 40 plus new delivery services appears to be a good solution, others are finding those services to be cost prohibitive, just as many rural florists before them discovered in their industry as well.
One alternative is to take orders yourself through a service like Biteheist that allows you to load your menu online and get orders by email, text or directly to a POS ticket printer. You don’t need to have a POS system to use this service, however you can save on the monthly fees when you bundle your payment processing with Biteheist.
If you don’t have a POS yet, this maybe just the timing as many POS systems allow you to use your same menu to populate your online order menu. Systems like Paradise POS include online ordering as a standard feature for no additional cost, many other systems offer a delivery module for an additional fee. Paradise will even allow you to set expectations for when an order will be ready by allowing you to add additional wait times during peak hours and to update it on the fly. If you are providing delivery services Paradise will also print and additional ticket for the delivery driver with a QR Code they can scan to get delivery directions in Google Maps. Creating your menu once and having it maintained for online ordering will save you time in maintaining your pickup/delivery menu – you can also select which menu items you want to show online.
Contact us to discuss how Merchant Partner can help you. I can arrange POS demo’s to enable you to select the system that is right for your business.
Does your daily life require more than a flip phone? Maybe you business does as well. You don’t have to invest thousands into a full blown POS computer to improve how you take payments for your goods and services. New smart terminals can offer you more than just accepting a credit card. You can easily create a menu for your offering without any technical expertise allowing for simpler check out and data collection. A smart terminal can start out as simple to use as a basic card terminal while allowing you to expand at your own pace. You can accept signatures right on the the customer facing screen with the option to print, email, or text their receipt. You can even connect to a cash drawer and replace your cash register.
Other options include the ability to take an order anywhere in your business and not just at the counter, you can also take payments anywhere. For a restaurant you could take an order at the table, fire the order directly to a kitchen printer and move on to the next table where you can take another order or cash them out to turn the table more quickly.
There is also an app store where you can load apps such as POS software, time clock/scheduling apps, or loyalty programs. Additionally they can improve the image of your business with a modern look and easily accept payments however you customers want to pay from cash to contactless payments like Apple or Samsung Pay etc and of coarse traditional chip or bar code cards.
Interchange Plus pricing also know as Cost Plus or Pass-through pricing is the most common credit card processing today and is designed to be very transparent so you know what you are really paying. This model should pass through Interchange charged by the Credit Card companies and the Card issuer fees (Assessments etc) at Cost and processing fees are covered by a small markup commonly called “discount” and a per item fee or Authorization fee. Additional fees may include a daily batch settlement, admin, paper statement, electronic statement, paper supplies etc – each of these fees should be clearly stated out in your agreement and not be a surprise when you get you first statement.
Sadly not everyone is getting charged what they agreed too. For example: this week, I came across a business that even though they were processing a lower than average volume had a discount rate that was exceptionally low, this didn’t really compute. On the surface they appeared to have a very competitive rate, however their overall effective rate told a different story as it was higher than average, even though they are taking in 45% of their transactions on debit cards! Upon further analysis I discovered all of their listed interchange fees were around 35% over cost and their processor was padding their fees! So even if you are quoted an exceptional rate that doesn’t mean you are actually getting them.
You can request a statement analysis to see if there are any hidden costs or “junk fees” in your statement.