Accepting Plastic Is More Important Now Than Ever

The holiday shopping season is officially on! To be honest, it has been a couple of weeks now that shoppers have been taking to the malls to make purchases in time for Christmas. But with the first week of December nearly finished, there’s no doubt that people will be on the hunt for the best deals they can get for the rest of the month. This will be especially evident online.

As we’ve been blogging about this week, online shopping is no fad. In fact, the opposite is quite true. It’s a growing trend that only shows signs of continuing to grow. Canadian shoppers are especially interested in shopping from the comforts of their own homes. With each passing year, online sales in Canada continue to grow. This was confirmed in the CBC News report written by Janet Davison this past Monday.

In her report, Davison reveals that “a survey for MasterCard after the 2012 holiday shopping season found that online sales increased 26 per cent over the previous year.” Evidently, people are becoming more and more comfortable with providing their credit card information online. The giving up of this info was one of the top reasons that many shoppers were originally slow to take to the internet for the purpose of shopping.

There are some other things that merchants can do to make the online shopping experience that much easier. Offering free shipping and delivery would greatly increase interest in online shopping, according to shopper and blogger, Sharon Ng Hayes. “I think at this point that\’s pretty key when a customer is making a decision as to whether to purchase online,” she was quoted as saying in Davison’s report.

As a business owner, it only makes sense to allow for your customers to make purchases online. Depending on your type of business, of course, providing them with the ability to buy from you and have the products shipped directly to them will create incomparable customer experiences. There is no doubt that online shopping provides a convenience that cannot be matched.

The Canadian POS Corporation Blog has taken great interest in the online shopping craze, all week long, because of one specific fact that the phenomenon unveils. The acceptance of credit cards has never been more important. Arguably, a retailer would be hard pressed to survive the holiday season without accepting plastic. This is true whether he or she sells products online or not.

Canadian shoppers have shown throughout the years that they prefer to pay with their Visa, MasterCard and Interac cards when they are in stores. And now they are showing that they really enjoy making their purchases using the internet. That means that they are pulling out their credit cards at home when doing their shopping. This is the case all year round – not just during the holidays.

Do you accept credit and debit cards at your place of business? It has never been more important for the answer to that question to be “yes”. As a Canadian business owner, it’s imperative that you stay on top of Canadian shopping trends. Accepting plastic, in this day and age, is practically mandatory. Get set up with a top-notch POS terminal today! Simply call Canadian POS Corporation at 1-877-748-2884.