Merchant Benefits

How can you, the merchant, benefit?

  
Reduce losses from errors or theft
Cashiers do not make errors in counting change when handling card payments.  This is because payment is exact and there is no need for change.  Thieves are more likely to target cash to steal since sales drafts cannot be spent.  Cash may also be lost through refunds and unrecorded sales.
 
Reduce the time spent on managing cash
Less time is needed to count cash at the beginning and end of the day, and to deposit proceeds at a bank. When cash is the primary or only way to make a purchase, each sales staff has to count cash, and the entire store needs to monitor cash.
 
Receive and deposit your sales faster
Transaction data from sales can be sent automatically to your acquiring bank daily where you can earn interest.  Cash that is held in a register does not earn interest for the merchant.
 
Benefit from larger transactions and higher sales
Visa has received feedback from its merchants indicating that the average value of a transaction made with a payment card is higher than a purchase made with cash.  In its analysis of a Visa pilot with the Tegut supermarket chain in 1999, Kurt Salomon Associates found that a Visa cardholder spent more than twice as much per visit compared with a buyer using cash.  In addition, the average transaction value with a Visa card was 25 percent higher than a cash transaction.
 
Serve your customers better
Provide your customers with a convenient way to pay for their purchases.  According to a merchant monitor survey conducted by TNS in August 2005, nearly 50 percent of merchants accepting cards and thereby providing an alternative way to pay, are responding to a customer demand or aiming to improve the service they are providing to their customers.

Is cash free?

Many merchants think cash is free but in reality, cash has a cost.  
 

• Cash may disappear as a result of errors or employee theft. International research estimates these losses at 0.7 percent of total sales 
• Cash may be stolen or lost through refunds and unrecorded sales
• Approximately 20 minutes a day is required to count and manage cash and another 30 to 60 minutes is required to take and deposit proceeds at the bank
• According to international research, cash transactions take 10 more minutes every day
• Cash that is held in a register does not earn interest for the merchant.  Merchants will earn an extra 0.4 percent or more per year when cash is deposited more quickly at the bank