It may be hard to fathom but there are a number of college kids and young professionals who have never balanced their checkbooks. Some might not have ever even written their first check. This isn't because they don't know how -- but that they track their accounts online and/or do all the bulk of their purchasing with a credit card or a debit card. While society has not gone completely cashless as some pundits predicted, there is a lot less paper - dollar bills and checks - moving around these days. And a large part of this has to do with the influence of online shopping sites that accept payments online - the growing influence of which is being driven by younger consumers.
The days of filling out an order form and mailing it in with a check are about as relevant as black-and-white TV. The days of "allow six to eight weeks for delivery" are as acceptable as an eight-track tape deck.
The online shopper goes to the Internet for convenience and speed, and being able to pay using their credit card gives them both. So doesn't it make sense for your shopping site to grow and change with the times by have superior online credit card processing services to meet those needs?
Currently more than 75 percent of all college students have a credit card. Most typically are not carrying huge balances as they use the cards for things like adding minutes to their cel phone, buying music downloads and other small purchases.
But what is important for online merchants - and why they have to strongly consider the addition of ecommerce merchant account capabilities -- is these students will graduate with most getting their first job and seeing a commensurate increase in their disposable income. As such the size of their online purchases will go up, driving additional business toward the 'net retailing arena.
This is why analyst say that, while currently 80 percent of everything bought online being paid for with a credit card, Internet retail spending is expected to increase in the coming years. As more and more young adults, who grew up with the Internet as a part of their lives and look at online shopping as a mainstream practice, more business will be transacted by computer.
This also accounts for the shift in virtual consumer buying attitudes about sites that do not have the merchant services component. There was a time that shoppers hoped a site they were browsing had credit card processing, but now they expect to find merchant services. And if they don't there is increasing suspicion that the site might not be legitimate - as credit card acceptance has now become a benchmark for the integrity of a site.
At very least, thought, they will click away to the competition and never return. And if you need one more reason just put any household object into a shopping search engine and you'll see just how much competition is out there. Can you really afford to make a single bad impression by not being able to accept credit cards?
Jim Osterman is a Web content developer with Charge.com, a leading credit card processing provider that offers its customers innovative merchant account solutions.
