The adult industry is massive and one of the oldest business types. Over the years, retail stores and online channels have grown significantly. Currently, the adult industry generates billions of dollars in credit card transactions each year. However, the sector can carry high chargeback ratios, and a lot of reputational risk to banks who support it, so it’s considered high-risk. Any business owner would be best served by an expert that operates in their field, especially when it comes to adult industry merchant accounts.
What About a Bank Payment Processor?
The vast majority of banks won’t do business with many companies in the adult industry including strip clubs, adult dating sites, sex toys, and novelty or adult content sites. Organizations operating in those sectors must find a specific adult merchant provider instead. Credit card processing is a critical factor for business success, so it’s essential to find the best options.
High-risk merchant account providers understand the nature of the adult industry and empower adult businesses to operate. Since banks are not an option, finding a reputable merchant account becomes a primary objective.
I’d Rather Use A Low Risk Payment Processor
Again, the standard payment processors are not an option for adult businesses. Even if they mistakenly allow a website to begin operations before risk has a chance to review the approved account, at some point, they’ll review the products sold or service provided and then terminate the account. One serious problem is that they often times also freeze funds. For someone operating a website, it’s challenging to overcome the sudden absence of a payment provider as it strongly reduces
It’s way too risky for an adult vendor to play around with using anything other than a merchant account geared towards the industry. It may seem like you’re getting away with it for a while, but a quick search will turn up countless horror stories of people who tried the same. Think about how hard it would be to recover from having your business funds frozen and stick with a workable plan instead.
Prepare for a Thorough Review
High risk merchant account providers are generally willing to work with adult companies after a thorough review. They want to pour through the data to make sure the company is operating legally and is stable. Opening up an account will require simple paperwork that establishes the legitimacy of the business.
The review will also extend to online content. Digital businesses need to have precise refund policies, a privacy policy and terms and conditions. Not only that, an SSL certificate is a requirement for taking and processing orders. Make sure to have all of the technical details in place before applying. You can always find out what’s required by asking the provider. They’re not looking to waste precious time, either theirs or yours.
Have a Plan for Chargebacks
Adult businesses must have a proactive plan for dealing with chargebacks. It’s an unfortunate part of the industry, but that doesn’t mean any company should avoid trying to improve their processes. Most people chargeback when they don’t remember what it is they bought or found the product to be less than desirable. It’s better to work on fixing those core issues to lower the chargeback rate. Ultimately, that’s the primary metric to concentrate on to handle larger volumes of orders.
It’s worth having a known yet discrete name for all billing. That way, there is a layer of protection and privacy for the purchase. It’s crucial to let the customer know what they ordered and how the bill will appear. Follow the best practices, and it will help reduce the number of people who chargeback.
How to Grow Volume
Adult businesses exhibit substantial growth volume when they handle their business operations correctly. Merchant account providers are willing to work with the fast-growing companies that maintain low chargeback ratios. They’re ready to process payments on a more significant volume because they see there’s a system in place that mitigates problems. That’s important for the adult business that has its eye set on acquiring many customers. They want to keep people paying and do their best to avoid irking people who want their money back.
Credit card processing is a big part of how to succeed with an adult company. If you have to pay too much for each transaction processing fee, it will hurt your ability to compete. Adult businesses that are seeking a competitive edge focus on having the best rates possible so that they’re pricing leads their verticals. That only happens when the enterprise displays a long record of processing payments responsibly and profitably.
Flow Payments has decades of experience working with merchants in the adult industry. Contact us today to experience our low rates and exceptional service.