If you’re a cigar & tobacco seller who wants to bring your burgeoning business online (or even if you just want to accept payments at your retail location), you’re making a great choice. However, if you don’t bring your business online with a reputable payment processor that understands your business needs, you could be setting yourself up for failure. Online payment processing performs debit and credit card processing for your tobacco business so that you can accept payments while utilizing the most popular e-commerce / shopping cart platforms on the market. You’ll be able to offer multiple forms of payment methods to your customers, thereby increasing your sales and overall customer satisfaction.
Tobacco Industry Growing Online
It’s no mystery why someone would choose to cell cigars and tobacco online. Tobacco has long been a product that has and will always be in high demand. There’s always a customer for your product. It’s just a matter of finding that customer and providing them with a way to pay online with their credit card. Setting up an online merchant account for a tobacco business is now seamless and easy.
In recent years, people have seen new tobacco related products such as vape pens enter the market. Even with the entrance of such products, the tobacco industry still thrives. Surprisingly, 250 billion cigarettes were sold in the 2017 sales year and 12 billion cigars were sold in 2015 alone. People are still buying these products, and you can be the business to sell these products online when you set yourself up a cigar & tobacco merchant account.
How to Set Yourself Up for Success
You’ll want a payment processor that understands the tobacco industry. Understanding the payments industry is of course standard, but you want a payment processor that knows the cigar and tobacco business just as well as you do. Flow Payments has decades of experience in this industry and has assisted countless merchants with their high risk payment processing needs.
The legality of tobacco products online has been a matter of concern to some merchants over the years, but you can rest assured that it’s legal to sell tobacco online when you follow procedures or state laws. However, banks haven’t rushed in to serve as payment processors for tobacco businesses because they don’t feel safe aligning themselves with tobacco companies due to possible reputational harm or a dislike for the industry itself. Since the tobacco industry has taken a reputation hit over the years, it’s natural that traditional payment processors have run the other way and failed to fill the need.
That’s where a processor willing to take the risk is invaluable to you and your success over the years. They also need to be able to mitigate risk and protect you from any fraud that might come your way. Don’t take a chance and go with a traditional processor who might someday say you failed to live up to their standards. Go with a processor with experience in the tobacco industry with multiple options in terms of processors and sponsoring banks. Flow Payments has multiple processing options for cigar and tobacco merchants, with transparency and low rates at the forefront.
Get Ready to Succeed
To get started with an online merchant account, you’ll need to supply a few things up front. First off you’ll need your basic information: name, business name, traditional identifying information, etc. We can provide you a secure payment gateway that is seamlessly incorporated into your business flow. We also have options for risk monitoring and fraud protection as a total package to all of your needs. We have almost every possible add on that you would want for your merchant account.
Before you’re approved, you’ll need to do an application online and then discuss your business needs with one of our payment experts that also understands the tobacco industry. They’ll work with you to figure out what methods of payment you want to accept and exactly how you’re going to implement your solutions. They’ll likely want to discuss your website and other online accounts that pertain to your business so that they can cater your solution to your specific needs. Our experts will assist you in making sure you have a completed website ready for underwriting.
An account manager will work with you to make sure that your payment gateway is set up correctly, secure, and doing its job the way you need it. You’ll want to listen to feedback from customers to ensure that they feel like paying you is an easy thing to do. No one should have to struggle to pay an online merchant. Make sure that your payment gateway reflects this and makes things easy for your customers. The easier it is for them to safely pay you, the bigger your sales are going to grow, and that’s what it is all about.
Don’t ever settle for a payment processor that doesn’t support your business and vision. You’ve picked a high risk industry, and that’s why you deserve a reward if your business is successful. To do that, you need to have a payment processor that really gets behind your business goals and goes to work overtime for you.
Flow Payments is your ideal payment processing partner and we look forward to exceeding your expectations. We have decades of experience helping merchants in the tobacco and cigar industry. Contact us today for a free quote.