Why Some Small Merchants Prefer Cards to Cash

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Ever heard of a small merchant wanting to flip cash paying customers to cards?  Well, that’s what happens when they implement the Womply Merchant Insights Platform. When their customers use cards, this dashboard not only tracks customer spending but puts it in context of what others in their trading area are doing, their social media profile and other third party feedback. PYMNTS’ Karen Webster got the chance to talk with Cory Capoccia President of Womply who talks about the deep merchant insights made possible with his platform.

According to Capoccia, it is easy to find merchants that have the “cash only” sign or say that there is an extra fee to pay with a credit card instead of using cash. Capoccia says that merchants view accepting credit cards as an added expense due to fees that providers charge.  As a result, it’s hard for a merchant to stay loyal with a particular provider; and accepting cards is really something they sort of “grin and bear.”

“Merchants today, they don’t really think they derive a lot of incremental benefit from accepting debit cards.”Capoccia said. (:55-1:06) “This has resulted in merchants moving from provider to provider just to save money from all the processing fees,” (2:00-2:04)

That’s the goal of Womply  – to show merchants that credit and debit card data can be a rich source of insights into how their business is doing in light of the competition, and on social media.

The company works with merchant-facing companies, which include credit card processors and acquirers to offer its Merchants Insights Platform. The platform provides merchants with a 360 degree view of how the business is doing revenue-wise, and shows online reputation along with social media performance.

The company believes that this is especially important for business owners who are wondering why they are having trouble retaining customers.  By having access to more social data, as well as how their average sales stack up to the competition. Then they can focus on addressing core business issues so that they can get back on track for growth, and reinforce their relationship with customers.

Specifically, the software works by pulling in card data of every single transaction that takes place, enriching that data with other sources that they have been collected from sites like Google, Yelp, and Trip Advisor.  They also do this with privacy in mind, so they do not share any sensitive consumer or merchant data.

Through providing these insights, the company has seen a better retention rate among its own merchants that have signed up. For smaller businesses that use mobile devices such and iPad to accept payments, the company does not require any additional hardware.

Capoccia believes that it is important for Womply to make this as easy as possible for the company to adopt and works thru processing partners to get the product to market.

“By delivering this product through our partnering processors it really reinforces that brand that the processor has with that merchant,” Capoccia said. “And what that does is reminds the merchant that the processor is really providing more than just the pure card acceptance.” (7:42-7:58)