Merchant Services Built for Small Business Success: What to Look For in a Payment Partner

In the modern world of commerce, merchant services come in nearly-countless different types, shapes, and sizes. From payment processing and point-of-sale (POS) systems to loyalty programs, customer support, and third-party networks, merchant services are an integral part of any e-commerce endeavor.

The exact types of merchant services your business needs can vary a lot, however, and different businesses have different needs. And, since not every payment processing solution offers every type of merchant service, finding the right payment partner for your needs can be tricky. To give you some clarity on what the things you’d want to look for in a payment partner are, here are the merchant services built for small business success you’d typically want to look for.

What Are the Services Your Small Business Merchant Account Needs from a Payment Processor?

Depending on the niche your business is in, there can be many specific types of services you need that you wouldn’t often see advertised by most payment processing solutions. If your small business is in a high-risk industry, for example, many of the services by PayCompass are going to be especially crucial for your business’s success, even if not all of them are offered by other more general-focused payment processors.

If we have to summarize the main groups of merchant services built for small business success, however, here are the few key categories you definitely want your future payment partner to cover:

1. Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems and Credit Card Readers

It can sometimes appear shocking to some people, but many small businesses around the world, including in the West, still don’t rely on POS systems or credit card readers for their day-to-day customer operations. 

And many of the ones that do often don’t use anything all that sophisticated and contemporary, especially as far as its software is concerned, which leads not only to many unsuccessful transactions, but slowdowns and even frequent chargebacks, all of which hit small businesses directly in their bottom lines.

Not all credit card readers look like POS terminals either. There are many that are separate from POS terminals or ones that are a part of the merchant’s mobile device instead.

2. Payment Gateways

Payment gateways are any online interface used to help customers to make online payments, submit their payment information, and then route that information to the merchant’s payment processor. These payment gateways are the online equivalent of a POS terminal or card readers when it comes to in-person sales.

Since here, the transaction happens online and there is no in-person salesperson to manage how things go, however, it’s even more important that the payment gateway is as user-friendly, efficient, secure, and error-free, so everything goes smoothly and no transactions fall through. The exact manner in which a payment gateway is integrated into your e-commerce store or website is also very important for the overall customer experience and satisfaction.

3. Online Transaction Processing

The payment processing itself is also a type of merchant service, even though it is also the core job of a payment processor. In essence, payment processing involves the entirety of what happens with your payment between the Point-of-Sale or Payment Gateway terminals and your merchant account.

This doesn’t just include the “moving” of the funds from one bank account to another, it also includes the funds’ encryption and tokenization to prevent fraud, monitoring them with pattern-seeking algorithms to detect any potential risks of chargebacks or other issues, and so on.

4. E-commerce Customization and Support

Many payment processors in recent years have started going the extra mile to not only provide businesses with standard payment processing services, but also look for ways to personalize and customize their experience. This includes anything from integrating the merchant services with the business’s ERP, CRM, or other platforms, helping customize e-commerce websites and marketplaces, giving access to sales analytics, and offering expert customer support tailored to your business’s needs.

5. Check Processing

Not every customer nowadays uses checks, but every small or larger business needs to have check processing support if they don’t want to miss out on potential business clients. This type of support is quite different from debit and credit card payment processing, and not every processing solution offers check support.

6. Discounts, Promotions, Gift Cards, and Loyalty Programs

The various types of promotions a business makes on an annual basis are often key to that business’s success, especially when it comes to startups and small businesses. Such promotions and loyalty programs are a great way to drive up customer engagement, improve brand loyalty, and boost sales. When merchant service providers don’t support such programs in their payment processing, however, this can actively hamper the effectiveness of promotions and discounts, and complicate the lives of small business owners.

Reviewed and edited by Albert Fang.

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Article Title: Merchant Services Built for Small Business Success: What to Look For in a Payment Partner

https://fangwallet.com/2025/04/18/merchant-services-built-for-small-business-success/

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