Last updated on March 25th, 2025 at 12:31 pm
Direct Sales Credit Card Processing: Industry Guide
In today’s competitive direct sales market, it has become extremely important for businesses and professionals to use the right credit card processing solution. Whether you run an independent direct sales agency or are part of a large MLM or network marketing company, you will need a robust credit card processing solution to collect payments on time. Most customers in the direct sales industry prefer to make payments by using their credit or debit cards. Unfortunately, many banks do not prefer to work with direct sales agents because of reasons such as chargebacks and pressure sales.
QuadraPay has been providing direct sales credit card processing solutions to businesses since 2016. Our team understands your challenges when it comes to getting approval for a merchant account from a regular sponsor bank. This is the key reason why we have created this guide. We have discussed all factors related to direct sales merchant accounts. After reading this guide you will have a complete understanding of how credit card processing works for direct sales merchants like you. Let’s begin.
Importance of Direct Sales Merchant Accounts
The many reasons why a direct sales merchant account can be important for you. The most important factor is sales growth. It has been tested that those independent sales agencies that use credit card processing to accept payments from the customers have seen over a 10% to 15% increase in the overall sales when compared to those that do not accept credit card payments.
By using a credit card terminal, your customer gains trust. Rather than asking for cash, you should ask your customer to make payment by choosing their preferred credit card or debit card. This way, your customers will be confident and become your loyal buyers. By accepting credit card payments, you avoid the hassle of handling cash transactions. Funds will reach your business bank account directly without you visiting the bank daily.
Understanding Direct Sales Credit Card Processing
Direct sales credit card processing refers to a merchant account solution that is designed specifically to meet the unique needs of direct sales agents and businesses. With a direct sales credit card processing account, you can accept payments at customers’ premises, sales events, trade shows, and even over e-commerce platforms.
Costs Associated With Direct Sales Credit Card Processing Accounts
The price that you pay to the payment processor varies depending on many factors, such as the transaction amount, currency, location of the merchant, location of the buyer, and type of card used. However, here we have presented a tentative pricing structure for a direct sales merchant account. Keep in mind that you will be able to get the exact pricing only after a complete underwriting review.
For using a direct sales merchant account, you will be paying a transaction fee on each order. This is generally 1.5% to 3%. Your payment processor also charges me a monthly service fee that can reach between $10 and $50. In case of chargebacks, you will have to pay a penalty, and that is generally around $25 to $50. Some payment service providers may ask you for a one-time cost to set up the merchant account.
Key Features of a Direct Sales Credit Card Processing Account
When choosing a merchant account for your direct sales business, you must look at some important features. By doing so, you will be able to get an affordable and secure deal.
The merchant processor should offer you services at affordable pricing. Remember, lower transaction fees mean higher revenue for you. Be upfront in negotiating with the payment processor. You should ask the merchant processor if their interface is mobile-friendly. In direct sales businesses, accepting orders over streets, stadiums, and even lifts is common. If the interface of the checkout page or the credit card terminal is not responsive and fully functional, then your customer may get demotivated and may not complete the transaction.
You should only work with the payment service provider that is fully compliant with the latest PCI DSS standards. This will ensure that the transaction information is handled in the right manner.
The next two things that you should look at are the payout frequency and the ability to integrate with your existing content management system. The processor should settle funds to you daily or every alternate day. The payment gateway for a direct selling company should integrate well with platforms like WordPress, WooCommerce, Joomla, PrestaShop, ZenCart, and Magento.
Application Process for a Credit Card Merchant Account in Direct Sales
The first step is to identify the right payment processor for your business. You should work with the processor that believes in offering transparent pricing. Most direct sales companies accept face-to-face transactions. This is why you should ask the processor if you will be able to get online and retail payment solutions together; if not, then you should work with omnichannel payment processors.
The payment gateway should have multi-currency processing capabilities; along with that, it should also accept various payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, and buy now pay later.
Transaction security is also critical and cannot be ignored. Make sure that your payment processor offers important security tools such as AVS, 3DS, and AI-based fraud detection, etc. By utilizing these tools, you will be able to reduce fraud, and the merchant account will work for a long time.
To complete the application process, you will have to send the merchant account application and the KYC document to the payment service provider. The underwriters will check all the documents, and then they will reach a judgement on whether or not to approve your account or not. After the account approval, keep a regular watch on the statements. If you notice anything strange or any new deduction, then contact the provider immediately.
Ways to Reduce Processing Fees on a Direct Selling Merchant Account
The most effective way to reduce the processing fees on your direct selling merchant account is to negotiate with the service provider. If that is not an option then you should use the merchant account for 2 to 3 months and ensure that there are no or minimum chargebacks and returns. This way, when you go back to the processor for negotiation, you will be in a better position. Another way of reducing the processing fees is by switching to cheaper payment methods such as echeck and ACH. Convincing customers to use debit cards in place of credit cards can also reduce your processing fees. Remember debit cards are cheaper to process than credit cards.
Conclusion: The Impact of a Direct Sales Merchant Account
The right merchant account can have a significant impact on the growth of your direct sales business. By choosing the right payment service provider, you will be able to reduce these processing fees while implementing mandatory security parameters. With a high-quality payment solution, you will offer convenience to your customers, and in return these customers will continue buying your products for a long time. If you have any further questions related to direct sales or credit card processing, then email us at [email protected].