Retailers on the road go wirelessAs the season of outdoor art fairs, craft shows and farmers markets approaches, a growing group of mobile merchants and artisans is gearing up for “retail on the road” by consigning their old “knuckle buster” credit card devices to the scrap heap. In place of their clunky manual card imprinters is new wireless card-processing technology to make the season more efficient and profitable. “It has become incredibly time consuming to come home and enter all of the sales receipts by hand into my terminal,” said Patty Monroe-Mohrenweiser, of Beyond Letters in Brighton, who has been selling her calligraphic artwork at 30 to 50 fairs and shows a year. For her tenth year on the road, she says, she’s getting a wireless terminal this spring. Monroe-Mohrenweiser hopes to match the recent experience of Sue Oseland, of Osiris Beads & Imports in Traverse City, who loves the wireless terminal she acquired 13 months ago. “It saves time at the show itself,” said Oseland, who sells beads both retail and wholesale at trade shows around the country. “That extra time writing out the details on a manually imprinted sales slip can add up when there’s a line of customers forming at my booth. If I’m really busy, impatient customers just won’t wait in such a line,” she said. Only a few years ago, selling something outside a store meant either accepting cash or checks only (a huge mistake in today’s plastic-driven world) or using the old knuckle-buster. Fortunately, new devices have emerged as a more efficient alternative: the wireless mobile “terminal” that uses mobile phone technology to allow credit cards to be swiped and authenticated in real time just about anywhere with ease. Retailers such as Oseland and Monroe-Mohrenweiser are part of a growing group of retailers embracing the new technology. Mobile commerce has taken off in the past few years and services are poised to grow rapidly. Way Systems, a leading manufacturer of wireless terminals, says it expects to see 10 million devices in use by 2007, up from an estimated 100,000 in October 2004. Way Systems pegs its total market at more than 100 million small merchants worldwide. By 2008, Nielsen Report predicts that Wireless POS terminals will comprise nearly 30 percent of the total POS terminal market. Advantages The primary advantages of the wireless terminal are higher security, since bad cards will be declined; lower interchange rates, since the transaction is not hand-keyed; and time saved. In addition, there’s the intangible but important “credibility factor”—a retailer who swipes cards, even away from the store, maintains a more credible and professional image. Monroe-Mohrenweiser has observed an increase in stolen or phony credit cards at fairs. “Because my art has a Christian theme, I hope I see fewer people using bad cards, but I have been stung. People selling jewelry or clothing get stuck even more often with bad cards, from what I hear at fairs.” The increase in fraudulent cards can probably be traced to the increasingly sophisticated ways scammers have devised to gather credit card account numbers and use them to produce believable-looking but phony cards. And the age-old practice of stealing credit cards from mailboxes is alive and well. Fraudsters know such cards are much more likely to be accepted when the card isn’t swiped. Thus, a retailer outside the traditional store using a manual imprinter may be considered “easy prey.” Chargebacks are also more common with manual imprinters at art fairs, when customers question the sale because they can’t remember it. Monroe-Mohrenweiser says customers often don’t recognize purchases from art fairs on their card statement. “A sale at an art show in Muskegon may show up as occurring in Brighton (my home base) three days after the sale, when I enter it by hand, so the customer just doesn’t remember it,” she explained. “Using a mobile device, the date is correct, which helps the customer recall the transaction.” Shirley Kautman, owner of Country Home Creations in Goodrich, Michigan, has been selling her mixes for dips, soups, dressings, cookies and cakes at craft fairs and shows for the past 20 years. She uses the Way Systems Mobile Transaction Terminal that MRA offers and has been mostly pleased. “I went to the Way Systems device because it would be more efficient and credible. It tells you immediately that a card was declined, and helps eliminate the minor problems of using a manual machine, like not getting the numbers clearly imprinted.” The biggest problem she has noticed is that, like a cell phone, sometimes the signal is blocked, especially in buildings with thick walls like the places at which many craft shows are held. In that case, the device can be used in an offline mode. “Even offline, it’s more efficient than a manual imprinter, because it stores the data—you don’t have to come home and hand-key all those numbers,” Kautman said. “But the rate is higher, as if for a manual transaction.” Oseland, who has been selling at shows and fairs around the country for the past 12 years, said she recognized her need for such a device at least 18 months ago and researched various devices. She liked the Way Systems MTT even before it was officially on the market, so when it became available through MRA she bought it immediately. After using it for over a year, she has been very impressed with its performance. Only once did the device fail to get a signal, at a show in Pennsylvania. “Other retailers at the show, using similar devices made by Nurit, couldn’t get a signal at all, and they were impressed that my Way Systems device did,” recalled Oseland. “The building’s heavy walls were probably interfering, but I was ‘down’ only part of one day.” Costs vs. benefits One barrier to some smaller retailers may be cost—the Way Systems unit costs $695, including the thermal printer. However, the savings in interchange rates will help pay for some or all of the added expense over time. John Mayleben, MRA’s vice president of sales and marketing, advises merchants to look over their “card-not-present” transaction fees over the course of a year and compare them to the lower rates they would pay if the cards had been swiped. “If the savings over a year are substantial, the new device may pay for itself quickly. If you also factor in the other benefits—time savings, higher security and more professional image, the device may well be worth the initial expense.” This article was written by Amy Buttery, Michigan Retailer staff writer. |
Get started with wirelessFor retailers on the road, MRA offers Way Systems’ Mobile Transaction Terminal (MTT). Built on a Siemens cell phone, the device has a swiping mechanism that allows retailers to authenticate the card transaction on the spot in real time. It also accepts “smart cards,” a type of credit card that may be hitting the U.S. market in the next year.
The small device, weighing in at six ounces, comes with a small thermal printer that uses a wireless infrared interface to receive data from the MTT and print receipts. Getting set up through MRA is simple. The device is basically ready right out of the box to accept transactions, but your marketing rep can help you learn to use it and troubleshoot any problems; users say they mastered it in a matter of minutes. MRA handles all the wireless aspects of the account. The device uses the Cingular wireless network. The retailer can—as a separate account—get the device activated by Cingular for use as a cell phone as well. MRA is not involved in that optional use of the device. An MRA marketing representative can help you purchase and get set up with the Way Systems MTT. For more information, call your marketing rep or John Mayleben, MRA’s vice president of marketing and sales, at 800.366.3699. |
Wireless not just
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