You have your online ordering system set up, but before you can actually receive orders you have to decide how you are going to accept payment for your sales. So what is the best way? How are you going to make sure that the payments are secured from the customers to your account?  Do you need a special account for receiving payments?  There are a few different ways, depending on your preferences and business, which would be more effective than others.

The first option that you have is called a merchant account.  This is a type of account which allows small businesses to accept debit and credit card transactions.  The restaurant has to set up this account through a merchant service provider who takes care of transferring the purchase to the bank and your account.  Usually a restaurant chooses to not do this through there bank because of the extra added fees and hassle that it can provide. Instead they choose a provider outsider their bank’s chain.  These providers generally have a small fee that they take from each transaction.

Another option is to use a third party provider.  There are many out there but one of the most popular is PayPal.  You need to have an account with PayPal if you want to accept payment or sell products with it.   If you are familiar with eBay then you may have heard or even used PayPal to make a purchase before.  There is no sign up fee and no monthly fee. The transaction fees are also lower than other merchants; usually around 2.2-2.9% plus $0.30 of sales.

As you could have guessed, Google, who has something for everyone, included online merchants in their reach.  What they have created for accepting online orders is called Google Wallet.  This is a tool which allows customers to store their credit card information in a “cloud” which they can then access at check out and use for payment.  Merchants accept payments by using Google Checkout which will eventually become Google Wallet in the near future.  Google handles all the processing for the business.  There is a 1.9% plus $0.30 transaction fee for online purchases.

It is also possible that you may want to not use online payments and still receive cash from your customers at pick up.  This is a perfectly fine way to receive payment, however there are a few downsides to it.  First, you do not know if the order that someone places is a fake.  People can order online and then not pick up the order and you have wasted time.  It is also possible that people may come in to collect and not have the money they need. Again this is a waste of time and resources.

Payments for online ordering systems are pretty straight forward.  There are many different options that are available for restaurants to use and it just takes a little time to decide which one is best for them.

Savanna Eckenrode
MenuDrive
www.menudrive.com

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