It makes good security sense to transition to online auction payments processing. It also makes good business sense.
It’s no secret that fraud is an issue when it comes to online auction payments. In fact, there’s a page devoted to the topic on the FBI website. Such concerns grow during times of economic uncertainty as online fraud steps up. At the same time, shopping online has increased dramatically – hitting almost $4 trillion in 2020. When shopping activity increases, fraud increases.
The fact is that processing credit card payments online is safer than cash or check, and it’s no longer considered an enhancement. It’s an expectation. However, not all auction companies chooses to offer it to their customers.
There’s always a reluctance to change, but there’s good reason to offer online payment apart from the security concerns. Lets take a quick look at this decision from the practical side too.
Take it from someone who’s been there
Linda Obenauf is an online auctioneer in Round Lake, Illinois. Her company, Obenauf Auction Service has been in business since 1984 and took the business online in 1997. However, they only began using Maxanet Pay in January of 2020.
“We were processing all our payments offline prior to that,” says Linda. “We knew there was an online option available, but for us, that meant an additional payment processing system and we weren’t sure it would be worth it.
Our system required us to write down credit card info or spend the time and hassle with checks. Not knowing if the credit card number given over the phone was valid presented a security risk. But there was also the risk of having all of these pieces of paper with credit card info to dispose of.
When Maxanet started providing their own payment processing, we knew it was time to get on board. It’s so much better having all the payment information in a [cyber] vault now. And it’s faster and easier.”
Once she was up and running with software that included an online auction payments system, Linda learned that there were additional benefits.
“What surprised us most was the number of people who were clamoring to use their credit card. A friend, who had been encouraging us to go online, once asked how much we thought we’d charge per month on credit cards.
Our guess was way low! We did ten times that amount in the first auction where we offered the credit card payment option.
We had no idea!”
A few more unexpected benefits
When you require your customers to set up a credit card prior to bidding, it weeds out those bidders who actually have no intention of paying. This in turn dramatically reduces the number of ‘no call – no show’ bidders. This means you can head off a lot of wasted activity.
Keep in mind that signing up for an online payment processing system such as Maxanet Pay doesn’t mean you can no longer accept cash, check, or wire transfer, etc.
So it pays to offer online payment processing.
Securing funds is one thing. Securing the customer’s confidence and loyalty by providing convenience as well as security is another.
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