Revenue

One of our jobs in business is this:

“Make it as easy as possible for people to give us their money”

It’s already hard enough to convince people to buy our product or service, so why some businesses minimize payment options is beyond me.

cash-only

photo by Mike Monteiro

Cash only, just doesn’t cut it these days. Regardless if we are on line, business to business or in retail, minimizing the payment options has this simple repercussion: It minimizes revenue.

Live example is a café in Melbourne called ‘Journal’. I had a company breakfast there and they wouldn’t accept my credit card. They even had the audacity to say ‘Who doesn’t carry cash on them?’ Answer: plenty of people. That’s fine. I’m never going there again and they missed out on around $100 this week.

Startups ought make it easy to collect revenue.

Steve – founder rentoid.com

10 thoughts on “Revenue

  1. I got caught out once at Journal too. More to the point: “Who DOES carry cash on them?” I now keep a watchful eye on Amex stickers on the front door of eating establishments!

  2. I got caught out once at Journal too. More to the point: “Who DOES carry cash on them?” I now keep a watchful eye on Amex stickers on the front door of eating establishments!

  3. Great post!

    People should allow people to pay however they want, but for them to pay the cost of using that option through a fee, to encourage certain behaviours. Just plain not allowing an option is stupid, especially given the current economic climate.

    It was yesterday that the RBA announced that credit transactions have hit a record level, which probably reflects people are trying to maximise their (personal) working capital due to losing their job or reduced income.

  4. I’ll definitely be avoiding any cash only places. Credit cards aren’t new or anything, they are standard currency. It’s not good enough to knock people back.

  5. I can definitely understand why a Restaurant must definitely accept Credit cards. Does “Journal” accept standard EFTPOS?

    But for some small-sale retailers like corner stores and takeaway shops one would presume that Merchant account costs, and credit card processing fees specifically would cost more than the small amount they would lose if someone chose not to purchase that $3 bottle of milk because they didn’t take their card.

  6. The other day my mate couldnt buy Coldplay tix on ticketmaster because Visa was the only method of payment due to an exclusive sponsorship argreement. Does far more harm than good in my opinion.

  7. Ender, exclusive payment is as bad as accepting cash only! There should be plenty of options. Although some take it too far – I think it is Jetstar that charge a fee for every form of payment except a mailed cheque..

  8. In my opinion Cash is still essential, although I’m affraid we will not see it anymore in 10 year from now. Thnk it’ll all be digital by then.

  9. I can to some extent understand a cash only policy, for some stores, if they know there average sale will not sufficiently pay the cost of offering the service of credit card, then why would they want to offer it. However for most cafe’s it is usually the customers that spend a lot that want to use credit the most.

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