As you may have heard, late last month Mastercard announced the company’s demand to stop allowing US customers to buy legal cannabis with its debit cards. Unfortunately, it should come as no shock to cannabis operators that another major payment provider is again causing turbulence across the industry.
Put simply, as long as cannabis remains federally illegal, individual state markets and operators should prepare for these issues to continue.
Of course, as a cannabis business seeking to turn a profit, any change to collecting payments threatens the health of your business. Luckily, there are strategies cannabis entrepreneurs can implement into their businesses to help avoid disruptions, high fees, and general hiccups with receiving, and accessing payments.
Ready to learn what it takes to protect the pulse of your business? Keep reading for our ultimate guide on the top factors to consider when selecting cannabis providers, and just how MJstack can help!
Selecting Cannabis Payment Providers – Top 3 Factors to Consider
From our work supporting cannabis businesses across the US, our team has valuable experience with a variety of payment providers and how they serve unique business needs. Gaining unique knowledge and perspective from vetting nearly every possible payment processor in the cannabis industry on behalf of our clients for the past 5 years.
Here, we’re passing that knowledge on to you to help you select a cannabis payment provider that works best for your cannabis operation. So, without further ado – here are the top 3 factors to consider when exploring cannabis payment providers.
#1: Have Multiple Options In Place
In today’s tumultuous industry, it’s not just one payment processor you’ll need; it’s multiple. In fact – we recommend that our clients view the space as “whack a mole” to maintain long term mental health and not stress out each time payment processing issues arise!
To cover yourself when one processor goes down, be sure to have a backup queued up and ready to go to avoid any payment lag time. In fact, with the uncertainty of cannabis payments, we often recommend clients provide as many options for accepting customer payments as possible. For instance, in-store cards, online ACH, ATM, etc. This not only allows you to avoid any payment downtime but also helps reduce stress when payment systems go down and nurtures customer loyalty and retention.
#2: Explore Overall Goals
Like people, every payment processor has strengths, and weaknesses. So it helps to know what specific goals your business is looking to achieve before you choose one. For instance, are you looking to minimize cash? Would you like to boost cart sizes? Are you hoping to enable payment workflows that are familiar to your customers? Do you have the need for speed?
You’ll be able to more easily narrow down the varying payment providers, knowing what you’re looking for first. This also helps you avoid getting over-sold features or products you don’t need, by knowing what you want or desire from the start of the conversation.
#3: Decide What You Care About Most
Do you want to earn a kickback?
Do you want the utmost convenience?
Do you require a quick turnaround for funds, or are you ok waiting 3-5 days for funds to settle?
Do you want seamless integration with your POS/Ecomm system?
Do you want the most compliant solution possible, the most stable solution possible, or do you want to minimize cash handling as much as possible?
Do you want to avoid long term contracts?
At MJstack, we help our clients make a list of requirements they need from a cannabis payment processor, and then prioritize their importance individually. From there, we tap into our extensive knowledge, experience, and network to begin personally selecting payment processors based on how they deliver on your highest priorities and weed out the rest. Saving you time, headaches, and pressure from pushy sales teams.
How MJstack can Help
The reality is – even if you haven’t had pin debit or payment disruptions in general yet or haven’t experienced any issues with your payment processor, it’s likely you will in the future. Especially once banks stop working with certain providers in light of Mastercard’s now stern warning.
We hope what you’ve learned here is – don’t just jump to the next solution that’s forced on you by your same current vendor, who just pulled the rug out from under you – without notice. Or, continue working with vendors who claim to be compliant – until they’re not. When it comes to payments, it always pays to keep your options open.
Because MJstack is not tied to any one specific solution – yet has experience with all of them, and their pros and cons, we can provide the transparency you need to select the right one for your unique cannabis operation and business.
Learn more about MJstack’s services for new and existing cannabis operators, and schedule a complimentary consultation now to ensure you are ready for whatever the future holds for cannabis payment processing.
