Merchant Cash Advance Blog

The story of the holiday season for retail outlets has been the major increases in the number of orders placed at online payment processing terminals. In fact, the increase has been so stark that one retail outlet is opening a brand new, $170 million fulfillment center.

Businesses capable of accepting online credit card payments likely saw very significant increases in their sales this holiday season, according to two recent reports.

Bloomberg reported, citing figures provided by MasterCard Advisors, that holiday sales made at retail outlets between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24 were up by 2.3 percent. Sarah Quinlan, senior vice president of MasterCard Advisors, said that consumers, though cautious in recent years, are starting to spend more regularly.

Online retailers need to constantly be investing in ways to improve their service and create innovations within the sector.

One way that many companies are doing this is by cutting down on the amount of time customers have to wait to receive their products after conducting a transaction at an online payment processing terminal. Fancy, a social commerce platform, recently began offering its shoppers the option to receive their products on the same day they complete their transaction, according to a report from TechCrunch. The company began a trial testing the program earlier this year, and found that customers reacted quite positively. 

The latest data released by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that Americans continued spending their cash at retail credit card terminals during September, despite the then-looming threat of a government shutdown.