The following is a guest post from Fattmerchant, a merchant account provider headquartered in Orlando, Florida. It has been published here in collaboration with CardPaymentOptions.com.
Along with its payment processing capabilities, Fattmerchant offers a robust data analytics platform that gives you the power to drill down into some often overlooked data points. Whether you process on one countertop terminal, or a mix of different solutions – all your transaction information is in one place…and the story that the data tells, is critical to your business.
Here are a few ways that you can use data to increase sales:
Monthly Sales Activity
This one might seem like a no-brainer, but having a visual representation of monthly sales activity will give you insight into long-term trends, allowing you to make more strategic timing decisions when it comes to promotions and sales. By taking a look at your monthly sales trends before setting up a promotion, you could avoid discounting items during a peak season and instead encourage buyers by leveraging discounts during a slower time of the year.
Customer Loyalty
By taking a look at what percentage of your sales are from returning customers, you can get a better idea of the impact of your product or service. Increasing the lifetime value of a customer means enticing them to come back over and over again, so you may want to consider implementing a rewards program to increase that percentage. Already have a rewards program? Great! You can use your customer loyalty data to test its impact on your audience. If you’re not seeing the percentage return that you’re looking for, try out a new format and see if the percentage goes up!
Sales by Hour
Keeping on eye on your sales activity per hour could save you thousands in payroll per year! Stop guessing when it comes to staffing, or worse, scheduling the same number of people all of the time. Instead, take a look at sales volume per hour to determine when the most staff is needed, and where you can cut back. By getting a little more strategic with scheduling, you could reinvest that saved money back into other parts of your business.
Sales by Category
Drilling down into reports like sales by category will not only help you forecast inventory needs, but could also spark promotion ideas. You might notice that a certain product type is underperforming at your business – is it time to cut it? Offer it at a discount? Category sales reports are a valuable tool to help make sure you always have your most popular items in stock, and a plan to sell those less popular items faster!
Average Sales/Transaction Volume
Especially impactful for restaurant and retail businesses, average sale amount can give you some great insight into the behavior of your customers. If your average sale amount is lower than you want it to be, you may want to consider placing some upsell items near the register or promoting a specialty drink from the bar. If you’re still not seeing a change, it might be time to rethink your pricing – how do you stack up against your competition?
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, don’t worry! The Fattmerchant dashboard puts all of these insights in one, easy-to-use dashboard. You can even have reports emailed to you daily, making checking in on these data points easier than ever.
Trusting your gut has gotten you this far, but think about how much further you can go by really taking a look at the data from your processing solutions.
In the late 2000s, as a broke college student struggling to make ends meet, I was contacted by a merchant services company after uploading my resume to a job listings website. This company promised substantial commissions and ongoing residual income for simply persuading businesses to accept credit card payments. It seemed straightforward enough—after all, what business doesn’t need to process credit card payments? Following a phone interview with a persuasive “sales director,” I found myself embarking on what I believed would be an easy job that would significantly boost my bank account with reliable monthly income and large sales commissions. However, the lessons I learned would profoundly change my life in ways I could never have imagined.
After completing my sales training, I hit the ground running, eager to make sales. This broke college student was determined to improve his financial situation! My first attempt at a cold call, with no prior appointment, ended with a burly man in his 50s yelling at me to leave, claiming he had been “totally robbed” by someone like me before. As I hastily exited, puzzled and intimidated by his reaction, I couldn’t help but wonder what he meant. Throughout the day, I encountered similar hostility from other business owners, all expressing disdain for the industry I had been so excited to join that morning. Confused and curious, I decided to shift my approach from selling to listening.
I quickly uncovered that the merchant services sector was riddled with unethical practices, including hidden fees, deceptive marketing, fine-print traps, and much more. It dawned on me that I had nearly been tricked by a dubious company into selling overpriced services under contracts with long-term commitments, all without being fully aware of what I was promoting. Outraged, I resigned from that company but learned that there were indeed ethical credit card processing companies that treated their clients fairly. Over the next four years, I worked for one such company, assisting hundreds of businesses in securing cost-effective processing solutions. Yet, I also met many more who had been misled and trapped in onerous service agreements. Determined to help people steer clear of these unscrupulous providers, I launched this website in my spare time, dedicating myself to researching and sharing my findings on every merchant account provider I could investigate.
Gradually, more and more business owners began to discover my articles. As word spread, search engines started to rank my content highly, amplifying its reach. My efforts were making a difference! Eventually, the website garnered enough traffic to enable me to leave my job and focus on it full-time, a journey that has now spanned over a decade. This path has not been without its challenges; unscrupulous company owners have tried to intimidate and sue me into silence on several occasions. Yet, I have stood firm against each threat. Here I am, continuing to publish reviews and articles, hoping to safeguard others from the pitfalls of the credit card processing industry.
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