Dual Pricing
Dual Pricing is not new. Many gas stations around the nation have been offering both cash and credit prices for over a decade. The benefit to the business owner is no big mystery. When businesses offer dual pricing, they retain 100% of the price for every product they sell regardless of how the customer pays for it. It is the optimal solution for the business owner.
Unfortunately, until recently, real Dual Pricing was not available to most retailers due to both limitations set by the card brands industry and POS (Point Of Sale) software available to support dual pricing, the unpredictability and volatility of the payment processing costs also factored in that too because it hasn’t always been easy to comprehend and ambiguous. Therefore, business owners with many different products or SKUs could not reliably know exactly the amount of money they would receive each month due to the fluctuation of their volume. However, now it doesn’t matter because the dual pricing program is very clear and it doesn’t matter what volume a business produces.
It is smooth, transparent, simple, and enjoyable for the business owner and easy for the customer and to understand.
There are 3 business needs to understand when operating a compliant and transparent Dual Pricing Program.
- THE BUSINESS OWNER is willing to take the time to care and present a clear positive customer experience with the a sign representing dual pricing cash discounting indicated at or by the cash register and printed on the transaction receipts so that it is visible to all their customers on what the program is before and after any purchase made.
- THE CREDIT CARD PROCESSOR who offers a flat-rate percentage fee (usually 4%) for using a card has made it clear the business owner has a sign displaying the charge for the card this shows the difference between the regular cash price of the product and the charge for using a card. The customer has the knowledgeable choice to pay with cash or card and the cost of each item at the time of purchase.
- A POS SYSTEM with software capable of updating and supporting the dual pricing model with both a regular card price and a cash price for each product or SKU listed and completed daily for the business while providing the accurate reporting needed to support regular business operations.
THE BUSINESS OWNER’S EXPERIENCE
The benefit of the Dual Pricing program for the business owner is that they no longer have to be concerned with credit card fees. Also, it doesn’t matter if their volume increases the fees no longer go up with the volume. You profit the same way as if all transactions were cash. We simply take part of the card price to cover your costs and our costs to pay the processing fees and program costs for you.
For Instance, All those fees you are used to with your current traditional credit card processing provider like PCI compliance fees, batch header, transaction and statement fees etc. are all rolled into your flat rate — with no surprises.
Your customers will check out as they normally would and your POS will keep a running total of both the regular card prices and the cash prices.
THE CUSTOMER’S EXPERIENCE
Your customers will appreciate or understand the honest offering with the Dual Pricing options throughout their purchasing experience. They’ll love that you’re offering an option to pay with cash and save off of the regular price but they will still like the fact they can get their rewards with cards too.
Ironically, with massive inflated costs for goods and services, many businesses and consumers today want to resist the move to a ‘cashless society’ for a number of good reasons. Coincidentally, as much as they want to resist the move theoretically, they will still pay with cards to get their rewards and points on the purchases. The business owner, traditionally end-up paying for it, but with so many other inflated costs they have to endure, now they can get rid of one major cost or limit it so they can focus on other important needs for their business. Lastly, many conscientious consumers will open the door for more cash flow for your business and open other opportunities for you business with this massive savings it will provide for you the business owner.