Top Credit Card Payment Processing for Small Businesses in St. Petersburg

Our goal at Electronic Merchant Systems is to provide you with a payment processing system that simplifies and profits your business.

Customers who spend money on goods and services expect transactions to be seamless, quick, and secure. This requires quickly dipping, touching, or swiping their card.

However, just because you want current technology, does not mean that the approach needs to be complex - after all, that is precisely what you are delivering to your customers: simplicity and security.

When you choose EMS as your merchant services provider, you can be assured that your clients' information is secure.

EMS has been a certified level 1 PCI provider for over a decade.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a collection of requirements intended to ensure that ALL businesses that process, store, or communicate credit card information operate in a secure environment.

As a result, you can be certain that your information is entirely secure with EMS.

It is our goal to alleviate all of the burden associated with payment processing so that you can focus on providing outstanding service and reaping the benefits without experiencing any difficulties.

We want to simplify the transaction process so that your consumers can concentrate on what matters most: your products and services.

If your St. Petersburg business currently uses credit card processing services but requires faster transaction solutions or want to process transactions in a more modern manner, it may be time to examine a new processing system.

So, what does that look like?

Accept Online & In-Person Payments in St. Petersburg, Florida

Electronic Merchant Systems will suit your requirements regardless of scope.

EMS is pleased to offer businesses in St. Petersburg a range of secure payment processing solutions for both online and in-person transactions.

EMS equips businesses, whether brick-and-mortar or online, with the tools necessary to accept all major credit cards.

By partnering with us, you'll receive a setup tailored to your specific requirements, as well as access to exclusive technologies that will help you save money, improve procedures, and increase sales.

The four main business types we provide payment processing for include:

• Retail stores

• Restaurants

• Service-based businesses

• Online and eCommerce businesses

EMS also offers a Surcharge Program where you can require customers who choose to pay with a debit or credit card to also cover the transaction fees that would otherwise be your responsibility. This allows them to still enjoy the convenience of paying with a credit card, at little or no credit card processing fees for you.

Let’s take a look at more detailed payment processing solutions for your type of business.

St. Petersburg Retail Store Solutions

Being a proprietor of a retail establishment can be stressful. Fortunately, EMS can assist in streamlining processes.

Electronic Merchant Systems is a market-leading provider of retail point-of-sale systems.

Not only can you accept all major credit cards such as Visa, American Express, Discover, and MasterCard using EMS' MaxxPay, but you can also add customized gift cards, track employee hours, and set up low-quantity alerts, among other features.

Every service offered by EMS is designed to help St. Petersburg businesses grow and thrive, while also making day-to-day operations easier.

The payment processing tools listed below are designed to meet the specific requirements of any retail business.

-Credit Card Terminal: Credit card transactions are critical to business success. Our terminals support EMV chip cards, contactless payments, and mobile wallets with secure, compact terminals so you can accept both online and in-person payments.

-MaxxPay: MaxxPay POS is a tablet-based Point of Sale solution that seamlessly connects an entire store with its customers. Process payments, manage inventory and more, with an all-in-one Point of Sale solution.

-Gift & Loyalty Cards:Customer retention and acquisition are critical for any small business in St. Petersburg. With gift and loyalty cards, business owners have an easy and straightforward way to boost sales and acquire new clients.

Restaurant Solutions

As a restaurant owner, your to-do list is likely to be as long as your drink menu.

We understand you have a lot on your plate, from inventory management and product shipping to employee coordination and customer satisfaction.

Payment processing can easily fall between the cracks.

As a result, Electronic Merchant Systems provides St. Petersburg restaurants with user-friendly tools to satisfy your diverse requirements.

For restaurants specifically, we are excited to offer Total Touch POS. Total Touch is a comprehensive restaurant point of sale system that provides benefits such as:

-Open Table Management: From the front office to the back office, restaurant owners can manage tables to reduce long wait times by increasing the speed of checkout.

-Payment Options: Are consumers requesting checks to be split by seat or by the whole table? This is accomplished easily using Total Touch, which alleviates staff burdens and improves customer experiences.

-Easy-to-use interface: An interface that is easily navigated saves you time which, we all know, saves you money. This streamlines your processes and allows you to turn tables around faster.

-Online and Mobile Ordering: More and more folks in St. Petersburg are ordering food online. With Total Touch’s online and mobile ordering feature, your restaurant’s sales and efficiency will increase.

When you partner with EMS, you're giving your customers the best dining experience possible.

Service-Based Business Solutions in St. Petersburg, FL

As a service-based business in St. Petersburg, you have various moving parts, such as employee travel, quotes, estimates, and, finally, your service.

Electronic Merchant Systems offers a one-of-a-kind mobile solution dubbed EMSmobile that simplifies life. EMSmobile is a comprehensive payment system that combines a mobile payment application with a virtual terminal.

Accepting money has never been easier than when your smartphone transforms into a fully functional credit card point of sale.

You are already aware of the power of the smartphone in your daily life. Consider employing it as the most effective tool for your business.

Consider this: you will never again need to pursue clients for cash or checks. You will never again have to wait in line at the bank.

The EMSmobile software transforms your standard smartphone into a fully functional credit and debit card acceptance device, enabling you to collect payments at your customer's home or company.

Pay yourself prior to beginning the project, and make it easy to be compensated for extra effort. We're talking about the pinnacle of straightforward customer management. It is, in essence, a savior of small businesses.

Additional benefits of Electronic Merchant Systems’ Virtual Terminal include:

-Email Invoicing: If your customer had to step away at the end of the day, send them an invoice via email instead. This allows them to securely pay online with a simple click. Plus, you can see which invoices have been viewed and paid via the Merchant Console.

-Mobile Payments: Use your mobile smart device or tablet to accept payments.

-Secure Vault: Secure storage of customer credit card data for convenient re-use.

-Recurring Billing: Schedule automatic billing for service agreements. Any updates will be synced to all your EMSmobile devices in real-time.

-Business Management Tools: The Merchant Console, EMS' cloud-based tool, enables you to manage the most critical areas of your organization. You can check the status of email invoices, monitor all transactions, manage inventory, and evaluate sales patterns, among other things!

Online Business Solutions

If you run an online business—or plan to transition online in the near future—you need an engaging eCommerce website where you can sell products or services and process payments seamlessly.

Having a clean, professionally designed website helps businesses increase brand viability and reach, establish credibility, and increase profit.

To simplify the startup process for online St. Petersburg small business owners like yourself, our team at EMS offers everything from web design, online store creation, to hosting solutions, in addition to providing a secure payment gateway to handle credit and debit card transactions and digital payments across the internet.

By partnering with EMS, you can optimize your online presence and generate more sales.

The online payment processing solutions below are built for eCommerce providers, just like you.

-Web Store: Expand customer reach and increase your revenue with an eCommerce shopping cart.

-Web Design: Make life simple by partnering with a dedicated designer to build your website.

-API Integration: Experience seamless integration with an Application Program Interface (API) component.

Powerful Payment Processing You Can Trust

Why Choose EMS as Your St. Petersburg Payment Processing Company?

Electronic Merchant Systems embodies everything a business could want in a payment processor in St. Petersburg, FL.

Exceptional Service & Tools

Our innovative suite of business solutions, high level of quality service, and dedicated employees increase the financial well-being of our clients.

Every service and product offered by EMS is intended to help your business thrive and grow.

Reviews

Did you know EMS has over 975 Google Customer Reviews with an average 4.7-star rating? For a Merchant Services business that has been around for over 30 years, that is exceptional.

24/7 Customer Support

Chances are you’ll never have to worry about calling our industry-recognized customer service, but if you find yourself calling EMS customer service, you’ll be greeted by a real person.

We have a knowledgeable, US-based team of customer service representatives that is accessible to our Merchants 24/7/365 by phone, email, and live chat.

Security

As a payment processor, we are essentially a security consultant to your data. EMS takes business and customer security incredibly seriously. How seriously? Well, for over ten years EMS has been a certified level 1 PCI provider.

When you accept cards, PCI compliance goes a long way in terms of peace of mind.

Our Philosophy

Electronic Merchant Systems strongly believes in No Good Merchant Left Behind. If you are confident in your service or product, EMS wants to provide the payment processing tools that help you succeed.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How Do I know Which Payment Processing Company to Pick?

You want to be sure that the credit card processing company you select for your business has extensive knowledge and experience in the industry, competitive pricing, excellent customer support, enhanced functionality, and is secure. Don't just look at the largest payment processing companies, the cheapest credit card processing, or the most popular credit card reader.

Sifting between many credit card processing companies and choosing the correct one is crucial and could land you a better credit card processing rate.

2. What exactly is a Merchant Account?

A merchant account allows your business to accept credit and debit cards and transfer funds from your customer's credit card purchases.

When a purchase is made using a credit or debit card at your business, your merchant account works in the background to withdraw funds from your customer’s bank and deposit them into your business bank account.

3. Can my business qualify for a merchant account?

The merchant account application process may vary depending on your specific business type and the associated risk that has been assigned and implemented by the credit card networks.

That being said, most merchant businesses are qualified for a merchant account.

4. How do merchants typically get burned by their payment processing provider?

Unfortunately, some providers take advantage of business owners just like you by imposing the following:

• Hidden fees and lack of transparent pricing

• Lack of security

• Poor customer service

• Solutions/Payment methods that don't fit your business model

5. How can EMS help my business compete with the big companies?

Competing against other small businesses is one thing, but your merchant services provider should offer additional tools to build you up against big box companies, as well.

No matter your business size, you need a credit card processor that helps elevate your brand by offering a wide range of business merchant services. Ask about EMS' gift cards, loyalty programs, and additional options, such as web hosting and design.

6. What if I need help with funding?

We can certainly help with that. One of the additional features that EMS offers is a funding program called BizFunds.

For St. Petersburg businesses, we will purchase a pre-determined amount of your future sales volume to help raise capital.

The best part is, instead of a fixed monthly payment, you pay an agreed-upon percentage of your daily sales until the merchant cash advance has been paid in full.

7. What is the Cost of Payment Processing?

The cost of accepting credit cards varies widely. It’s critical that you pay attention to what fees will be assessed when you sign the contract with your payment processor.

Make sure you understand the fees you’ll be assessed by your payment processor before you sign the contract with them. And ask questions about the entire process.

8. What types of payment can I accept?

Payment processing allows small businesses to accept traditional stripe cards along with EMV chip cards.

Mobile credit card processing is a great option for service-based businesses without a brick-and-mortar location for seamless payments and convenient email invoicing.

9. What type of POS Equipment do I need?

This truly depends on your Business Operations and Model. The type of credit card terminal you select depends mainly upon the payments options you want to accept, as well as how you need to accept those payments.

A POS system should be used if you truly want to manage your entire business to ring up multiple items, track inventory, manage employees, and more.

If you are only accepting payments from a physical, brick and mortar location, a countertop terminal may be your best bet.

If you accept payments at events such as trade shows, festivals, or farmers’ markets, a mobile POS system is a great solution.

For phone payments and invoices, you will want to discuss a virtual terminal.

Choose the Best Merchant Services and Credit Card Processing Solutions in St. Petersburg

We take pride in our dependability, security, and integrity at Electronic Merchant Systems. This is only one of the numerous reasons why EMS enjoys a positive connection with our St. Petersburg businesses.

No good merchant is left behind is more than a slogan for us. Our banking institution is aware of the demands of your business and is committed to its success.

We are much more than a merchant credit card service provider. EMS is dedicated to assisting you with all of your credit card processing needs, including the following:

• Providing the top payment processing tools and opportunities

• Improving your cash flow

• eCommerce, email invoicing, contactless payment options

• Streamlining your business operations

• Providing the best credit card rates

• Minimizing your exposure to fraud losses

Don’t spend another day with out-of-date terminals or ridiculously slow transaction times that could alienate your customers.

Instead, choose EMS - where we offer St. Petersburg businesses the most updated payment processing solutions that are simple and effective.

As previously discussed, please review our 975+ Google Customer Reviews to see how we consistently deliver exceptional products and services to business owners like you.

While we stand by the quality of our product, you can rest assured that our customer service team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If you want the best St. Petersburg, Florida payment processing solutions, click below to request a consultation today.