Almost two-thirds (64%) of small and medium-sized businesses in Romania say they accept card payments due to the speed, safety and immediate access to money, reveals the latest survey on the digitalisation of businesses conducted by Visa in partnership with the National Council of Small and Medium Sized Businesses in Romania (CNIPMMR).
Moreover, half (48%) of the businesses that currently don’t accept card payments say that they plan to implement payment acceptance solutions in the future, as a measure to support business development. Customers’ demand for such solutions is also an important reason for companies that already accept or plan to implement electronic payments.
To remain competitive and thrive in the globalised digital economy, SMBs must make sure they offer the payment methods that their customers prefer and have a solid online presence. Since the start of the pandemic, Visa has strengthened its position as digital economy enabler and launched community-based programs and solutions to help more small businesses accept digital payments and gain greater access to the digital economy, contributing to a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
Almost 70% of the companies that participated at the survey consider the digital transformation of their business as important or very important, so initiatives that support small businesses to go digital are even more necessary at this time. Among Visa’s initiatives dedicated to small merchants and courier companies that deliver a large part of goods purchased online with cash on delivery is the expansion of the Tap-to-Phone service, a modern solution that allows contactless payments via a smartphone and thus eliminates the cost with additional equipment. As proof of the need for such easy to implement solutions, almost half (48%) of the respondents who currently don’t accept card payments mentioned the difficulties in implementing the classic solutions, as a main barrier for accepting electronic payments.
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