Author: Julie Campbell

This trend is allowing smaller firms to accept credit card transactions in a more affordable way.

Owners of small businesses across the United States are discovering the opportunity that their tablets and smartphones are offering in terms of mobile payments that allow them to accept transactions from customer credit cards without renting expensive machines.

This has become a powerful new tool for smaller sized businesses to be able to process transactions.

The trend is not only common among small business owners who are setting up the option at the point of sale in an actual storefront, but others as well. There are many small firms that don’t have an actual shop, but that sell at trade shows, farmers markets, or that simply travel to meet their customers in various locations. These people are greatly benefiting from being able to turn their smartphones and tablets into a credit card scanner that they can use for mobile payments.

Mobile payments allow these entrepreneurs to be able to accept transactions no matter where they are.

As there are a growing number of mobile payments options available, these business owners have a choice and can make the selection that is best for them. Among the strongest players at the moment are PayPal Here, GoPayment, Square, and Intuit.

Often, they involve the use of a small device (sometimes called a dongle), which is typically provided for free and that plugs into the audio jack of the smartphone or tablet. This allows credit cards to be swiped so that the mobile payments transaction can be processed. Though the appeal for these services did start with individuals selling at farmers markets and other similar locations, it is starting to work its way into traditional point of sale locations on an increasing basis.

This is because it allows the small business owner to be able to accept credit cards without having to deal with a bank, and it provides a number of options that are more affordable and convenient than those that are otherwise available. Mobile payments also often come with a number of different types of loyalty tools, and the fees for accepting the transactions are generally lower than the usual form of credit card purchase.

The Sharbot Lake beach in Ontario, Canada will soon become much more smartphone friendly.

QR codes and free WiFi are about to bring a beach on Sharbot Lake into the 21st century, as Central Frontenac Township takes steps to add a more enjoyable and enhanced experience for visitors using high tech methods.

The beach will be only the first recipient of the high tech benefits in the area.

According to Mayor Janet Gutowski, as per a report from the Economic Development Committee, on the meeting of the council in Sharbot Lake, the committee was making the recommendation to use QR codes to help the township to draw attention to its points of interest so that they would be easier for visitors to find.

The QR codes will be scanned by the visitors so that they can learn more about what they can do in the area.

Visitors will be able to use their smartphones in order to scan the QR codes using any free scanner app. This, in combination to the free WiFi that will be available to those visitors, will allow them to instantly access the content that has been created to promote the township and many of the points of interest that visitors might otherwise miss.

According to Gutowsky, the QR codes will also provide smartphone users with other tourist information, such as the suggested starting points for the Sharbot Lake Historical Walking Tour. She pointed out that it is expensive to create and maintain signage, but that the barcodes aren’t, and that they “can be used by all sorts of devices such as smart phones and tablets.”

She also went on to point out that “We’ve been looking for inexpensive ways to highlight our points of interest and thought we’d start with the Sharbot Lake walking tour.” Moreover, she identified a number of other benefits of using the QR codes other than their low associated cost, and that is the quantity of information that they can provide to the scanner.

She said that far more information can be presented through the scans of QR codes than could ever be posted on a sign. Moreover, they are also environmentally friendlier, as they don’t require paper pamphlets that “end up as litter on the side of the road.”