6 Features of NMI That Make It a Game-Changer for Your Small Business

What is the one thing that is common in PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe? Yes, they are all tried and tested market leaders in the world of payment gateways that have been processing millions of people’s online transactions for more than two decades. There is, however, one other thing in common in these three payment gateways that also distinguishes them from other payment gateways such as Authorize.net, Cardpointe, and NMI.

All three of these market leaders – PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe – charge you a fixed fee of 2.9% + $0.3 on every transaction. This may not seem much to you if you are simply buying a floral shirt for $20 from the online page of your nearby boutique. But if you are a small business like, say, a boutique that sells $20 floral shirts to tens of customers daily, then that 2.9% + $0.3 will end up costing you quite a lot in the long run.

For clarity, let us break it down: 2.9% of $20 equals $0.58. Add $0.3 to it and you get a processing fee deduction of $0.88 on every floral shirt sold. This means that for every 23 shirts you sell (after integrating your billing system with the payment gateways of PayPal, Stripe, or Braintree), then, in effect, the price of the 24th shirt will be deducted by the payment gateway on their own.

Sounds like a steal, doesn’t it?

But it doesn’t have to be this way. It makes sense for large businesses that cater to millions of customers worldwide to integrate with these larger payment gateways, in exchange for offering more robust payment management via a larger number of potential integrations with third-party apps and/or greater access into even the world’s most remote areas, to charge a greater payment processing fee, but smaller businesses that do not need all these fancy features should not make the mistake of signing up for features that they have little use for. You wouldn’t shell out an extra $200 for the iPhone with the larger screen if all that you’re going to use the phone for is to call and text people, right?

This is why it makes more sense for small businesses to integrate with payment gateways that are more tailored to suit their specific needs. In this blog post, therefore, we will be reviewing NMI to understand why it is the payment gateway most suited to fulfill the needs of your small business.

6 Features of NMI That Make It a Game-Changer for Your Small Business

1. Virtual Terminal

Many businesses operate by accepting orders via mail/phone. If your business is one of those, then NMI’s virtual terminal feature can help you process transactions from any device that is connected to the Internet. It also has features that check the accuracy of the entered information and prompts corrections if needed. And, in addition to credit and debit cards, you can also use a check scanner to accept paper checks. As a bonus, NMI’s virtual terminal can also be combined with the customer vault feature, which securely stores customer data for future billing purposes.

2. Customer Vault

NMI’s customer vault specifically allows you to transfer payments through an SSL-encrypted connection which it then stores in NMI’s own PCI-certified facility. The reason why it is important that NMI has a PCI-certified facility is that it seriously heightens the payment gateways’ security and, in effect, makes sure that the payments being processed are as free of fraud as possible. Furthermore, because the customer data is not stored on the business’ own facilities but on NMI’s facilities, which are relatively much more secure, the customers’ valuable credit card information is also then not as much at risk of being misused or leaked.

3. Integration with Shopping Carts

Integration is the name of the game, and NMI understands that by offering easy integrations with a long list of shopping carts including the most popular ones like Shopify. Doing this ensures that customers of your small business do not have to worry about whether their most popular shopping carts will integrate with your chosen payment gateway. Likewise, you too will have to put in the hard labor of manually integrating with various shopping carts (even though NMI does offer you that option on the off chance that you may encounter a shopping cart that NMI does not offer integration with and yet you still want to integrate).

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4. Batch Processing

Some businesses – despite being small in scale – may still wish to handle multiple payments of their customers. NMI also caters to that subset of small businesses through its batch-processing features that allow users to create large spreadsheets that process hundreds and even thousands of simultaneous transactions in one fell sweep. This allows for efficient processing of transactions since businesses do not have to individually input the data.

5. Recurring Billing

The easiest way to charge customers regularly is by creating and saving regular billing schedules in your system. These systems can be of two kinds—subscription-based and plan-based. While the former offers you greater customization for each individual customer, the latter lets you create preconfigured billing plans to assign to customers. Any changes to these plans are also automatically accommodated by NMI, saving you any hassle of updating your customer’s data manually.

6. Electronic Invoicing

Invoicing is crucial as it is the last point of contact between your business and your customer. If handled well, it has the potential of redeeming any souring experience the customer may have had while doing any transaction with your business. And if you bungle up your transactions, then that is the last thing a customer may remember about your business which may prevent them from doing business with you again. NMI factors these realities in by having a customizable PDF of the invoice automatically generated and emailed to your customer every time they make a transaction to give you that last window of opportunity to present your brand in as positive a light as possible in front of the customer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, NMI is the ideal payment gateway for small businesses with its seamless virtual terminal, secure customer vault, easy integration with shopping carts, efficient batch processing, flexible recurring billing options, and enhanced electronic invoicing. These features empower small businesses to effectively manage payments, build strong customer relationships, and leave a positive impression on their customers.