Running a small business means accepting payments from customers. You provide an excellent and useful product or service, and the customer pays you for the opportunity.
But these days, customers often avoid conventional methods—like cash and checks—to pay for things. In fact, when researching the best mobile credit card readers for small business, we learned that half of customers don’t carry cash at least half the time.1 That means you need to accept credit and debit cards. And with more and more customers using digital payments and chip cards, you need to take the newest types of credit card payments: NFC and EMV. But what are those?
- Near field communication (NFC): Also called contactless payments, NFC technology allows customers to pay with smartphones and other devices using software like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- Europay, MasterCard, Visa (EMV): EMV is an internationally standardized method for making payments with microchip-enabled credit cards. EMV technology allows for greater security than traditional magstripe payments.
Of course, the traditional method of storing information on magstripe cards hasn’t disappeared entirely. Customers swipe magstripe cards through card readers that use magnets to read the stored data.
But how do you know which credit card reader is the best for your business and point-of-sale (POS) system? We looked at the best credit card readers for small business in 2021 to help you keep your customers shopping and swiping.