There’s no doubting it – the opportunity of selling online has given businesses some plus points in extending their customer reach and boosting their profitability. However, not all customers would go for a website or mobile app to perform a transaction. Some of them may choose email or phone. This is why businesses have MOTO as an option to cater to the unique payment expectations of their customers.
Join us as we explore what MOTO payments are, how they work, and ways your business can benefit from this type of transaction. We also delve into how you can integrate MOTO into your payments strategy to yield tangible results and grow your business substantially.
If you want to dig deeper into all things MOTO and discover the key benefits of accepting such payments for your business and customers, watch our video below.
What is a MOTO payment?
MOTO is the acronym that stands for mail order/telephone order transactions and is classified as a card not present payment. As the name indicates, MOTO payments can be accepted by businesses via email, fax, telephone, or even via post. To accept secure MOTO payments, businesses need to partner with an experienced and trustworthy payment service provider who can facilitate that (more of this below).
MOTO is ideal for small or startup businesses that engage in selling products or services remotely. Moreover, MOTO can enable merchants to keep their overhead low, as such transactions can be completed by only using a desktop, tablet, or smartphone with internet access.
From a customer perspective, tapping into MOTO can be an equally convenient and efficient solution. This is because they’re not required to pull out their physical payment card for in-store sales or input their card detail into an online checkout page. Instead, all they have to do is provide their debit or credit card information over the phone or by email, which means that they give the merchant permission to process the transaction through a virtual terminal.
What is a virtual terminal?
A virtual terminal is a web-based payment application that acts as a card machine but in a virtual context. In essence, this tool enables merchants to manually enter payment card information into the system to accept a transaction on behalf of the customer (more on how virtual terminals enable MOTO payments below).
Is virtual terminal safe?
In terms of security, virtual terminals can apply AVS (Address Verification System) to confirm that the customer using the credit/debit card is the owner of it.
Effectively, the virtual terminal requests that the customer provides their billing address details, while it matches them to what is stored in the cardholders’ bank. (It’s worth checking with your payment service provider to ensure that the billing address provided with the MOTO payment is within the jurisdictions covered by the AVS service). If the information is compatible, the payment will be approved and processed. This way, customers are protected against online payment fraud considering that it has surpassed $41 billion in 2022, as reported by Juniper Research.
Not to mention that the payment service provider that will equip you with the virtual terminal follows the latest PCI DSS requirements to ensure your payments are made and processed within a secure and PCI-compliant environment. (Find everything you need to know about PCI compliance in our article).
How does MOTO work?
MOTO payments are fast, secure, and user-friendly.
Businesses need a MOTO merchant account to process a MOTO payment through a virtual terminal – both of which requirements will be provided by the business’ payment service provider. To demonstrate how easy and seamless it is to get to grips with a virtual terminal, below we outline what it takes to make a MOTO transaction:
- The merchant needs to log into their virtual terminal with their email address and password. The account can be accessed via an app or any browser on a desktop device.
- At this point, they need to enter the customer’s debit or credit card details and verify their identity as explored above.
- Once the card details are securely submitted through the virtual terminal, it is sent to the relevant financial institutions for authorisation.
- The customer will receive an automated receipt that confirms the validity of the transaction.
- The merchant will then receive the funds from the sale depending on their settlement agreement with their payment service provider.
What kind of businesses can use MOTO?
MOTO is suitable for any industry or business that wants to introduce an additional method into their payments mix and fulfil their customers’ needs.
However, for businesses that don’t have a website or web shop and wish to accept online payments, the Pay by Link feature operated by the virtual terminal can benefit them while saving significant resources in the transaction flow. This way, merchants can generate secure payment links and send them to customers via email or text. When the recipient clicks on that link, they’ll be redirected to a secure payment page where they can find the pre-populated payment amount. At this stage, they simply need to input their payment card data to finalise the payment.
Businesses across industries can leverage Pay by Link regardless of the payment amount. Some of these businesses may include:
- Travel agencies and hotels
- Catering companies
- Florists
- Online retailers
- Restaurants and food takeaways
What are the benefits of MOTO payments?
Being able to process payments remotely can be a game-changer for businesses – small and large. Here are just some of the ways that MOTO can add value to your business:
- It’s a fast, secure, and trusted way for your customers to pay for goods and services.
- It’s easy to set up and the virtual terminal is accessible via any device.
- It allows you to reach more customers, as MOTO is not only a preferred payment method for many consumers but also the only way to pay remotely with their card.
- Particularly for phone payments, it involves almost no clicks. This helps optimise the payments experience for your customers while saving them the hassle and time of navigating the Internet.
Are MOTO payments right for my business?
Knowing your customer is a crucial component in the MOTO payment ecosystem to help ascertain if this payment type resonates with your target audience and their payment preferences.
Other than conducting your own market research, a good way to figure out whether MOTO is right for your business is to consult your payment service provider. By helping them understand your business model and needs, your payment service provider will be better positioned to support you with tailoring your payments offering accordingly.
How emerchantpay can help with MOTO payments
In this day and age, serving customers remotely has become commonplace and even the norm for several industries. It should be top of mind to balance offering the preferred payment method of your customers with the necessary security features to safeguard them and your business.
At emerchantpay, we work with businesses of any size and help them accept remote payments, such as MOTO, along with in-store and online. To facilitate MOTO transaction processing, we provide you with a virtual terminal whereby you can also access the Pay by link functionality. Therefore, you can send your customers texts and emails with payment links to make transactions via our customisable hosted payment page. Through strategic advisory and advanced fraud management tools, we also support you with building a safe and smooth payment experience for your customers over the phone, via email.
Looking to add MOTO to your payments strategy and help your business excel? Get in touch with emerchantpay’s payment experts today and find out how.