The Benefits of Offering Consumer Financing
When you operate a public-facing business, it can be hard to find ways to increase your sales volume, especially if you are in a competitive industry or a niche that requires customers to plan for large purchases. In either case, one way of increasing your share of the local market is by offering your customers credit through a consumer financing program. By participating in one of these programs, you gain the financial tools you need to compete with larger chains, helping you to gain control of the local market for your business.
Credit programs benefit your company in a variety of ways. First, they bring customers through the door. The availability of credit is often cited in consumer studies as a motivator for choosing a retailer. They also increase repeat sales. Customers return to stores where they know they can get credit, and the same holds true in other sectors. Contractors who offer financing see more repeat sales, as do dentists and other service providers.
Beyond connecting customers to credit, these programs also stimulate sales by helping widen the base of customers you can service. Often, their credit provisions are more generous than you’d see in other credit applications, so they can serve as financing of last resort for customers who might not be able to connect to your product otherwise. That not only benefits your business, it benefits the whole community because it helps connect people to the services they need.
The best part about modern consumer financing programs is their hands-off, works-out-of-the-box setup. Financing companies have streamlined the process of taking and submitting applications, and approval can be handled electronically in just minutes. This makes it easier for you to handle the paperwork and close the customer’s sale in one day. It also makes managing the whole program easy, because you can simply submit to a provider’s system electronically and then let them handle the debt portfolio. This makes it easy for you to focus on your core business instead of worrying about balancing the books on your financing program.
There are a number of consumer financing providers out there, but if you want to find the best one for your business, there are a few key traits to look for. Find a provider whose fees are transparent, and whose terms are easy to present to your customers. This will make marketing your financing options easy. Look for a program that offers incentives to customers, too, so you can enfold those incentives into your existing marketing. If you do that, it should be easy to make your new financing program impactful.
