Payment link — why small business owners should create one for their products
As a small business owner, there is nothing that brings much joy after making a sale. Yes! I said it. Making sales after-sales brings a certain form of satisfaction which cannot be easily explained.
Starting a small business can be challenging with issues like owning/renting a physical presence, setting up your store, creating awareness in the form of banners, posters, ads, etc. All these present challenges and drives the cost of running such a business to a high side thereby reducing profit margins.
The continual growth of the internet in Nigeria over the last few years is gradually changing the way business set up especially small business with very little capital to start. The urge for owners to own and set up a physical store is gradually being questioned by owners themselves. This instead has brought to having presences online across various platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, Google my business, etc. and yes! I failed to mention the use of creating websites 🤣🤣.
How I obviously forgot this, I don't know but well my focus in this article writing isn’t on owning a web page but driving sales without the need to own one and respond to all the messages while your potential customers engage you via messaging platforms. Once your customers feel convinced enough to drive him/her in taking an action, he/she won’t need to message you for payment details once a payment link exists. So yes, a payment link offers automation in receiving payment. My reason for omitting the creation of Websites by small business in Nigeria is that most small business can’t afford the fees charged by web developer not to even mention maintain the website and regularly upgrade it. It can be quite pricey for small business whose profit margin gain may not sufficient to help cover personal needs or restock their (the rate of inflation in Nigeria right now is something 😥 ).
Hence, payment links will favour a small business owner and cut down operations costs.
So what is a Payment link? Honestly, if I told you I can explain this in lame man’s language, I would be lying but as the name suggests, it is a pathway to receive payment via an authorised or recognised online platform. Do such platforms exist in Nigeria? Yes, they do. You may have heard of one such as Paystack. There are more in Nigeria but the more popular ones are; Monnify and Flutterwave. You may be wondering now, isn’t this expensive? aren’t they for certain businesses who generate huge revenue and all?
Well, you’ve been wondering this way likely due to your ignorance and fear to ask questions. By just going to the support page of Paystack helps simplify it further. So yes, if you have 100 Naira worth of sale, you can still use a payment link.
Your next question would be why should I need a payment link?
The answer is just simple, TRUST. If you plan to go further in your business, you will definitely want to build your business around Trust. Another reason as earlier mentioned is automation. Auto-generated invoice for the customer is an attractive pull, organisation of your books — as this will help in understanding your inflows and outflows and can probably help in securing loans for your business. More reasons are depending on whichever payment service provider you choose. If you are bothered about the cost, it is relatively affordable and you can shift the cost onto the path of the customer.
Ever bought a plane ticket online and got to the payment stage only to see an additional fee you didn’t budget for and it is titled transaction fees? Yes, that fees — this an example of shifting the cost to the customer for using such a platform.
On the customer part, it is necessary to request a payment link especially by a business you’ve never had interactions with before. Payment link for a customer is like having a third party witness such transaction and thereof, if there were to be any problem, you know just where to make complaints.
In conclusion, do your research and know which suits you or you can keep sticking to sending bank details, customers changing minds last mind and including ❌ ❌ for no refunds and no returns on your IG pages 😊.
I wish you good luck on that journey ✌️
