Running a natural products store online can be highly profitable due to the growing consumer interest in organic food and beverage items, as well as supplements. The U.S. Natural and Organic Product Industry sales surged 6.5% to $207 billion in 2017, while the natural supplement market grew 6.1% to $44 billion in the U.S. over the same span, according to New Hope Network’s Nutrition Business Journal.

The number of individuals and investors opening up natural products stores is on the rise due to the high revenue opportunities that the natural and organic product space offers. Working with a reputable credit card processor can help these merchants optimize payments—and growth.

How to Get a Natural Products Store Merchant Account

Merchants in this space are well-advised to open a merchant account through a specialized payment processor that understands the industry. This requires completing a few simple steps and providing the necessary information.

Most applications for a natural products store merchant account will request that your business share a valid, government-issued ID, a bank letter or pre-printed voided check, three months of the most recent bank statements, three months of the most recent processing statements and a Social Security Number (SSN) or Employer Identification Number (EIN).

Working with a payments services provider that specializes in this niche can speed up the application process. In some cases, merchants can get approved within a matter of days. Specialized payment processors often offer one-stop solutions to help augment your payments operations, including fraud prevention, risk mitigation, and PCI compliance. This is to the merchant’s benefit as they have one resource to help manage and lower chargebacks, protect customers’ sensitive data and receive advice on streamlining payments.

Managing Chargebacks Natural Products Stores

Like most online businesses, natural products stores are not immune to the chargeback problem. In some cases, customers have buyer’s remorse, blaming the merchant for how supplements or other natural products that seemingly didn’t work. These disputes snowball into chargebacks, costing the merchant dearly in fines, fees, and penalties.

Many online shops offer free trials to customers as a way to let people try their natural products, risk-free. This is a handy marketing tool; however, it can also cause an increase in chargebacks. Without excellent communication about the terms of a free trial, customers can become confused about payment conditions—or simply forget about their purchase—and dispute the charges later on. It is imperative for natural product store merchants running free trials to provide email confirmations, email reminders, and other information on the website so that customers have the right information.

Optimize Your Site — and Your Brand Story

In an industry as competitive as the natural products business, you’ll need to develop a brand, website and line of products that are unique. Don’t try to carry every natural supplement or vitamin available simply to follow industry fads; quality always trumps quantity.

Be straightforward in your advertising. Maintain high standards and carry products that you know will help customers. Use a marketing approach with long-term goals in mind. Build your business as a farmer rather than a hunter, with a focus on harvesting a long-term relationships with customers rather than shooting for quick sales with customers who won’t return.

Avoid misinformation and clearly articulate the benefits of the products you offer. Where possible, reference industry experts that can back claims and provide additional guidance. Educating your customer base can add to your appeal and it also helps customers feel secure in what they are purchasing from your brand.

Another way to bolster trust is to ensure that your brand experience remains consistent from the home page through product pages and all the way to the end of the payments process. Checkout pages or portals that veer from the regular branding can cause confusion and distrust among consumers.

Follow up online sales with a branded confirmation email that includes a receipt for each customer’s purchase. This goes a long way in improving the customer experience, and also provides a way for customers to get in touch if they have a question or an issues. The more you communicate with your customers, the less likely it is that disputes will arise and snowball into costly chargebacks.

Conclusion

PayArc offers comprehensive payment processing services, which include a PCI compliant payment gateway, mobile payment processing solutions easy integration of your online systems with our full API and SDK.

Ecommerce merchants choose their industry sectors for many reasons. That’s half the fun of coming up with, and executing on, a business idea.

Sometimes your choice furthers a life-long passion, while other times it’s as simple as recognizing and filling a market need. Being first off-the-block is often a winning strategy for a sprint, but not so much in a marathon.

Of course, meeting market needs in the long-term isn’t really a simple affair. Long-term business viability falls more into the marathon category. What’s required are several layers of expertise — Some related to the chosen product or service, along with know-how in managing your business.

For example, a passion for healthy eating and good cooking may lead you to open a meal prep business. You’ll love the first stage, when serving delicious and nutritious food made with your own hands proves super-rewarding.

But for how long will that “hands-on” approach serve the business well, given your ambitions and the blossoming market in your chosen niche?

As your business grows, reaching out to others who possess the knowledge and skills — the expertise — you need isn’t always easy. But it might be the best option to support the growth ambitions you harbor.

Using the meal prep sector as a proxy for all ecommerce shops, let’s take a look at an example of tough decisions one merchant made while managing business growth. The business lessons demonstrated in the story remain universal, proving useful to all ambitious ecommerce merchants.

Another lesson to consider while in the growth phase of your business: Leveraging expert payment solutions helps online shops grow.

True Rapid Growth Story Shares Lessons for All

Business principles remain true for all merchants, regardless of the chosen sector. eCommerce may be relatively new, but the quest to launch and grow a business persists in all industries. Like the story of a couple whose meal prep business growth lessons will resonate with all small business owners.

Danielle Hrzic told the story to HuffPost. The Hrzics built a meal prep business to improve the quality of school lunches available in Chicago. Gourmet Gorilla began by producing meals and snacks for three area schools. Now they serve schools throughout Northern Illinois and Wisconsin.

As more schools and parents joined the service, the business outgrew their initial kitchen space, and also the ability for the Hrzics to remain “hands-on” with meal production. As Hrzic says, “Small business owners often feel the need to be a part of every aspect of the business.” Letting go can be hard.

But Danielle learned that she had to pull herself away from the business, “…to work on it instead of in it” — and the business expanded rapidly.

Merchants keen to launch their own payment prep businesses will find useful information on the sector here, including info on the types of expert payment solutions needed in the sector.

Become Expert on Business Growth

It’s one thing to work in a business, and quite another to own and manage one. Launching and running an ecommerce business, regardless of sector, takes a lot of energy and passion for what you do.

Some online merchants open up shop following business careers, but many don’t have the first clue about doing the books, ordering and managing inventory, or supervising employees. And without stellar funding and steady cash flow, hiring the expertise just isn’t possible.

Do you know about the standard business growth curve? From start-up to survival to success at various levels, and all the way up to mega-successful large corporations — five growth stages get you there.

Start-ups challenge even the best and brightest new merchants. Passion for your business only takes you so far, when cash flow makes or breaks the business. It’s financial survival that moves the company up the curve. And expert payment solutions help ensure financial success.

Reaching out to experts to help your company grow — and letting go when necessary — reflect mature resolve as an owner. Our featured story didn’t highlight payments, but it’s clear that selling to schools requires B2B payments expertise, and directly to parents means B2C payments.

Do other eCommerce merchants know enough about payments, to get past start-up and survival, then on to success? Like why a landing a merchant account reflects your best interests, and how to protect your payments from fraud? If not, payments may be an area in need of expert assistance.

Expert Payment Solutions Help eCommerce Shops Grow

No matter where your business falls on the growth curve, you need expert payment solutions to help you grow. To find payment solutions that will both save your money and give you peace of mind, look no further than PayArc.

Our mission is to bridge the gap between online merchants and payment solutions — for all types and sizes of merchants.

PayArc’s industry leading payment processing solution gives you all the tools you need to start accepting payments online, while lowering your risk to fraud and giving you some of the lowest rates in the industry.

We leverage strong industry relationships — developed over decades in the payments industry — to help you land an individual merchant account so you can start processing payments quickly and securely.

Take the headache out of credit card processing, so you can process with confidence. PayArc wants to act as your payments advisor and consultant, not only your processor.

You have a business to run. Our business is to help you run it better.

Give us a shout today.