The holidays are approaching and that can typically mean that many businesses will experience a spike in sales volume and people plan their shopping for gifts. But what does mean for you as a merchant? Is your current payments provider willing to offer an increase in volume? Is this something you have considered yet? We wanted to share the typical protocol you’re planning for a seasonal change in processing volume.
Luckily, most (not all, but definitely many) merchant account providers make it easy to adjust for the seasonal increase in volume. We find that it is always better to be proactive that reactive. The last thing you want to happen is approach the holiday season and be limited to the amount of payments you can take due to the limit to your processing volume.
Planning For Your Sales Volume Increase
To accomplish any gap in processing payments, it is best to inform your merchant account provider during the application process of any potential increase to monthly volume during specific holiday seasons. Typically, they will push for a higher increase across the board during all months just to help out. If the increase is so substantial that approval of that amount is difficult, arrangements can be made to increase the limit to those specific times during the year.
If you didn’t mention any potential seasonal increase, the best time to do it is as soon as possible. If you’re a few months into processing with your provider, you’ll likely have earned some good points allowing for the increase to monthly volume with no issue at all. At most, you may be asked to provide current bank statements to back up the increase and accommodate the risk department at the bank.
We can’t stress enough that being proactive is the best way to prepare for an increase in processing volume. Have you ever had to request an increase in processing volume due to a holiday spike in sales? It’s extremely good news and good “problem” to have. How did your experience go when you requested an increase in processing volume? Comment below and share your story.