In the modern era, online jewelry businesses are thriving. These businesses aim to make it easier than ever before for people to buy jewelry and find the precious items of jewelry they can love and cherish for years to come; with the aid of online jewelry stores, you can easily shop for rings, bracelets, and more from the comfort of your own home.
However, in order to run a jewelry business online in the modern world, you need to have your own merchant account. A jewelry merchant account is what will allow you to be able to receive credit and debit card payments online via your online jewelry store or payment portal. This guide will look at what’s involved with getting a jewelry merchant account and why it isn’t always easy.
The jewelry industry has been around for a very long time. It’s one of the oldest industries of them all, as, throughout history, people have always enjoyed giving jewelry as gifts for special occasions or wearing jewelry in all of its many metals, styles, and forms as a sign of wealth, status, and love, and so on. Jewelry can mean many things and hold a lot of importance for its owner.
These days, many jewelry purchases are done online, and a lot of traditional brick and mortar jewelry brands have had to move online and set up their own jewelry e-shops and stores, due to rising demand and high levels of competition in the jewelry industry itself. These online stores allow customers to shop for items like necklaces, earrings, and so on.
Running an online jewelry store or business can be a very lucrative choice for savvy entrepreneurs, and there’s plenty of money to be made in this industry. But you have to prepare properly and make the necessary arrangements to be able to receive payments from your customers online and handle the high-risk credit card processing involved with jewelry transactions. This is why you need a jewelry merchant account.
So what actually is a jewelry merchant account and why is it so important? Well, let’s begin with a simple jewelry merchant account definition so you know exactly what this account is for and how it works. Basically, a jewelry merchant account is just like any other merchant account. It’s a type of business account used by companies that sell goods or services online.
A jewelry merchant account is necessary for receiving digital payments, like credit card and debit card payments over the internet, otherwise known as card-not-present transactions. These types of transactions are a big part of the online jewelry business, as you may have customers looking for rings and custom jewelry from all over the globe and wanting to pay remotely with their cards.
The jewelry merchant account works pretty simply: money from customers goes into the merchant account for processing, before being sent on to your main business account, at which point you can use it for other things like paying salaries or buying more stock. Without a jewelry merchant account, it’s impossible for any online jewelry business to effectively operate in today’s world.
Unfortunately, even though we can clearly see that jewelry merchant accounts are vital for online jewelry stores, getting a jewelry merchant account can be a big challenge. This is because online jewelry businesses are regarded as high-risk businesses, linked with high-risk credit card processing, and seen as relatively dangerous for banks to work with.
Why is this? Well, there are a few different reasons why jewelry merchant accounts are hard to get and jewelry businesses are considered high risk. The first big issue is the high level of fraud in the online jewelry industry; there are a lot of scam artists and fraudsters out there setting up online jewelry stores and selling low-grade items.
Fraud can also work in the other direction in the online jewelry business, with fraudsters making use of fraudulent transactions or stolen identities to purchase these high-value items for themselves. And all of this fraud means that the online jewelry industry has a higher than average frequency of chargebacks.
A chargeback is when a customer disputes a credit card or debit card payment on their statement, either because they believe it to be fraudulent or they didn’t authorize it or forgot about what it was for. This can cause a lot of extra hassle and fees for the banks and payment processors involved in the transaction, and it means that many banks simply refuse to offer merchant accounts for online jewelry businesses, to begin with.
The high-risk payment processing involved in online jewelry businesses can make it very difficult to get an online jewelry merchant account of your own. Many banks will say no and these accounts can feel impossible to obtain. So what should you do in the high-risk online jewelry business? Well, Shark Processing can help, providing you with a much better than average chance of getting your jewelry merchant account.
As specialists in high-risk merchant accounts with years of experience handling high-risk payment processing, we can help you get the account you need. We work closely with banks and payment partners worldwide who are more willing to work together with high-risk businesses like yours, and this can make it a lot easier for you to get a high-risk online jewelry merchant account and start doing business today.
Shark Processing offers competitive rates, fast turnaround times, peerless customer support, and great account security too, looking after all of our jewelry merchant account holders to help everyone grow their business. Get in touch with the team today to find out more about our merchant accounts for jewelry businesses.
