Over the past few years, and especially between 2017 and 2018, cardless payment options have placed themselves front and center in the small business market. The premise of these services is that individuals are able to transfer money electronically between themselves without ever sharing their credit card information.

By creating an account with one of these payment processing services, clients and customers are able to transfer funds using usernames, phone numbers, or email addresses to their friends, family members, co-workers, and other contacts. Small business owners have made strides to include these options as payment methods for their patrons, and rightfully so. The convenience of transferring money with a few taps on a mobile device is incredibly alluring - perhaps more so in the case of henna artists. Services like these make it possible for clients to pay or tip in a breeze!

Two of the most popular cardless payment service providers on the market - Venmo and Cash App - are frequently used by consumers across the USA, making them viable options for henna artists everywhere to include in their accepted payment methods.

Venmo

Venmo is a subsidiary of PayPal. The Venmo app interface includes not only the opportunity for users to track their purchases, but also the ability to review purchases made by the contacts in their account. This social component may be a unique opportunity for your business to be exposed to your clients’ circles, provided those clients have their account privacy settings arranged in a way that allows for their purchases to be seen by their friends and family. When you operate a Venmo account as a business owner, you receive convenient access to the management of your Venmo transactions within your PayPal account.

While you might be tempted to use Venmo as an individual to receive free processing, it’s important to note that businesses using Venmo should be registered as merchants - and these accounts incur a processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

It’s worth mentioning that, per its own guidance, Venmo is not intended for service providers like henna artists. Currently the application for hopeful business owners wishing to utilize the platform indicates that:

“The current release of Venmo's payment product for merchants is only available for certain business models. Use cases that are not supported include:

• Selling goods or services in person

• Receiving payment for goods or services through the Venmo app

• Facilitating peer-to-peer transactions between two Venmo users”

For this reason, Hennapreneur does not currently recommend the use of Venmo to process payments from clients for services rendered in person or for the sale of henna supplies in person at this time. It appears, per Venmo’s merchant application, that the service is intended for those who are selling goods online specifically - making it a great option for henna suppliers and those with online stores.

Cash App

Cash App is a subsidiary of Square. Unlike the aforementioned, Cash App does not include a social aspect to its interface. Instead, users can transfer funds electronically using a phone number, email address, or the Cash App’s username system: the $CashTag. Businesses can create a $CashTag which can be used to request or receive money from patrons who are not already contacts in their mobile device’s directory.

While businesses may send money using the Cash App interface at no cost, payments received incur a 2.75% processing fee - offering a more competitive rate for processing. Again, while you might consider using the Cash App as an individual to receive payments from your clients, the Cash App Terms of Service clearly indicate that service providers in industries like ours are required to operate as business accounts. It is certainly worth noting that the Cash App does not place limits on the amount of money that can be processed on a daily basis for business accounts, making it particularly useful for henna artists who serve at high-traffic events and festivals.

More importantly, it appears that the Cash App has taken the lead within the consumer market. In July 2018, the Cash App reached 33.5 million cumulative downloads, passing Venmo’s 32.9 million, which hints at it’s popularity with today’s consumers.

In summary, if you’re on the fence about which cardless payment processor you should select for your business, then you’re encouraged to check out the Cash App both for its recognition within the market, its processing fees, and its willingness and availability to work with service providers like us.

You can download the app here, and give it a try. It’s super quick to set up and makes a great resource for getting paid for your services with ease!

Do you currently use the Cash App? What’s your experience been like with the platform?