The holiday rush, while full of opportunities, also comes with plenty of challenges for businesses. Processing payments can be one of those challenges if you don’t have a reliable system in place to maximize all of that extra business.

This is actually a pretty big problem for small businesses. According to a recent Stealth Survey, which was conducted on behalf of TD Bank (NYSE: TD) at the NY Business Expo in New York City on November 7, more than 25 percent of small to medium sized businesses said they don’t trust their payment system can maximize increased business and customer traffic during the holiday season.

Is Your Payment System Ready for the Holiday Rush?

If your business doesn’t have a payment system to handle the extra holiday business, it could lead to a variety of problems. Most obviousy, it can lead to a loss of money in terms of the number of sales you can process. It can negatively impact the customer experience too. It can cause long wait times, leading to more customers walking out the door rather than completing purchases. For online businesses, it can mean increased cart abandonment rates. And it can be a huge productivity issue for your team.

There are plenty of payment system options out there. But not all of them are reliable and cost effective for small businesses. That could be one of the reasons why some small businesses still rely heavily on cash transactions, even though consumers are going in the opposite direction. In fact, nearly 30 percent of the businesses surveyed said they only process cash and checks.

So while it can be a bit of an investment, having a reliable payments system that can keep up even during the busiest times is essential. This can look different to different types of businesses. For small retailers, cloud based payment solutions could be enough, while others might require a more robust merchant services provider. But one thing is clear. If you’re not confident your payments solution can handle the holiday rush, it’s probably time for an upgrade.

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This article, “1 in 4 Small Businesses Believe Their Payment System Can’t Handle a Holiday Rush” was first published on Small Business Trends