As a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL), your primary focus is rightfully on maintaining strict ATF compliance and providing expert service to your customers. However, the crucial step of getting paid presents unique challenges in a high-risk industry. 

When a customer wants to place a special order over the phone, pay a deposit for gunsmithing work, or settle an invoice remotely, relying on insecure methods or processors hostile to the firearms industry is not a viable option. 

This is precisely where a virtual terminal becomes an essential tool for your business. It allows you to securely process credit card payments from any web browser, ensuring you can finalize sales efficiently and professionally without the customer needing to be physically present.

What is a virtual terminal?

These web-based applications let you process credit card payments without a physical POS device.

In some situations, including when orders are taken over the phone, you need to enter credit card details on behalf of your customer. A virtual terminal turns any internet-connected device into a payment processing machine.

This web-based interface requires that merchants log into a secure online payment portal. Once they do, they simply key in the details for the card-not-present transaction. These include credit card number, expiration date, CVV, and billing address.

Virtual terminals come with some additional features. Many allow you to generate and send digital invoices complete with secure payment links via email or SMS. Using this tool, your customers can enter their own payment details. Alternatively, they can pay via electronic bank transfers known as automated clearing house (ACH) transactions.

Virtual terminal benefits for FFL dealers

Virtual terminals bring many advantages. These include payment flexibility, enhanced security, and streamlined operations.

Payment flexibility

Once you obtain your virtual terminal from a firearm-friendly merchant account provider, you can immediately enjoy the benefits it brings to your gun store. For example, you are immediately able to take phone orders, send payment links, and adeptly handle all types of card-not-present transactions. These even include facilitating purchases at gun shows and mobile sales. All of this can happen at low cost since virtual terminals are web-based and require no additional hardware.

Additionally, your operations can be streamlined, including the ability to manage reports and payments from anywhere. You can even set up recurring billing for specialized services such as memberships, ongoing courses, or layaway plans. Through it all, you can accurately keep track of invoices without the need for error-prone manual entry.

Enhanced security 

The reputable company that provides your virtual terminal will ensure that it is PCI DSS compliant, meaning that the systems will protect cardholder data. Additionally, a good virtual terminal will use tokenization and encryption technologies to protect data that is stored or transmitted. Risk is made even lower when users are able to enter their own payment details using payment links.

Streamlined operations

Finally, low-cost virtual terminals offer streamlined solutions that are tailored to FFL dealers. These include firearms industry features such as age verification software and integration with FFL-specific software.

When you integrate a virtual terminal into your FFL dealership, you will vastly broaden your ability to take orders and accept payments from various sources. Best of all, you can accomplish these tasks at minimal cost while assuring optimal security and regulatory compliance. This combination of features can be a game-changer as you work to succeed in this highly competitive, regulated industry.