Gym and Club Payments: A Merchant’s Guide

Consumers around the world are becoming more conscious of their health and are attempting to make themselves fit. This can be seen by the consumers’ willingness to spend more on items that has healthy attributes. People have become more educated and is finding different ways to change their lifestyle by choosing healthy food choices and learning the best workout regimes. People have opted for wellness and fitness as their way of life by pursuing an active lifestyle which they believe that can lead them to achieve personal growth and happiness that all people strive for.Image result for merchant account

The health and fitness industry benefits with people having an increased interest in healthier lifestyle. Individuals have become more comfortable to spend money on fitness and wellness has become an important part of the people’s lifestyle like gym memberships and club affiliation.  Gym and club franchisees benefit a lot from this trend and makes them earn more with customers that see health and fitness expenditures as worthwhile investments. Many customers are now committed to maintain their physical well-being and pay attention to weight management. Other reasons for joining gym and clubs are to increase the physical activity, achieve set athletic goals, and maintain wellness by following unique and specialized regimes. Many fitness franchise has also evolved from offering routine workouts and group trainings to offering a wide-range of special-interest programs like pole dancing, Bikram yoga, trampolines, Zumba, or boot camps.

Payment Processing System for Gyms

  1. POS/Terminal/Mobile Processing – is done by when card is present by inserting, swiping or tapping the card in the card reader attached to the pos or card terminal or the mobile phone.
  2. Online Processing – is done even by giving the credit card information details thru a payment gateway system in the website.

Digital payments havebecome a norm in the commerce world. It has replaced cash and checks because it offers faster and convenient transactions. It has also entered the fitness industry and a need for payment processing that integrates with the point of sale system has reached the gyms and clubs. The common online payment for membership fees to gyms and club is also known as subscription or recurring payments which requires the client to pre-authorized the subscription upon signing up to the gym or club. The online payment of the gym or club membership fees is normally done through a payment system or an app. The client will provide the card details on sign up like as the client would when shopping online and authorize further payments up to an agreed amount. When a subscription is done, future payments of the membership fees will be taken automatically until further notice of the client.

Reasons to set up online payments for customers.

  1. Online payment is easier for clients to use because they can easily transfer money directly from their bank account or pay through credit card. Clients don’t need to withdraw cash nor remember to bring a checkbook to the gym thus, saving them time.
  2. There are many online payment processors that also offer to track all invoices issued that makes bookkeeping easier. Recurring payments for membership can also be set-up so that the online gaming merchant account setup doesn’t have to track down clients for money because the payments will automatically be sent.
  3. Online payments help expand the business by letting clients pay through website where card swiping is not required at all.

Fitness centers look for processor that can provide a membership payment that can be plugin at the merchant’s website. To be able to accept online payments for the membership fees of the client the merchant must able to find a payment processor that can help them with getting the right fitness industry merchant account and provide a payment gateway.

What to look for in an online payment processor and merchant account provider?

  • The chosen online payment processor and merchant account provider must have data control and security certification.
  • It must be able to help the merchant save money by offering a competitive payment processing rate with no hidden fees.
  • Help the business to accept all form of Gym payments whether it be mobile, credit card or online payment processing.
  • Provide additional services like billing and point-of-sale (POS) services that can be directly linked to the club’s customer management software.

An Online Payment System helps the merchant to generate more revenue by increase client spending and increase in transactions by providing customers a convenient way to pay and also provide customer data protection. Finding the right provider is imperative to streamline the payment processing.