Tech on Tap: Payment Modernization for SMBs with Swoop Finance
Tech on Tap: Payment Modernization for SMBs with Swoop Finance
George Csahiouni, CEO, Swoop Finance
In episode 91 of The Payments Show Podcast, I spoke to George Csahiouni who is the CEO at Swoop Finance
Swoop Finance helps Small to Medium businesses upgrade, replace, or acquire new technology on a low monthly payment plan.
AUDIO VERSION: thepayments.show
Episode Highlights:
Unlocking Possibilities with Swoop’s Subscription-Based Finance Model
We offer a subscription-based finance model that is: (1) a lot more palatable for the merchant (2) creates a lot more flexibility. And the key difference there really is that instead of financing the hardware as an asset on a lease agreement, or an equipment finance agreement where you're financing the hardware as the asset, we finance the SaaS injection of the point-of-sale technology into any device. And what that does is it really opens it up to both the hardware space as well as to the software only space, which things like payment gateways, CRM systems, marketing, inventory controls. It could even be wiring and technician costs, it could be API along with the software technology. And that's really where we kind of step into the place to fill that, that hole in the market.
Reducing High Payment Processing Fees
Fees for the SMB market currently in the US are about 3.2%. And we typically will land somewhere around 2.1% - 2.4% depending on the industry. So, a good amount of savings there. If you're talking about 20 to 40 basis points on that spread, you can start doing the math if you're doing $50,000 - $100,000 a month, that definitely starts to add up. Other than a mortgage or rent, the payment processing fees are usually the 2nd or 3rd highest expense for a business owner that's a small to medium sized business.
The All-Inclusive Point-of-Sale Solution
…we're saying: Here's your point of sale system: it's free. It's included. Here is your pricing. We're going to inject that hardware with the point-of-sale software. It's going to come with X, Y, Z different tools and benefits, right? The marketing, the inventory, etc. Those rates are going to be locked and fixed. Whether it's a cost + or zero processing rate. We're going to give you ancillary benefits like gift cards or loyalty or any type of additional software or hardware that we want to tether to that opportunity.
And we're going to say it's for one flat fixed monthly payment. Maybe it's $100 a month. Maybe it's $300 a month. But typically speaking, most of them fall between $100 to $400 a month for a small to medium sized business owner. And what it does for the business owner is they get a bundle deal. With full value, it eliminates their payment processing because we're going to pass that fee on, inject it with the software to pass that fee on to the consumer in an automated fashion. It's going to give them all the technology they need. All the hardware would be included, and they get complete transparency on the pricing. They're not having to pick up their merchant statement and then try to read through the haziness that these processing companies employ.
