November 04, 2009
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Small Business CC Spending Report, Pt.1
The true extent of the truth.It has been said during the past few years that small businesses have suffered at the hands of a changing debit and credit card payment market. There have also been massive complaints regarding the high transaction fees small businesses have been forced to endure. Incorporating debit and credit card sales in reports that include big box and mass retailers tend to screw the numbers. Therefore, to what extent these things have affected small business sales until today has been difficult to say. Capital Access Network, Inc.'s (CAN) Data Services Division recently introduced the Capital Access Network Small Business Credit Sales Report (SBCS Report), which removes big box stores and mass retailers from the mix in determining quarterly debit and credit card sales trends in the small and mid-sized business market.
The SBCS Report is scheduled to be published quarterly and is derived from the CAN's Data Services Division's data statistics. The data has been accumulated over the past decade by CAN subsidiaries, which include leases, loans, and cash advances figures provided to small and mid-sized merchants, and through the collection of daily debit and credit card volumes of merchants nationwide. The report includes analysis of years of card sales trends of more than 50,000 businesses stored in the CAN Data Services Division's data system. The parameters set by CAD in determining which businesses to include in the report were: the company must be a U.S. based business; average $785,000 in annual gross sales; average an annual $23,700 in debit or credit card processing volume; and, represent approximately 385 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.
Capital Access formed the Data Services Division to offer services in analysis, scoring, and other risk management tools to lenders and capital providers of small and mid-sized businesses. By providing this information, these companies are able to improve marketing strategies and are better able to reduce credit card default risks by accessing the business's stability and capabilities of paying back debt. The report is targeted to organizations, analysts and media who are interest in tracking small business card sales. The report includes industry information, population size and geographically-specific data, and information pertaining to the payment processing industry.