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Education

Generally, it seems when anything special from the world of processing. I figured out that the best way to see pro-
investors put a lot of cessing in action was to go to the service department. I also realized in today's dealerships,
funds into something, you can walk in, have a coffee, a roll or candy, and grab a bottle of water ‒ and never speak
the product or service to a soul.
has already been proven
to work, and typically, What innovation would excite car dealerships?
it has a large audience. In the 15 dealerships I visited, I didn't find one that had integrated processing with credit
With this in mind, I re- cards. They all seemed to still use VX 520s, FD130s, Ingenico and PAX terminals. I did find
searched some verticals one dealer that struggled with a virtual terminal, because the card reader didn't work. I
and narrowed my search didn't see any wireless terminals, the use of which would have made sense as a courtesy to
to two industries: food customers and to speed up the payment process.
and auto.
What about food and Most of the locations had one or two terminals at a cashier, which meant a lot of walking
auto industries? for customers. Four of the terminals didn't accept chip-based cards; the signage said "Please
swipe." Given that some of these dealerships probably process $3 million to $6 million a
In the food industry, year in credit and debit card volume, maybe there is something here to improve.
getting into a brick-and-
mortar business requires But what type of revolutionary product could an auto dealership use? What type of
a large amount of capi- applications would be so exciting that one could get the attention of the owners of these
tal for a good size busi- businesses? I thought of wireless terminals in the shape of a car, but then each dealer might
ness. But as we all know, want their own car shape, and would this really help this business segment? I was left
restaurant failure rates wondering what radical change could be made to insure walk-in success in this vertical.
are very high. Getting Unfortunately, I am neither a designer nor a developer, so I will leave that thought in your
into the auto industry minds.
requires probably even
more capital, and car Steven Feldshuh, President of Merchants' Choice Payment Solutions East, has 18 years' experience in sales and
manufacturers seem to ISO development. Directly prior to joining MCPSE in 2012, he was President of Payment Partners. In his current
limit the number of lo- position, Steven devotes the bulk of his time to assisting agents in building their portfolios. Contact him by email
cations selling their cars at stevenf@mcpseast.com or by phone at 212-392-9202.
based on population size.
If you think of Manhat-
tan, with a population
that is growing, there are
only one Mercedes, one
Audi, one Volkswagen,
one General Motors, one
Ford and one Volvo deal-
ership on the island.

For this article, I decided
to research the auto in-
dustry, and what better
way to do research than
to pretend I am look-
ing for a new car. Up in
Westchester, N.Y., where
I live, I spent two Satur-
days (to the chagrin of
my wife) going to a total
of 15 car dealerships. At
each one, I nosed around
and tried to figure out
how the location was
processing, and if it had

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