With an unrivalled network of around 11,700 branches, the Post Office serves almost half of the UK’s small businesses every week, but many of these four million small businesses could be missing out on an extra 20% of revenue because they are not offering the ability to pay by debit or credit card.

In partnership with WorldPay, a leading global provider of payment processing, the Post Office Card Payments service will offer small businesses a range of ways to take secure card payments made in-store, online, via mail or telephone order, or on the move – just by visiting their local Post Office.

New WorldPay research has revealed that 87% of customers are likely to spend more money per transaction when paying with a debit or credit card, as opposed to cash. And in the last year, one in five (20%) UK consumers has had to abandon a purchase due to a small business or sole trader not accepting cards or because they weren’t carrying enough cash to pay*. Now small business owners will be able to easily sign up to take cards so they never miss a sale again.

Making card payments more widely available than ever before, the new service offers card machines for in-store payments or those made via mail or telephone order, and online payment pages for websites. There is also a Pay As You Go option for sole traders and mobile businesses, like hairdressers or beauty therapists, who can sign up to take secure Chip and PIN card payments, anywhere, anytime, with WorldPay Zinc.

The decline of traditional payment options like cheques and cash means small businesses are increasingly expected to take all major card types and accept international currencies when trading online.

Alan Smith, Head of Payments at the Post Office said: “The Post Office welcomes over 40 per cent of small businesses through our doors each week and we’re confident this new service will make doing business easier for them, which is a big priority for Post Office. More and more shoppers are paying by card and these new services mean that we can help more small businesses offer this flexibility to their customers.”

Dave Hobday, Managing Director of Streamline at WorldPay confirmed, “Of the c.3m small and medium sized businesses in the UK who could take card payments, today only 1m do – which means over 2m are missing out on access to the most reliable payment solutions available to grow their business**. By calling and speaking to a UK-based Post Office agent or signing up online, these businesses can now start taking cards any which way they need to, more quickly and easily than ever before.”