The holiday shopping season officially kicks off this weekend with Black Friday. Consumers around the country will be lined up at their favorite big-box retailers to get the best door buster deals. On the following Monday — in many cases, at the stroke of midnight — shoppers will go to their computers to find the best online deals for Cyber Monday. Sandwiched in between arguably the two biggest shopping days of the year is Small Business Saturday, which encourages holiday shoppers to buy from small, local merchants.

This blog recently touched upon the importance of the day. Not only are small businesses vital to the communities which they serve, those who buy from small businesses are often doing so from friends, family and neighbors, rather than large corporations, which inspires a sense of humanity that's so important during the holiday season. As such, it's incredibly important for small business owners to take advantage of the day, and that means having the right tools to accept various payment types and process transactions with the speed, efficiency and security that customers come to expect from any merchant, regardless of its size.

Vantage is a proud sponsor of Small Business Saturday and we want to make sure all small business owners are equipped to take advantage of the opportunities the day presents. However, we understand that many small business owners may not have the resources to implement a fully functional credit card processing system. That's why a tablet POS solution is ideal for many small businesses.

Consumers are increasingly using cards to make payments, whether they are shopping at a large chain or small business, and if you implement a tablet POS system you can process these types of transactions without having to invest in expensive, complex equipment. A tablet like an iPad can work with most tablet POS solutions, which simply attach to the device and allow the screen to work as a POS interface. As a small business owner, you can feel as if you are on the cutting edge of the payment processing sector, even if your technology budget is limited.

American Express encourages local merchants to accept its cards on Small Business Saturday, which won't be possible without the right tools. A tablet POS system integrated with Vantage's solutions allows small business owners to accept these cards easily while maintaining customer security and keeping processing costs to a minimum.