Payment Processing: A CBD Merchants' Guide

Are you an established CBD merchant or thinking of becoming one? The CBD industry is challenging at the best of times. Regulations change continuously. What's legal and accepted today might not be tomorrow. This causes endless inconvenience for CBD merchants. It's particularly difficult to navigate if your business stretches across regional or national borders.

Fortunately, Cathedral Payments specializes in high-risk businesses, including CBD. Selling CBD is a relatively new venture. However, the industry is expected to sky rocketing growth. Cathedral Payments will be here for you when it does.

The CBD Industry

It's an intricate business whether you sell CBD online or in person. However, the potential rewards are well worth the effort. As regulations have relaxed over the years, demand has only grown. The CBD market could reach $20 billion by 2024. CBD isn’t going anywhere.

However, many merchants still struggle to obtain standard financial services from banks despite their legality. Merchants find their perfectly legal accounts closed.

As CBD is legally restrictive, banks class you in the high-risk category. This often results in higher chargebacks and fees for CBD merchants. As time goes by, acceptance should ensure improved security, boosting the industry.

Cathedral Payments can safely and securely support your needs. The right payment processing partner can help you scale with the growing industry. Your account provider can also offer alternatives, such as crypto transactions.

Is CBD Worth It?

If your business is centered around CBD, then, it is necessary to navigate the restrictive laws and inhibitive finance providers. As mentioned, the CBD market is expected to grow exponentially. While it might be a challenging and unforgiving venture now, the increasing levels of demand are guaranteed to make it worthwhile in the next few years.

The global CBD market is expected to grow between20% to 30% year over year. Therefore, CBD merchants currently struggling with grey areas in the laws will have some of the most profitable businesses within the next decade.

Is CBD Difficult to Board?

Like any new industry, CBD is vulnerable to fraud and chargebacks. At Cathedral Payments, we specialize in high-risk business payment processing. We offer dedicated support to help you protect your account and end customers. Tell us the nature of your CBD business, and we'll be able to set you up and running within days.

Is CBD Legal?

Yes, CBD is legal. However, the answer is not quite as simple as this. For instance, CBD is legal throughout Canada but only through licensed processors. At the same time, CBD is permitted in the US as long as it has a lower THC content than 0.3%.

However, CBD is illegal on a federal level. Yet, medical marijuana is accepted in most states. Therefore, this makes online CBD payment confusing and difficult, even if you're following the regulations to the dot.

The industry gets more complicated on a global scale. Many countries don’t allow any form of CBD.

It's your responsibility to ensure that you're following the rules. You don't want to risk your processing bank account getting shut down because of non-compliance.

What About Hemp?

Hemp and marijuana are classifications of the cannabis plant(although, scientifically speaking, neither word has anything to do with cannabis). The difference between hemp and marijuana is the THC content. Hemp is generally a lot lower, which is why the federal law allows it.

However, that doesn't mean that hemp-sourced CBD is free from complications. There are still restrictions to follow and payment processing challenges to face. Even hemp-clothing merchants can struggle with local regulations sometimes.

Online and In-Store Payment Processing for CBD

Whether you sell CBD online or from a physical location, your payment processing needs to cope. If you're selling from both, you'll need a service that can accommodate both in a secure and reliable way.

Cathedral Payments can offer safe eCommerce and check out solutions that ensure the success and profitability of your business. As online shopping becomes the norm, we want to reassure our CBD merchants that their payments are securely processed. The quick, convenient payment processing ensures you never lose a customer to a negative experience.

Additionally, we offer cryptocurrency transactions. Crypto is a more secure and private way to conduct business—necessary in a high-risk industry. Consider incorporating crypto payments if you want to appeal to the younger, tech-savvy consumers or consumers that want to be more discreet about purchasing CBD.

What can Cathedral Payments Do?

Banks don't always understand the intricacies of your business. When it comes to CBD payment processing, mainstream banks will either offer you payment products without the necessary support for the high-risk industry. Cathedral Payments offers dedicated account support from the get-go.