This question is commonly asked on new merchant applications. Your business type should fit into one of the following categories: Retail, Restaurant, Hotel, Mail Order/Telephone Order or internet. A description of each follows:
Retail – This applies to you if you are in a face-to-face environment and sell tangible goods, where cards are swiped or inserted into a terminal or other card reader device.
Restaurant – A restaurant is defined as a business that serves food, is in a face-to-face environment, and uses terminals to swipe or otherwise accept credit cards. The key difference between restaurants and retail is that the product is consumable (hence a lower risk of chargebacks) and tips are usually entered as part of the transaction.
Hotel – This refers to merchants in a face-to-face environment that sell lodging and hospitality services. These merchants typically utilize conventional terminals where cards are swiped or inserted.
Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO) – This refers to any business that is not face-to-face with the customer, thus the transactions are keyed into a terminal. The term mail order/telephone order comes from the fact that the credit card number is received either over the phone or through the mail, but it encompasses all transactions that are keyed no matter how they are received.
Internet – This refers to a business where the credit card information is collected over the internet via a web page.
