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Tower Payments, a high-risk merchant payment processor, launched a service for e-commerce sites selling nicotine pouches that restores credit card processing in the wake of a sudden account closure by the merchant’s existing processor.
The service uses underwriting teams experienced with merchants selling synthetic and tobacco-derived nicotine products to guide them through registration with the Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. networks, as well as additional network verification for regulated products.
Nicotine pouches contain nicotine powder, sweeteners, and flavorings. Consumers use the product orally, placing the pouch between their lips and gums. Although nicotine pouches are a smokeless product, they still carry health risks, which makes them high-risk products in the eyes of many processors, Tower Payments says. As a result, many processors will block a nicotine seller’s account under acceptable use rules, interrupting the seller’s cash flow and leaving them with frozen deposits.
Tower Payments gateway supports native and third-party connections for Web sites built on platforms from Shopify Inc., WooCommerce, ClickFunnels.com, and BigCommerce Inc. Tower Payments also supports other e-commerce platforms, such as Webflow and Wix.com Inc., through third-party connectors that link incompatible software systems. Each integration option is reviewed during prescreening so nicotine Web sites get credit card processing compatible with their e-commerce platform and workflow, Tower Payments says.
The service includes fraud prevention tools, optional recurring billing, card-on-file storage for subscriptions, and is PCI DSS compliance. Tower Payments’s pricing plans also charge no integration fees.
In addition, Tower Payments prescreens applicants before submitting underwriting paperwork and clearly explains required documents, such as business licenses and transaction histories, to reduce friction during merchant onboarding.
“We kept hearing the same story: good merchants shut down overnight and left scrambling,” Nyah Penney, founder of Tower Payments, says in a statement. Its approach is practical and designed to match merchants with the appropriate nicotine-friendly processor, Penney says.
