Why shoppers like paying with Venmo and Cash App
Younger shoppers often carry no cash and sometimes no wallet. Venmo and Cash App are already on their phone, they don’t have to hand over a card, and the payment is instant.
For vendors, there is no hardware and nothing to set up beyond printing your QR code. That’s why so many market tables have one.
Personal vs. business profiles
Venmo and Cash App both say that payments for goods and services should go to a business profile, not a personal account. Personal accounts are meant for paying friends back. Using one for regular sales can get the account limited.
A Venmo business profile sits alongside your personal one, with its own QR code and name. Cash App has a business account type too. Both are free to open.
What it costs
Business profiles charge the seller a fee on each payment received. At the time of writing, Venmo’s business fee is 1.9% plus 10 cents, and Cash App for Business charges 2.75%. Check both companies’ current rates before you rely on these.
That is a little less than most card processing, and much less than losing the sale. A personal account has no fee, but you trade that for the risk of the account being limited mid-season.
The bookkeeping problem
A Venmo payment tells you “$18 from Alex.” It doesn’t say whether that was a jar of honey and a candle or two loaves of bread. At a busy stand you won’t remember, and at the end of the day you can’t tell what sold.
Stock suffers too. If you sell out of something, nobody knows until a shopper asks. And when a shopper says “I sent it,” you’re scrolling through the app while the line waits.
How to keep track of Venmo sales
The simple fix is a notebook: write every Venmo sale with the item and the name. It works on a slow day and falls apart on a busy one.
The better fix is a checkout that records the order before the payment. The shopper picks items on their phone, then pays with Venmo or Cash App from there, and you get the order with its items and a short code. SnapCart works this way: shoppers scan your QR, tap photos, and pay with Apple Pay, a card, Venmo, PayPal, Cash App or cash, and every order lands in one list on your phone.
Making a good Venmo or Cash App sign
Print the QR at least 4 inches square, on card stock or in a plastic sleeve so rain doesn’t ruin it. Add your exact business name as it shows in the app, so shoppers know they found the right one.
Write “Venmo and Cash App welcome” in big letters above the code. People decide how to pay before they reach the table, and a clear sign brings them over.
Taxes and 1099-K forms
Payment apps report business payments to the IRS on Form 1099-K once you pass the reporting threshold, which has changed several times in recent years. Whether or not you get one, market income is taxable, so keep your own records.
A checkout that saves each order with its items and payment method makes this easy: you can export a year of sales instead of piecing it together from app history.