The credit card market is highly competitive and constantly evolving. Lately, that means new cards that give consumers more choice. As this trend continues into 2022, credit card shoppers will need to know what to look for. What does a good credit card look like these days?

Annual fees, sign-up bonuses, rewards rates and 0% interest offers have long been bedrock standards for evaluating and comparing cards. And they still are.

But recently some issuers have begun offering niche cards with rewards specially tailored to people who are into cryptocurrency, wine or video games. Others are letting cardholders choose which categories pay the richest rewards.

Here are four newer, broader or more useful features to keep an eye on when shopping for a credit card in 2022.

Credit cards have for a long time provided multiple ways to redeem rewards — cash back, statement credits, merchandise, gift cards, and point transfers to airlines or hotels.

But card issuers have traditionally dictated how you earn rewards in the first place. Your card would earn 3 points per dollar at gas stations, for example. If you don’t spend much on gas, the card doesn’t do much for you.

That’s changing as more cards allow you to customize rewards to your spending. With these cards, you can control which categories earn the richest rewards. For example, if dining out is your thing, you would choose restaurants as your bonus category.

Overall, customized rewards are a win for consumers, especially if the card automatically adjusts the bonus category to match your spending. But some have a notable downside: You have to actively and regularly choose your bonus categories, which means trying to anticipate where you’ll spend the most money. That’s more effort than some consumers are willing to exert.

Additionally, because bonus rewards can be so lucrative, many are capped. For example, you might earn 5% cash back in a high-spending category, but that rate might apply to only $500 per month in spending before dropping down to 1%.

More retailers have been offering customers the ability to pay for purchases in a series of fixed payments, sometimes without interest. These installment plans, managed by third-party services like Affirm, Afterpay and Klarna, provide an alternative to using credit cards.

The idea of paying over time without paying interest, like layaway, isn’t new, even for credit cards. If you pay off your credit card in full every month, credit cards have long allowed you to “buy now, pay later,” because you have a built-in grace period of several weeks before having to pay your credit card bill.

Now, credit cards are aggressively promoting programs like those offered at retailers, although most charge some interest. Programs come with names such as My Chase Plan, Citi Flex Pay and American Express Plan It.

It’s nice to have a big credit line on a card. But historically, a credit card wasn’t a good option for getting quick cash because the only way to do so was through an expensive cash advance.

Now, credit card issuers are offering more innovative and affordable ways to tap your card’s credit line for a low-hassle short-term installment loan. Examples are My Chase Loan and Citi Flex Loan, available on a variety of cards from those issuers.

Typically, you’ll have a set amount of time to repay the money in fixed monthly payments, similar to an auto loan. Interest is built into those payments, potentially at a lower rate than your credit card’s usual interest rate.

Unlike a traditional personal loan, you don’t have to qualify because you’ve already been approved for the credit line. That means there’s no formal loan application, no additional account to manage and no hard credit inquiry.

As the pandemic took hold in 2020, balance transfer offers became really hard to find. Now, they’re back. Card issuers are widely offering interest-free periods for transferring debt to your credit card from elsewhere — usually from a card with higher interest.

A good balance transfer offer essentially says, “Move your debt from another card, and we won’t charge you interest for a year or more.” Ideally, the money you save on interest can go toward paying down that debt more quickly. The average APR on credit card accounts that were charged interest topped 17% in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve, so a long 0% period could translate to hundreds or even thousands of dollars saved in interest.

Retailers need to sell as much as possible. That means knowing how much inventory to carry, but without having to cut prices or offload surplus stock. But the retail business fluctuates by nature and demand changes from day to day and week to week. So, is there a good way to figure out how much inventory to carry?

It’s complicated. In retail, it’s generally considered better to sell out than have leftover stock — no business owner wants to see old inventory piling up and cutting into storage space for new stock. On the other hand, you want your inventory to match consumer demand so that you make as much revenue as possible, without having to mark down prices.

Key considerations for carrying inventory

As any retailer knows, the cost of inventory involves much more than just the price per unit. Purchasing, transporting and holding inventory all have separate (and variable) costs.

These are the critical aspects of product inventory to keep in mind when forecasting how much stock to carry:

This seems simple, but the cost of the products you sell will be the biggest factor in determining how much inventory you’re able to purchase at a time.

Holding inventory is a major expense for many retailers, especially for inventory that requires climate control or special storage conditions.

The cost of storage space also factors into how much inventory you’re able to carry. Depending on the availability, cost and convenience of storage in your area, you might need to strategize against your products’ shelf life. For instance, the inventory at the farmer’s market has a different turnover rate than an appliance store.

Knowing how much it costs you to pay for storage space and how long your products can be stored will help you make orders as far in advance as possible.

Next, think about how many products you can realistically sell and decide whether to order your products in bulk or by batch.

Smaller orders might incur an upcharge from suppliers. But if you aren’t confident you’ll sell enough units of a product to justify a bulk order, it’s usually worth it to only buy what you know you can sell, rather than being stuck with excess. And depending on your products, you might save on orders by reducing the number of variations or sizes you offer. That’ll also make taking inventory easier, since there will be fewer stock-keeping units or SKUs, to keep track of.

Boutique and specialty retailers might specifically focus on small-batch products, which makes bulk ordering difficult or impossible to do. If this is the case, you might be able to save on ordering by forming relationships with your suppliers, even if you can’t pre-order or bulk order a specific product.

Five rules for determining how much inventory to carry

Taking inventory shouldn’t just be an annual, quarterly or even monthly activity. Get in the habit of regularly checking on inventory and making adjustments to forecasts throughout the month. And if you use the same unit of measurement every time, you’ll be able to calculate estimates with greater accuracy and consistency.

With reliable cost estimates, you can reap the benefits of increasing or reducing orders on products appropriately and optimize your entire inventory management process.

Taking inventory every day might seem like an unnecessary annoyance. But there are a few good reasons for working inventory into your daily routine.

For starters, product discrepancies and shrinkage can slip through the cracks if you’re only doing inventory on an infrequent or irregular basis. Taking stock of products every day — or week, if that’s more doable for you — helps you identify recurring trends. That might make it easier to predict how you should order.

A product that consistently sells out is probably already on your radar. But paying close attention to subtle patterns can help you identify where you can adjust product orders or expand selection. Inventory management systems (IMS) can be useful for tracking and reporting on sales and automating things like stock monitoring and order fulfillment. A software solution makes sense if you sell on multiple online platforms, because you can manage each channel through one consolidated inventory.

Until your business is simply too large to run without automation, good records and regular inventory checks will keep you informed about your inventory and ahead of demand.

Nerdy tip: Units matter. The units you use to count inventory and estimate cost might be different than the manufacturer’s and customer’s methods. For example, you may purchase your stock by weight, count inventory by product (or “eachs”) and sell by the crate. Even if using multiple measures makes sense for your business model, try to find a standard you can use for financial calculations and recording inventory. It’ll make your calculations much more accurate.

Different types of products have different rules of supply and demand. Fashion, for example, is a tough business for getting rid of old inventory — and even with the same product, different sizes and colors might sell out completely or not at all.

Changing trends in your industry or fluctuating commodities prices might prevent you from planning inventory orders more than a few months in advance. In that case, pay attention to the sales volume of different types of products, even if you aren’t re-ordering the exact same items.

If you’re considering ordering new or additional inventory, consider whether the potential rewards (aka profit) outweigh the risk (of investing in items you won’t end up selling).

That’s the attitude Jean Grant, the purchasing manager for U.K.-based online retailer Find Me a Gift, takes when she’s restocking her business’s inventory, which includes of thousands of products.

Decide first: Risk or reward? Which is most important to your business: limiting your risk in terms of stock investment or capitalizing on the potential rewards of purchasing stock in larger quantities? Is secured, lower-priced stock-holding most important to your business or is it minimizing the investment and maximizing your flexibility to adapt to changing demands?

Investing in more inventory might mean bigger profits but only if you can actually sell those products. To make an informed decision about additional quantities or new products, it’s important to determine how much you can afford to spend.

Finding a new way to finance your inventory might mean finding a new inventory source altogether.

For example, innovating inventory with 3-D printing is one way entrepreneurs avoid traditional supply chains. Handmade, recycled and vintage products are all alternative sources to a wholesale merchandiser and might even make your products more interesting to consumers.

Yes, you can calculate how much inventory to carry — you just need to use the right formula.

By using a formula to calculate inventory turnover, you’ll get consistent estimates for how much you need to purchase and how often. Feel free to use different calculations to get an idea how different variables could influence your costs. Just keep in mind that calculations only reflect the factors that you input, not a complete picture of your inventory costs.

Start by experimenting with the three following inventory calculations:

• Inventory turnover ratio: One of the most common ways to calculate inventory turnover ratio is to look at sales (or you can use the cost of goods sold) divided by average inventory.

Simply put, this shows how quickly you sell out of your stock. But this calculation can also indicate sales strength, alert you to excess inventory if the ratio is low or if you’re under-ordering if you have a high turnover ratio.

You can compare this number to national averages to get a general idea of inventory turnover for your industry. Consistent turnover of full-price inventory indicates that it might be time to expand your offerings.

• Inventory value (retail method): You can use the retail method of calculating inventory to know how much your inventory is worth. This calculation converts the retail value of your inventory to a cost value. This approach doesn’t require you to take physical inventory and can be useful for financial projections and accounting.

• Days sales of inventory: The number of days it takes your inventory to sell — measured as DSI —shows how long it takes a business to turn its inventory (like inventory turnover ratio). This calculation is particularly relevant in the context of your industry because turnover varies for different products. For example, ice cream has a lower days inventory than freezers.

To get this value, simply divide Inventory by Cost of Sales, multiplied by 365 (days). For more help calculating your DSI and cash conversion cycle, you can check out an online calculator.

Crucial inventory calculations from an industry expert

Any of those three calculations will give you an idea of how much inventory you can stand to carry and at what cost. But you can also take a look at these approaches suggested by Matt Warren, the CEO of Veeqo, an inventory management system. Warren offers these two calculations as the best ways to make sure you never have too much or too little inventory.

Seasonal changes in sales volume are typical of the retail industry and you might stand to make a sizable profit if you’re prepared with safety stock (or, simply, additional inventory for popular products).

Safety stock is worth considering if you sell products that have event-based increases in demand, like team merchandise and emergency weather necessities. If you’re looking for a place to start, try searching sales records for unexpected increases during certain times of year or specific products.

Here’s Warren’s suggested calculation:

• Take an average of your top three days’ sales volume over the previous month/quarter/year.

• Subtract the average daily sales volume for the same period.

Safety stock = (Sales volume of top 3 days/3) – Average daily sales volume

If you know which products you reorder each month or quarter, establish a “reorder point” when inventory is running low. That way, you’ll avoid long periods with low or no stock for top-selling items. It’s also a good idea to track how long it takes your suppliers to fulfill purchase orders so that you know how far in advance to place new orders.

• Take the average number of days (lead time) between ordering items and having these items ready for sale.

• Multiply this by your average daily sales volume over the past month/quarter/year.

• Then add your safety stock number.

Reorder point = (Lead time x Average daily sales volume) + Safety stock

This calculation shows you the exact point to place a new order to continue fulfilling orders, without going into safety stock.

Margaret Spencer, a former Fundera contributor, wrote this article.

QuickBooks GoPayment is a mobile point-of-sale app that helps small-business owners process payments on the go. The app uses QuickBooks Payments to process transactions, and clients can pair it with the QuickBooks Card Reader to accept dipped, swiped and digital wallet payments. QuickBooks Payments is only available to businesses that use QuickBooks for accounting.

For mobile businesses that already rely on QuickBooks for their accounting needs, the GoPayment app, combined with QuickBooks Payments, is a convenient way to accept payments without having to find a third-party processor. Available for both Android and iOS devices, the app itself is free, though you’ll need to pay payment processing fees.

Before you download the app, make sure to sign up for QuickBooks Payments and connect it with your QuickBooks Payments account. If you already have a card reader, you’re ready to download QuickBooks GoPayment and link them together using Bluetooth. From there, your mobile device will turn into a basic point-of-sale system, equipped with the following capabilities:

• Mobile payment processing.

• Syncs transactions with QuickBooks Online account.

• Card camera scanning.

• Taxable transactions.

• Set up a tipping option with QuickBooks Card Reader.

• Basic inventory item library.

• Send receipts through SMS and email.

QuickBooks GoPayment is free to download, but you’ll need QuickBooks Payments to actually process transactions. The service has a flat-rate pricing structure that varies depending on whether you use QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online for accounting.

• No monthly fee.

• 2.4% plus 25 cents per swiped, dipped, tapped and contactless transaction.

• 3.4% plus 25 cents per keyed-in transaction.

• 2.9% plus 25 cents per invoice transaction.

Pay as you go plan

• No monthly fee.

• 2.4% plus 30 cents per swiped transaction.

• 3.5% plus 30 cents per keyed-in transaction.

• 3.5% plus 30 cents per invoiced transaction.

Pay monthly plan

• $20 per month.

• 1.6% plus 30 cents per swiped transaction.

• 3.3% plus 30 cents per keyed-in transaction.

• 3.3% plus 30 cents per invoiced transaction.

Having your accounting software, POS system and payment processing services under one roof is a time-saver. For one, you don’t have to reach out to multiple companies when something goes wrong and you need support. Secondly, transactions accepted by the QuickBooks Card Reader, which can be paired with the GoPayment app, are automatically reconciled in QuickBooks’ accounting software. In addition, there’s a good chance that existing QuickBooks accounting customers already use the company’s payment processing service to accept electronic payments from emails or invoices.

Oftentimes, non-accounting QuickBooks products only integrate with other Intuit and QuickBooks products, or they require a business to use its accounting software. Someone using Xero accounting, for example, couldn’t use the GoPayment app or QuickBooks Payments for credit card processing. Overall, the product isn’t a good fit for people who like to combine services from multiple providers.

Payment processing fees:

• 2.29% plus 9 cents per card-present transaction.

• 3.49% plus 9 cents per keyed-in transaction.

The PayPal Zettle POS app is free, like QuickBooks GoPayment, but its card-present processing rate is less expensive. There are no long-term contracts or monthly fees, and the first card reader is $29. If you need additional card readers, they’re $79 each. The system also integrates with QuickBooks Online.

Payment processing fees:

• 2.6% plus 10 cents per tapped, dipped and swiped transaction.

• 3.5% plus 15 cents per card-not-present transaction.

Square’s POS app is also free, and you’ll receive a free card reader when you sign up. The company’s processing rates take a larger percentage of each transaction than QuickBooks Payments does, but the software includes other freebies, like inventory management capabilities and an e-commerce site, that might make up for it.