Payment costs for retail and specialty stores.
Retailers manage thousands of items and price points. A pricing program needs to be simple at the register and clear to customers when they decide how to pay.
Typical card mix
High
A general description.
Basket size
Wide range
Mixed basket sizes change the cost of each sale.
Cost driver
Transaction count
Flat fees matter most on small baskets.
Where retail lose margin.
These are the patterns we see most often when we review statements in this category.
Pricing gets complex fast
Shelf tags, labels and POS records all need to match up.
Busy seasons cost more
Processing costs spike during peak periods, right when margin matters most.
Small purchases cost more per sale
Flat per-transaction fees eat up more of a low-value sale.
Returns and exchanges
Refunds need to work the same way as your program pricing.
Illustrative model
Example | specialty retailer
- Monthly card volume
- $85,000
- Average ticket
- $28
- Assumed rate today
- 2.95%
- Estimated monthly processing cost
- $2,507
These numbers are for modeling only.
What we usually deploy first.
We set things up in order, so the change with the biggest impact happens before hardware or analytics.
Pre-set for a typical retail profile.
Adjust the inputs to match your own volume, ticket size, and current rate.
Inputs
≈ 3,036 card transactions per month
Total monthly processing cost ÷ total monthly card volume.
Residual cost retained by the merchant under a program structure.
Illustrative output
Estimated annual savings
$25,500
≈ 85% reduction in modeled acceptance cost
- Monthly processing cost
- $2,508
- Annual processing cost
- $30,090
- Estimated program cost / mo
- $383
- Estimated monthly savings
- $2,125
These are estimates only. Your actual results depend on your processing volume, interchange, card mix, processor fees, pricing and program setup.
Retail questions.
Other industries
See the numbers for your retail.
Bring a recent statement and we will show you where your costs actually sit.
No obligation · Estimates are examples only