Retailers hold the dual distinction of being the most diverse industry segment to accept card payments as well as being the most organized and vocal in their opposition to excessive card fees. Paymentality provides specialized expertise to retail merchants and industry associations, enabling them to save millions of dollars in card fees while advancing retailers’ legal and regulatory agenda.
We bring a wealth of experience in both everyday and luxury/lifestyle retail. Examples include:
Everyday Retail
Luxury/Lifestyle Retail
The next two years is an especially critical period for retailers with big changes to card acceptance policies coming into effect (mandated by the payment networks) and major anti-trust lawsuits brought by the U.S. Government and retailers slated for final resolution.
Merchants will be required to upgrade their POS systems to accept EMV transactions by October 2015 or be subject to a “fraud liability shift” in which merchants will absorb the card fraud that was previously paid by card issuers. Another mandated change is merchant compliance with the new PCI Security Standards that protect consumers’ credit card data. These changes can have major cost and operations/compliance implications for merchants.
The retail industry is also awaiting the outcome of two major anti-trust lawsuits impacting card payments. In one case, retailers sued Visa/MasterCard for illegal price-fixing of credit card fees and the networks agreed to pay a $7.25 billion settlement to merchants. At first glance, this appears to be a major legal victory, but many retailers now oppose the settlement (including the National Retail Federation) fearing that it will make it impossible for merchants to lower card fees in the future. The other case involves the U.S. Government suing Visa, MasterCard and American Express for rules that prevent merchants from steering consumers towards lower cost payment methods. While Visa and MasterCard reluctantly settled the case and will allow surcharging, American Express is still fighting the case as it has profoundly negative implications for their business model.
With so much at stake in coming years, Paymentality is uniquely positioned to help individual retailers lower their swipe fees today, while supporting the industry’s collective action to positively influence legal/regulatory outcomes in the future. Furthermore, Paymentality’s partnership approach helps retailers leverage the extensive marketing and loyalty assets of key card players to drive incremental sales and revenue. For retail merchants, it’s the best of both possible worlds.