Merchant Acceptance Strategy & Development

Merchants provide the cornerstone for payment utility, and they are increasingly challenged to provide solutions that meet the needs of their customers. In some cases, consumers’ desire to use a payment device or product creates inefficiency and incremental cost for the retailer.

Our understanding of payments, consumer attitudes, and the model employed by various merchants to conduct profitable business allows us to:

• Analyze a merchant's full cost of payments acceptance and provide recommendations to improve upon the cost/benefit of accepting certain payment types.
• Evaluate new platforms and technologies that enable merchants to conduct business more efficiently, profitably and to create more customer friendly solutions.
• Develop new partnership arrangements that create greater loyalty between the consumer and merchant. (e.g. cobrand programs, merchant coalition alignment, reward solutions for key customers).

We have advised many leading financial services organizations:

- Payment strategy development with 8 of the top 10 U.S. banks

- Retail banking strategy (pricing, distribution, and account retention)

- Strategy, research, and pricing analysis with some of the largest EFT networks and card associations

- Market research and strategy for the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve Bank

- Market analysis and strategy development with leading payment processors

- Product development
with ATM manufacturers and payment providers

- Market research studies spanning consumers, merchants, and financial institutions

- Expert testimony in litigation