It used to be that if you paid with cash instead of credit, you could pocket a little off the purchase price. With the advent of the debit card and the merchant services account, fees are stacked against the merchant. There is little opportunity to share those expenses with the consumer except through higher prices.
With the implementation of technology, the web-based shopping cart and the POS scanner, why hasn't it become easier for consumers to share in a portion of the discount fee? Are merchants scared of tiered pricing? Is it too difficult to implement? Would this violate the merchant services contract? My suspicions is that violating the merchant services contract is the reason. If true this is flat out wrong.
As a consumer, I would welcome the opportunity to share in the discount fee if the benefit appeared stacked in my favor. For example, if the merchant fee was 2 1/2% and they offered me a 3-5% price reduction for handling the payment fee this may actually be good deal for both parties.
Why would the merchant offer 3-5% savings when it costs only 2 1/2%? When you consider the costs of the POS equipment, maintaining a shopping cart, chargebacks and processing costs, it may be a better deal for the merchant than it first appears. In addition, there is PCI compliance which is a bigger burden today with hackers and card skimmers creating security breaches at nearly every turn.
I think time may be ripe to explore both a shopping cart and payment system that provides the consumer the opportunity to once again share in the cost of the payment processing. I would love to hear other thoughts on this subject.
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