Choosing The Right Ecommerce Platform

Every time a card payment is processed, 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 main types of fees are involved. Here’s a simple breakdown of the Three Core Fees: 1️⃣ Interchange Fee This is paid by your acquiring bank (or payment processor) to the cardholder’s bank (the issuer). It’s set by the card networks (like Visa and Mastercard; sometimes regulated), and is designed to cover things like fraud, credit losses, and infrastructure costs. 2️⃣ Scheme Fee Charged by the card networks themselves, this fee covers the operation of the payment system (“rails” that process the transaction). 3️⃣ Acquirer Markup This is the fee your acquirer or payment service provider (PSP) charges you, the merchant. It includes their costs, risk management, and profit margin for processing and settling the payment. The total cost a merchant pays is called the Merchant Service Charge, which is the sum of these three components. The Main Pricing Models: ► Bundled Pricing All fees are grouped into one flat rate. This is very common with small businesses. It’s easy to understand but doesn’t provide insight into what you’re actually paying for. ► Interchange+ The interchange fee and the acquirer’s fee are shown separately, but the scheme fee is typically bundled with the markup. This model offers some transparency. ► Interchange++ Each fee—the interchange, scheme, and acquirer markup—is itemized separately. This is the most transparent model and is favored by larger or multi-country merchants who want to track costs precisely. Who Chooses the Pricing Model? Most acquirers and PSPs decide what pricing model you’re offered. Unless you negotiate or have significant transaction volume, you’re likely to get bundled pricing by default. Larger or more experienced merchants who understand payments often push for Interchange++ for its clarity and fairness. Smaller merchants often aren’t aware that alternatives exist or find it difficult to compare offers. How Interchange Fees Vary Globally: Some regions (like the EU, UK, China, and Brazil) cap interchange fees to lower costs for merchants and stimulate competition. The US regulates only part of the system—such as capping debit card fees for large banks (the Durbin Amendment)—while credit card interchange remains uncapped and usually higher. Other countries, like India and Brazil, regulate interchange as part of broader financial inclusion goals. In markets with stricter regulation, merchants often benefit from lower, more predictable fees, making it easier to accept cards. Where fees are higher and less regulated, issuers can offer consumers more rewards (like cashback), but those costs are passed back to merchants—and sometimes their customers. Every model shifts the balance of costs and benefits between banks, merchants, and consumers in different ways. More info below👇, and I highly recommend reading my complete deep dive article about Interchange Fee and what factors impact the rate: https://bit.ly/44T4VJA

If more of your store sales start on TikTok lately, you might wanna read this. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘦. The checkout happens in-store. But the sale happens everywhere else. Here's the reality: This year 60%+, and in 2027, 70% of retail sales will be digitally influenced. I can't emphasize this enough; here's what most brands miss—digital influence isn't just about online sales. It's about shaping every moment before the customer even walks into your store. L'Oréal cracked this code: 100M+ AR try-on sessions driving real conversions. 31 brands orchestrating seamless experiences across 72 countries. No.1 in beauty influencer marketing (29% market share), 20-80% higher conversion rates through enhanced digital experiences. The new customer journey isn't linear—it's layered: - They discover you on social - Research you through reviews and UGC - Try your product virtually through AR - Get retargeted with personalized content - Finally purchase in-store (feeling confident they're making the right choice) Every touchpoint matters, and every interaction influences the final decision. The brands winning today aren't just selling products—they're orchestrating experiences across owned, paid, and earned media that guide customers from curiosity to checkout. Digital discovery is increasingly pay-to-play and shoppers are paying attention. ++ Tactical Recommendations for CPG / FMCG Brands ++ 1. Beyond just having perfect, high SOV product pages, create discovery ecosystems. - Optimize for "zero-moment-of-truth" searches. - Activate shoppable content at scale. - Leverage user-generated content as social proof. Brands that do these see a 35% higher conversion rate from digital touchpoints to in-store purchases. 2. Connect digital engagement directly to retail execution. - Geo-target digital campaigns to drive foot traffic - Create "store-specific" digital content CPG brands using geo-targeted social ads see a 23% higher in-store sales lift in targeted markets. 3. Most important one; stop flying blind—measure digital influence on offline sales. - Implement unique promo codes for each digital touchpoint to track conversion paths. - Use customer surveys at point of purchase. - Partner with retailers on shared data insights Brands with proper attribution see 15-25% improvement in marketing ROI within 12 months. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 ecommert® 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝟭𝟰,𝟲𝟬𝟬+ 𝗖𝗣𝗚, 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘁® : 𝗖𝗣𝗚 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿. #CPG #FMCG #AI #ecommerce Procter & Gamble PepsiCo Unilever The Coca-Cola Company Nestlé Mondelēz International Kraft Heinz Ferrero Mars Colgate-Palmolive Henkel Bayer Haleon Kenvue The HEINEKEN Company Carlsberg Group Philips Samsung Electronics Panasonic North America

The fee you never see, but every merchant pays. Every time you tap a Visa, swipe a Mastercard, or spend with Revolut, the merchant doesn’t actually receive the full payment. A small percentage, sometimes less than 1%, sometimes over 3% is taken as the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR). It’s the cost of accepting card payments, and it powers the entire payments ecosystem. What makes MDR interesting is that it isn’t a single fee. It is a bundle: 🔹The interchange fee goes to the bank that issued your card (like Chase or HSBC). 🔹The scheme fee is collected by the network, Visa, or Mastercard, for running the rails. 🔹The acquirer markup is kept by the processor (Adyen, Stripe, Worldpay) that settles the transaction for the merchant. MDR may sound small, but scale changes everything. In Europe, regulators capped interchange at 0.2–0.3% to protect merchants. In India, Visa and Mastercard were pushed to cut MDR further to encourage digital adoption. In the US, where fees are higher, retailers have fought costly legal battles against the networks. For a café owner, MDR can decide whether a coffee is profitable. For Amazon, Netflix, or Uber, trimming even 0.1% can save millions each year. And when Revolut or Wise say “no foreign transaction fees,” they’re really absorbing or reshaping the MDR and FX costs to win market share. To put it in perspective: On a €100 card payment in Europe, the merchant might receive around €99.70. About €0.20 goes to the issuing bank, €0.05 to Visa or Mastercard, and €0.05 to the acquirer or processor. That missing 30 cents may look trivial. But multiplied across billions of transactions every day, it becomes the engine of modern payments. If regulators forced Visa and Mastercard to lower MDR globally, who do you think would win most? merchants, consumers, or fintechs? #Payments #Fintech #Banking #Visa #Mastercard #Revolut #Adyen #MerchantDiscountRate #RoanDollmann

You DON'T NEED AI FOR EVERYTHING! Here's how I have implemented a simple load-based, predictable EC2 scaling mechanism using the MQTT protocol for a client's application requirement : Assumptions / Stats required for this : You have tested the application on various load scenarios for extended periods of time (like a few months or at least 1 month) and have the data on how many active connections that particular EC2 type can handle efficiently and maintain good performance (CPU / Memory-based scanning is there, but not always the BEST parameter for scaling, as last moment scaling makes a bad performance impact and over provisioning costs more ) How does this flow work? 📲 Devices / Clients connected to EC2-hosted Applications In each EC2, there is a very light-weight agent/background application running and reporting to the central custom Load Balancer Service 📡 MQTT Broker Custom Load Balancer Service receives Load Data and Connection Data via MQTT. 🚦 Load Monitoring Service & 📊 Average Load & Connection Analysis Triggered by MQTT messages, Load Balancer Service analyzes average load and connections to make decisions. 📈 Add EC2 Instances If the load is high, more EC2 instances are added. 📉 Remove EC2 Instances If the load is low, unnecessary EC2 instances are removed. 🔮 Pre-warm EC2 Instances Predicts traffic spikes and prepares EC2 instances in advance. ⚙️ EC2 Auto Scaling Group Automatically scales instances based on the load analysis. Let me know if you want the source code in GoLang, and I will release an open-source version of it. Cheers, Sandip Das

September 15th wasn’t just another Monday. RBI dropped a new Master Direction for Payment Aggregators. One document. It replaced the old 2020–21 guidelines. And it changes the playbook for anyone handling merchant payments. If you’re a fintech, an e-commerce platform, or even a bank offering aggregation services... this affects you. The guardrails are sharper. The penalties are stricter. I know most founders don’t have the time to read through the long RBI circular. So I went through it for you. Today’s carousel breaks it all down: 1/ Who’s covered 2/ What’s required 3/ What you need to avoid Because compliance is about: • Keeping your license. • Avoiding fines • Building trust with your merchants and investors. Swipe through the carousel. Get the rules straight before RBI gets to you. --- ✍ Do you see compliance as a growth enabler or just a box-ticking exercise?

3 billion trees are cut down each year to produce paper packaging 🌎 Urban leaf waste is often treated as a nuisance, burned or discarded without value. Releaf Bag presents an example of how this overlooked material can be repurposed through innovation. By converting fallen leaves into functional paper, it reduces pressure on forest resources while aligning with circular economy principles. Its production process avoids the energy-intensive and polluting steps of traditional pulping. It uses less water, emits fewer emissions, and eliminates the need for harsh chemicals. This makes it a lower-impact alternative for companies looking to reduce the environmental cost of their packaging. The paper and packaging industry remains a significant contributor to deforestation and biodiversity loss. Around three billion trees are cut down each year to meet packaging demand, which has grown by over 65 percent in the past two decades. Even packaging companies not directly sourcing from forests contribute to biodiversity loss. Upstream impacts arise through the materials they choose, while downstream impacts stem from waste and consumption patterns. Addressing these issues requires systemic change, not isolated solutions. Releaf Bag is not a final answer but a signal of what is possible when waste is reimagined as a resource. One ton of its paper saves around 17 trees, avoids 2.5 tons of leaf litter, and uses up to 96 percent less water than conventional methods. It reduces emissions while delivering a usable, compostable product. The growth of e-commerce adds urgency. Online retail consumes up to seven times more packaging than physical stores, and demand could rise by another 20 percent in the next five years. Scaling sustainable alternatives is essential, but these must be part of broader efforts that include reducing consumption, improving infrastructure, and shifting material systems. Releaf’s products (bags, wraps, and protective paper) are a proof of concept. They show that performance and sustainability can go hand in hand, and that alternatives exist outside the extractive model. They also demonstrate how cities can become sources of material input rather than waste output. Releaf Bag is one of many innovations needed to address the environmental footprint of packaging. Real progress will depend on transforming supply chains, adopting reuse systems, and changing how materials are sourced and valued. It is a meaningful step, but not the destination. Solutions like Releaf Bag highlight the value of rethinking materials, but addressing the full environmental impact of packaging will also require systemic shifts in design, consumption, and reuse. #sustainability #sustainable #circulareconomy #esg #business

How good are prediction markets as truth machines? It’s one of the biggest debates in the space. While anecdotes are common, objective data is now available to provide a clearer answer. A deep dive by brier[.]fyi uses a statistical method called the Brier score (where a lower score is better) to rigorously measure the accuracy of platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi. The results are compelling, showing a high degree of accuracy and reliability. Across a sample of over 80,000 markets, the data shows that one month before closing, 63% of markets are already within 30% of the correct outcome. Even more impressively, the median Brier score at the midpoint of a market's life is just 0.0255 across a massive sample of over half a million markets, indicating that these platforms find a reasonably accurate price very early on. Macro stats can hide the details, so let's look at one of the most significant markets ever: Will a Republican win the 2024 US Presidential Election? This single question saw over $1.7 billion in volume across platforms. On this question, platforms proved their worth. Brier[.]fyi’s relative scoring, which rewards being correct early, gave both Polymarket and Kalshi an 'A' grade for their performance. The data also reveals that platforms are developing different areas of expertise. While no single platform is the best at everything, their relative performance varies significantly by category: - Sports & Technology: Kalshi and Polymarket are both top-tier in Sports, each earning an A- grade. Kalshi also shows a clear lead in Technology with another A-. - Science & Economics: Polymarket demonstrates exceptional strength in technical topics, scoring a clear A in Science and an A- in Economics. This contrasts with Kalshi, which scored a C in Science and a B+ in Economics. - Politics & Culture: For Politics, Kalshi holds the edge with a B grade over Polymarket's C+. Kalshi also leads in Culture with an A- compared to Polymarket's B. The research shows that not only are these markets accurate, but they are also generally well-calibrated. This means that if they say something has a 70% chance of happening, it has historically happened about 70% of the time, which is a key indicator of a reliable forecasting tool. With prediction markets the wisdom of the crowd is not just a catchphrase; it's a statistically verifiable phenomenon. While manipulation remains a valid concern, the data shows these platforms are evolving into powerful and increasingly reliable forecasting engines. Does this data change your view on the reliability of prediction markets?

REWE electrifies urban delivery — €5 million investment accelerates grocery logistics transformation REWE Group, one of Germany’s top food retailers with over 12,000 stores across Europe, is doubling down on sustainable delivery with a bold €5 million investment. The company has added 64 Mercedes-Benz AG eSprinters to its fleet - 40 now running in Berlin, 24 launching in Neuss by September. REWE also rolled out 42 charging points (22 kW each) at its Berlin‑Tempelhof fulfillment centre to support efficient operations. This fleet expansion aligns with REWE Group’s climate strategy—reducing greenhouse gas emissions per square metre by 50% by 2021 and targeting a 30% reduction by 2030 vs. 2019, en route to net-zero emissions by 2050. Moreover, this latest move builds on prior initiatives: a pilot of seven Einride eActros electric trucks in 2023, and a charging partnership with Fastned since 2018. Why this matters: the power of sustainable last‑mile delivery! 1) Environmental impact: Last‑mile delivery is the most carbon‑intensive leg of e‑commerce supply chains, accounting for up to 50% of total delivery emissions in cities. Without intervention, delivery-related emissions could rise over 30% by 2030. 2) Operational efficiency: Urban logistics with electric vehicles and smart routing can reduce costs, optimize loading, and improve turnaround times. Techniques like route optimization and micro-fulfillment centers further cut emissions and cost inefficiencies. 3) Customer experience & brand value: Consumers are increasingly aware of environmental impact. Surveys show that many are willing to pay more for zero‑emission delivery - and choose retailers who offer it. 4) Strategic differentiation: Electrifying the last mile not only meets climate goals but also positions REWE competitively in a dense, logistics-heavy market, enhancing brand reputation and long-term value. Insights summary - REWE’s city-level fleet electrification is infrastructure-focused, not symbolic. - Full-stack approach: vehicles + charging infrastructure + prior pilots. - Supports REWE’s quantitative climate targets and EU retail sustainability trends. - Delivers both environmental and logistics advantage in urban grocery delivery. #retail #fmcg #ecommerce #sustainability #lastmile #urbanlogistics #evfleet #deliveryfleet #greenlogistics #grocerydelivery #supplychain #transportation #netzero #renewableenergy #fleetmanagement #smartcities #retailinnovation #energyefficiency #retailtech #foodtech #rewe #mercedesbenz #germany #europe #continentalretail #climateneutral #foodretail #futureofretail #mobilitysolutions #infrastructure #germanretail #urbanfulfillment

I spoke with one of Australia’s top retail lawyers so you don’t have to pay the consultation fee. You're welcome. She hates 6-minute increments anyway. In this week’s Add To Cart, I’m joined by Marianne Marchesi GAICD, founder of the award-winning legal firm Legalite Australia, to unpack everything ecommerce brands love to stick their heads in the sand over - IP, refunds, terms & conditions, contracts, compliance. I love Marianne's modern approach to retail law... and she only manages to say "it depends" once! Not only is she helping guide others, but she is also disrupting how legal services have been typically offered to make them accessible and realistic for high-growth businesses. In this conversation, we cover: ✅ The hidden IP in your business you might need to protect ✅ What counts as a “genuine discount” under ACCC rules ✅ When you do and don’t have to offer refunds ✅ Why your T&Cs might be working against you ✅ The real legal risks of influencer marketing And things get a bit scary when Marianne shares how your GPT inputs can be used against you in court. 😬 🎧 Listen to the full episode with the link in the comments.

OpenAI & Shopify Just Disclosed Its ChatGPT Commerce Fee: 4% Remember when I wrote that OpenAI would charge merchants a "small fee" for sales through ChatGPT? Industry estimates ranged from 0.5% to 2%. Nobody knew for sure. Now we know. It's 4%. Starting January 26, Shopify merchants selling through ChatGPT checkout will pay OpenAI 4% on every transaction, ON TOP of standard payment processing fees. Here's what makes this critical: The competitive landscape: - ChatGPT: 4% - Google AI Mode/Gemini: 0% - Microsoft Copilot: 0% For now. The math on a $100 purchase: Traditional e-commerce: $3.10 in fees. Through ChatGPT: $7.10+ in total fees That's a 129% increase in merchant costs. What this tells us: OpenAI is betting its 800 million weekly users justify premium pricing. They're positioning closer to Amazon's marketplace fees (8-15%) than affiliate rates. Google and Microsoft offering 0% fees isn't generosity, it's a strategic defense of their commerce ecosystems. The protocols (Stripe's ACP, Google's AP2) remain free. But the platforms controlling distribution are extracting a serious margin. This validates exactly what I wrote in November: Pricing power concentrates in two places: infrastructure control and distribution control. Everything between them commoditizes. OpenAI controls distribution. They're charging for it. For us, payment professionals, this has three implications: First, agents will shift transactions to the lowest-cost rails. A 4% platform fee accelerates the move from cards to A2A payments. Second, the fee stack is getting more complex. Merchants now evaluate: interchange + network fees + processing + platform fees. Third, the companies that positioned themselves in 2025 are now extracting value. Those who waited are price-takers. The window to establish a competitive position is closing. The economics of agentic commerce aren't theoretical anymore. They're live, they're measurable, and they're reshaping payment economics starting Monday. If you want to read my newsletter on Agentic Economics, check it out here for FREE -> https://lnkd.in/ew7ZV_zj