There are many costs associated with running a business. First you have to appoint great people and this is the most important expense to run the company. Then there are premises and of course marketing and so forth and so forth. With each of these cost elements, one would not consider the cost of getting paid. Depending on how this is calculated (and if you allocate staff directly associated with payments, as well as capital cost incurred in order to accept payments) it can contribute a lot to cost. In addition there is an indirect cost associated with lost revenue because of payment failures (fraud related or system related).

Doing a bit of calculation on the back of a cigarette box, this expense is at least 5% of cost, but probably less then 10%. That means that for every twenty beers sold, at least one is sold just to cover the cost of getting paid. That is a huge number!

Furthermore, it could be argued that utilizing payment features, retailers can improve the loyalty of customers. It does not take long to identify case studies: Making sure that customers drink more of their coffee at Starbucks through innovation with the mobile payment app, or ensuring that customers buy more at Target utilizing features associated with Target’s Red Card. Even if it is just highlighting savings at your grocer on the till slip, all of these loyalty features are clearly possible because of how payment infrastructure is being utilized.

It stands to reason therefore that for a modern retailer to be successful, payment skills and insights should form part of the make-up of the executive team.