WELCOME to Pharmacy Daily's weekly comment feature. This week's contributor is Mark Churchill, Director - Banking & Investment, Kizmet Capital
Reluctant to pass on Merchant fees?
I bought a coffee the other day and noticed after tapping, my phone displayed the transaction as $4.57. Merchant fee of $0.07, passed on again to the consumer, simple.
GP appointment, same thing.
Pharmacy transaction...no fee.
The consumer since COVID (in particular) has been conditioned to pay merchant fees, in fact, I can't think of the last time (except the pharmacy transaction) that I didn't pay a fee. With 60 Day coming, every business must look at cost savings.
Merchant fees are something the consumer has been conditioned to pay so why aren't you passing it on?
You now have an opportunity (if asked) to educate the consumer as to why you now need to pass on fees.
Things you can consider are ditching AMEX and asking instead about Lowest Cost Routing (LCR).
LCR is the ability of the EFTPOS terminal to process the payment in the lowest (fee) cost way for the Merchant.
When you contact your Merchant Provider about LCR question their pricing.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 26 Jun 23
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