Merchant Acquiring Profitability 2021: a Piece of Cake or a Pig in a Poke?

Acquiring business models have changed drastically across different geographies and verticals. While the market in some countries remains monopolized with high fees, others operate under strict fee regulations and fierce competition from fintechs. While e-commerce acquirers benefited from enormous growth in digital payments last year, HoReCa acquirers reported significant losses.

How are merchant acquirers around the globe increasing their revenue despite challenges? Our Merchant Acquiring Profitability report is based on interviews with representatives of major regional acquirers active in various merchant verticals. It offers insights on which value-added services and technologies are helping acquirers increase their profitability, and what the future holds for the merchant acquiring industry.

You’ll find out:

• Merchant acquiring as of 2021: what's happening?

• Which tools can analyze and increase revenue from core processing?

• Generating revenue from VAS: what works for different merchant segments?

• Which merchant pricing models work best in the US, and which work for Australia?

Contents

1. Merchant acquiring as of 2021

2. Revenue from core processing: what’s happening globally?

   • Why is it challenging to calculate merchant acquiring profitability?

   • Profitability analysis tools

3. What VAS bring revenues to acquirers?

   • Issuing gift and prepaid cards

   • Monetizing data for merchants

   • Empowering SMEs

   • Hyping with BNPL

4. Where else the growth will come from?

5. Preparing for post-COVID and beyond

6. Way4 platform for profitable acquiring business

Merchant Acquiring Profitability Report is released by OpenWay, the global leader in digital payments software that manages every fifth merchant acquiring transaction in Europe.