Speed at the register
Approval time, receipt options, and how quickly a new hire can be trained on the screen in front of them.
Retail
POS systems and processing for retail stores.
The register is the part of the store customers judge you on. Inventory accuracy is the part that decides whether you can order correctly. Both run through the same system.
No obligation. I follow up personally.
What matters in retail
Where retail costs are decided.
The right system is the one that fits your counter, your stock, and your card mix.
Stock that stays accurate
Counts that update as you sell, variants that behave, and purchase orders that do not need a spreadsheet alongside them.
Refunds and exchanges
How refunds are processed matters, because the original processing fee is not always returned to you when a sale is reversed.
Retail has the widest card mix of any category I look at. A basic debit card and a premium rewards card carry very different interchange costs, and the split between them across your customer base has more effect on your effective rate than most owners expect. It is also the part nobody can control. What you can control is everything sitting on top of it.
Returns are the cost most often missed. When you refund a sale, the transaction fee on the original sale is not always returned to you, so a high return rate carries a fee cost that never appears as its own line item. If returns are a normal part of your business, it belongs in the comparison.
Then there is the question of whether the POS and the processing have to come from the same company. Often they do not. Keeping them separate means you can change one without replacing the other, which matters more the more your staff have learned the software. Before you evaluate anything, list what your system connects to: online store, accounting, loyalty, purchasing.
Retail on South Congress and around Austin
A shop on South Congress, in East Austin, or at the Domain sells to visitors as much as to neighbors, and that changes the card mix. Visitors bring cards issued outside the United States, which carry cross-border charges, and more premium travel rewards cards, which carry higher interchange. Your effective rate can sit higher than a shop with the exact same markup in a quieter part of town, even though nothing about your provider changed.
That matters when you compare quotes. If a salesperson shows you a lower number, ask whether it was calculated on your actual card mix or on an average business. A visitor-heavy store measured against an average one will always look overcharged, and a quote built on an average one will always look cheaper than it turns out to be.
Weekend markets and pop-ups are the other Austin pattern. If you sell off-site, the mobile reader should feed the same inventory and the same reporting as the counter, or every market day ends with a spreadsheet.
None of this needs a separate plan for each neighborhood. It needs someone to look at your actual numbers and tell you which part of the cost is your customers and which part is your contract.
Free fee check
Price the counter, not just the rate.
Find the total fees on last month's processing statement and enter it here. Luis will look at it personally and tell you, within 24 to 48 hours, whether it is fair.
- No statement upload. Two numbers are enough to start.
- A personal answer from Luis within 24 to 48 hours.
- If what you pay today is already fair, he will tell you that.
Before you compare quotes, gather these
The comparison is only honest if both sides are measured the same way.
- Last month's total fees and total card sales
- A rough sense of how many of your customers are visitors
- The share of sales that are debit versus rewards credit cards, if your reports show it
- Your SKU count and whether you carry variants
- Any online store the inventory has to stay in sync with
Related reading
Common questions
Questions from owners like you.
Should my POS and my payment processing come from the same provider?
Not necessarily. Bundled systems are simpler to set up, but they tie your software and your processing rate together, so changing one means replacing both. Keeping them separate preserves your options.
Do I pay a fee on refunds?
The transaction fee on the original sale is not always returned when you refund it, and the practice varies by provider. If your business has a meaningful return rate, ask the question specifically and get the answer in writing.
Can I keep my current terminals if I switch?
Sometimes. Some hardware can be reprogrammed and some is locked to one provider. Bring the make and model and I will tell you which yours is before you spend anything.
Does accepting debit cost less than credit?
Generally yes. Debit interchange is lower than rewards credit interchange, which is why your card mix affects your effective rate even when nothing about your pricing has changed.
Why do cards from visitors cost more?
Cards issued outside the United States carry cross-border charges on top of normal interchange, and travel rewards cards carry higher interchange than everyday cards. A shop with a lot of visitor traffic will see that in its effective rate.
Talk to Luis
Find out which part is the customers and which part is the contract.
Call or text Luis, or send him last month's numbers.