How a $420K/mo DTC Brand Saved $35,784 a Year by Switching Processors
By Stefan Ciancio ·
Summary
An anonymized direct-to-consumer ecommerce brand processing roughly $420,000 per month cut its effective processing rate from 3.12% to 2.41% by moving from Stripe standard pricing to a true interchange-plus merchant account. Net result: $2,982 in monthly savings, or $35,784 per year.
Before and after
- Prior processor: Stripe (standard pricing). Prior effective rate: 3.12%.
- New processor: Interchange-plus merchant account. New effective rate: 2.41%.
- Monthly volume: $420,000. Monthly savings: $2,982. Annual savings: $35,784.
- Chargeback rate dropped from 0.61% to 0.48%.
What changed
The merchant was on Stripe's flat 2.9% plus 30 cents pricing. With an average order value near $78 and a card mix heavy on rewards cards, the true blended rate landed at 3.12% once disputes and international cards were included. Moving to an interchange-plus account with a 25 basis point markup brought the blended rate down to 2.41% without changing checkout UX.
How to replicate
If you process more than $100K per month on flat-rate pricing, request three competing interchange-plus quotes, run a parallel test for 30 days, then migrate the primary checkout. See Lower Processing Rates to book a free analysis.