Payments knowledge, without the jargon.
Practical writing on cost reduction, conversion, regulation, and how to make your payments stack work harder. New articles regularly.
The real cost of switching payment providers
Switching providers is quoted as a percentage saving and forgotten as an engineering project. The true cost splits into two very different paths: a 15-minute app install on Shopify, or a bespoke integration measured in developer weeks.
Cascade routing: how top merchants boost approval rates by 18%
Single-acquirer routing leaves 5-10% of revenue on the table because some cards get declined for reasons that have nothing to do with the card. Cascade routing fixes this by trying multiple acquirers in sequence.
Faster payouts: what 1-day settlement is actually worth
Payout speed is the most underrated line in provider comparisons. Rolling settlement at 3 to 5 days ties up working capital that a 1 to 2 day provider releases. For a merchant running inventory on thin margins significant
Shop Pay: friend, foe or frenemy?
Shop Pay converts brilliantly and locks you in thoroughly. The one-click wallet lifts conversion, the fees are real, and leaving gets harder the longer you stay. Here is how to weigh the trade, and what the alternatives actually deliver.
Payment Acceptance Rates: the metric with the greater commercial benefit
Merchants and payments providers tend to overfocus on small, incremental fee reductions. The larger financial benefit sits in the transactions that never complete.
The 30-minute audit that shows if you're overpaying on payments
If you process card payments and have not benchmarked your fees in the last 12 months, you are probably overpaying by 25-30%. This audit uses three PSP statements to find where the overpayment sits.
Shopify Payments fees in Europe (2026)
European Shopify merchants pay different headline rates from US merchants, quoted in euros and set per country. Here is what EEA merchants pay on each plan using Ireland as the reference.
Shopify Payments fees in the USA (2026)
Shopify publishes one rate per plan, and the USA numbers are higher than the UK ones most articles quote. Here is what USA merchants actually pay on each plan, where the surcharges hide, and when a third-party processor stops making sense.
Shopify Payments fees in the UK (2026)
Shopify publishes one rate per plan, and the UK numbers are lower than the US ones most articles quote. Here is what UK merchants actually pay on each plan, where the surcharges hide, and when a third-party processor stops making sense.
When Shopify Payments stops being the cheapest option
Shopify Payments is built on Stripe, and the headline rate is competitive up to a point. Past that point, alternative providers can be 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points cheaper. When to look, how to switch. Tonkr runs the comparison for free.
Stripe fees explained: what you'll actually pay in 2026
Stripe pricing is consistent across the UK, EU, and US in percentage terms, but interchange caps and scheme fees vary by card brand and region.
Subscription card payment failures: What's the 5-15% Recurring revenue leak
Subscription businesses lose 5-15% of MRR to involuntary churn from failed card payments. Most of that is recoverable with the right dunning sequence, smart retry logic, and smart retry logic.
KYC = Killing Your Conversions: What to Know
Know Your Customer. Three words that translate to one thing: fewer customers. Here's why identity verification is the silent killer of your conversion rate, and what you can do about it without ending up in regulatory hell.
UCP: The Protocol That Changes Everything
AI agents are about to shop on behalf of consumers. The Universal Commerce Protocol is the open standard that makes it possible — and it's going to change payments, checkout, and merchant discovery forever.
The Gambling Payments Trap
If you're in gambling, you already know payments are a nightmare. What you might not know is that the providers everyone recommends are probably making it worse. Here's who they are, what they charge, and why you should talk to me instead.
Local payment methods that move the needle (and which are just checkboxes)
Most merchants think they've covered local payments with iDEAL, BLIK, Klarna and Pix, but many are leaving real revenue on the table. Which methods genuinely lift conversion, and which are just checkboxes.