Who we serve › Cross-border retail
Payment infrastructure for cross-border retail and e-commerce
TL;DR. Retailers that grew country by country usually end up with a provider per region, cross-border acquiring in markets where they could be domestic, FX leaking in three places, and no way to move volume when one provider tightens. The fix is local acquiring in every material market under as few contracts as possible. We consolidated a sportswear retailer selling in 26 countries on three continents from several regional providers to one acquirer with local presence in every market, and the all-in cost came down about 20%.
Who this is for. Retailers, marketplaces and D2C brands processing $100K+ a month across more than one country, on a stack that grew by accident rather than by design.
Local acquiring or cross-border. It decides cost and approval before anything else.
When your acquirer's license is in a different country from the cardholder's bank, the transaction is cross-border at scheme level: higher interchange, higher scheme fees, more cautious issuers, FX in the chain. When the acquirer has a local entity, the same transaction is domestic. Most retailers that grew market by market are paying cross-border in markets where they have had enough volume to be domestic for years.
Cost
Domestic interchange and scheme fees are lower than cross-border in nearly every market. On material volume the gap is the biggest single number in the stack.
Approval
Issuers approve domestic acquirers at higher rates. A few points of approval in your top market is worth more than any fee negotiation.
FX
Charge in the customer's currency, acquire locally, settle in the currencies you spend. Every conversion you remove is margin.
Four failure modes we see repeatedly.
01
A provider per region.
Each market was added with whoever covered it at the time. Five contracts, five reconciliations, five dispute processes, and volume that would price well together priced separately.
02
Cross-border by default.
The original acquirer processes every market from one license. The top three markets have had domestic-level volume for years and are still paying cross-border rates and seeing cross-border approval.
03
Negotiating the rate, ignoring the declines.
Months spent on basis points while approval by country is never pulled. One merchant took an offer 10% below ours; approval fell 22%. The arithmetic is here.
04
No second path.
One platform carries everything. When its risk model decides your growth or your category is a problem, every market stops at once.
Diagnose. Improve. Prove.
Diagnose
Volume by country and currency. Which markets are acquired domestically and which cross-border. All-in cost on your real card mix per market. Approval by country, card type and issuer. Where FX is converted and at what rate. Contracts, exclusivity, exit terms.
Improve
Consolidate under the fewest contracts that give domestic acquiring in every material market. Charge in local currency, settle in the currencies you spend. Add local methods where checkout data says so. Renegotiate on aggregated volume. Design the second path for the top markets.
Prove
Move one market's bounded volume to the new structure. Measure approval, all-in cost, settlement timing, refund and dispute handling. Expand market by market as the data earns it. Keep the incumbent until the new path has carried real traffic.
26 countries, three continents, one acquirer, ~20% cheaper.
A sportswear retailer selling in 26 countries across three continents was running several regional providers because no single one had covered its footprint when it started. With around $700M a year in volume, it decided to review the whole footprint and see whether there was a better way. We consolidated the full footprint under one leading acquirer with local presence in every market. All-in cost came down about 20%, and the retailer runs that volume through one contract today.
Figures rounded. The retailer is not identified.
The review file.
Less than a high-risk underwriting file, but the numbers decide everything.
- Volume by country and currency, last twelve months
- Current provider(s) per market, with contracts and all-in pricing
- Approval rate by country and card type, if your provider gives it (if not, that is a finding)
- Settlement currencies and where FX is converted today
- Chargeback and refund ratios by market
- Entities: which companies contract in which markets
- Checkout drop-off by market, if you measure it
Where the volume is and what carries it.
EU / EEA
Domestic acquiring through an EU-licensed acquirer covers most of the bloc; local methods vary sharply by country and are worth adding only where checkout data says so.
UK
Since Brexit, a UK-issued card acquired in the EEA is inter-regional and outside the interchange cap: Mastercard consumer card-not-present interchange went from 0.3% / 0.2% (credit / debit) to 1.5% / 1.15% in October 2021. A UK-licensed acquiring entity, or an acquirer with one, brings it back to domestic rates.
US and other markets
Domestic US acquiring usually needs a US entity or an acquirer with a US license covering you. Other markets are assessed one by one: domestic where volume justifies it, cross-border where it does not.
What is the difference between cross-border and local acquiring?
Cross-border acquiring means the acquirer's license is in a different country from the cardholder's bank: the transaction crosses a border at the scheme level, which means higher interchange, higher scheme fees, worse approval (issuers are more cautious with foreign acquirers), and FX somewhere in the chain. Local acquiring means the acquirer has an entity or license in the cardholder's market, so the transaction is domestic. At material volume in any given country, the difference in all-in cost and approval is usually the single biggest lever in the stack.
Do we need a local entity in every country?
Not necessarily. Some acquirers offer local acquiring across many markets through their own licenses and entities, so one contract gives you domestic processing in each of them. That is how we consolidated a 26-country retailer under one acquirer. Where an acquirer does not cover a market locally, the choice is a second acquirer for that region, a merchant-of-record arrangement, or accepting cross-border for a small market. We map it market by market.
Why is one acquirer for many countries better than a provider per region?
One contract, one reconciliation, one settlement currency policy, one dispute process, one integration. Volume aggregated in one place also prices better than the same volume split five ways. The retailer we consolidated was running several regional providers because no single one had covered its footprint when it started; it decided to review the whole footprint and see whether there was a better way. All-in cost came down about 20%.
Is one global platform enough for cross-border?
For many merchants, for a while. The question is what happens at scale: are you getting local acquiring in your top markets or cross-border by default, what is the all-in cost on your real card mix, what do your decline rates look like by country, and what happens when the platform's risk model decides it does not like your growth. We work with merchants who have outgrown the default, or want a second path alongside it.
Which local payment methods matter for retail?
Depends entirely on the market: bank-transfer and open-banking methods in parts of Europe, BNPL where customers expect it, wallets where they already hold them, and cards nearly everywhere. The mistake is adding every method a provider offers. The right mix comes from where your checkout drops off by market, and each method adds reconciliation and refund complexity that has to be worth it.
How does FX fit in?
FX is a cost that hides in three places: the cardholder's issuer (if you charge in a currency they do not hold), the acquirer's conversion (if you settle in a currency other than the transaction currency), and your own treasury. Charging in the local currency with local acquiring and settling in the currencies you actually spend removes most of it. It is rarely the headline fee; it is often the largest hidden one.
We are not high-risk. Is Milestone for us?
Yes. Pricing, approvals and redundancy work the same way in retail as in any other vertical, and our largest consolidated engagement is a sportswear retailer. The same method applies: diagnose the stack, fix what moves outcomes, prove it on live volume before shifting weight.
How is Milestone paid for this?
By the acquirer or PSP you end up using, as a commission on volume. No fee to you for the review. We place with whichever of ~30 providers fits your footprint, so we have no reason to push one.
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Tell us your markets.
Countries, current providers, monthly volume, and whether you know your approval rate by country. We reply within one business day. No fee for the review.