Beyond the Price Tag: 7 Key Criteria for Choosing the Right Payment Acquirer

(A Follow-Up to “What Enterprise Merchants Need from an Acquirer: 10 Essential Insights”)

Elaborating on several key themes from our previous MRC post on 25 February, this article dives deeper into the strategic factors that influence acquirer selection—beyond cost.

While our earlier post explored the top 10 essential insights enterprise merchants should keep in mind, we now shift the focus to how any merchant—large or small—can make smarter, long-term decisions when evaluating acquirers. In today’s fast-changing payments landscape, the lowest processing fee doesn’t always translate into the best value.

This follow-up unpacks 7 critical decision-making criteria that every business should weigh—especially those looking to future-proof their payment operations.

1. Industry-Specific Capabilities and Integration Support

One-size-fits-all no longer applies to payment services. Retailers, hospitality providers, eCommerce businesses, and service-based companies all have different payment requirements. That’s why it’s important to choose an acquirer that:

• Understands your vertical
• Supports sector-specific features (e.g., tipping, dynamic pricing, loyalty integrations)
• Has experience integrating with your existing tech stack (e.g., EPOS, CRM, ERP)

Enterprise merchants in particular benefit from acquirers who’ve already integrated with their core business systems—saving time and reducing implementation risk.

2. Reliability and Uptime Performance

As customer expectations rise, downtime is no longer tolerated. A single outage during peak trading can lead to lost revenue, reputational damage, and long-term customer churn.

When evaluating an acquirer, ask about:

• Historical uptime metrics (especially during high-traffic periods)
• System resilience and redundancy
• SLAs for issue resolution and recovery

While larger businesses tend to prioritise this from the outset, SMBs often only realise its importance after a costly disruption. Don’t wait for that moment.

3. Payments Innovation and Future-Readiness

Payment technology evolves rapidly. Choosing a provider that is future-ready means you’re not just solving for today—but preparing for tomorrow.

Look for acquirers who actively invest in innovation such as:

• Tap on Mobile and mobile-first acceptance
• Contactless and digital wallet support
• Omnichannel features like endless aisle, self-checkout, or BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store)
• Authentication optimisation to reduce cart abandonment

For SMBs, these innovations can offer low-cost scalability. For enterprises, they can create clear points of competitive differentiation.

4. Customer Support & Account Management

Support quality is a highly overlooked—but critical—selection factor.

Here’s what to consider:

• Are support hours aligned with your business needs?
• Can you reach a named contact or account manager?
• Is support multilingual, or based in your region?
• What are their customer satisfaction scores (e.g., NPS)?

SMBs are increasingly expecting “enterprise-level” support. Enterprise merchants, with more complex environments and higher stakes, should demand proactive account and project management throughout the relationship.

5. Digital Channel Support & eCommerce Capabilities

In a digital-first world, your acquirer must do more than process card-present transactions.

Ask potential providers about:

• Hosted payment pages for quick setup (ideal for SMBs)
• Full API-based integrations (needed by larger merchants)
• Support for local payment methods
• Cross-channel journey support (e.g., pay online, return in store)
• Fraud tools and tokenisation strategies
• Unified platform architecture for simplified reporting

Choosing an acquirer that understands your digital goals can streamline your operations and improve customer experience across channels.

6. Value-Added Services (VAS) and Flexibility

Some acquirers offer plug-and-play simplicity. Others provide a modular, best-of-breed ecosystem.

For SMBs, the former may be preferred—a one-stop shop with fast setup and next-day settlement to aid cash flow.

For enterprise merchants, flexibility is key. They typically seek:

• Modular services (gateway, acquiring, fraud prevention)
• Advanced VAS like:
• Real-time consolidated reporting
• Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC)
• Payment orchestration
• Network tokens
• SCA optimisation
• Marketing integrations (e.g., loyalty, engagement tools)

One important distinction: check whether VAS are developed in-house or white-labelled. In-house tools usually offer better data integration, quicker updates, and stronger support.

7. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Alignment

Today’s enterprises are increasingly selecting suppliers based on shared values and sustainability goals.

Payment acquirers are no exception. Areas to assess include:

• Carbon neutrality and environmental policies
• Ethical sourcing and labour practices
• Community initiatives and charitable engagement (e.g., micro-donations)
• Transparency in diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics

If CSR is a core value in your business, request a copy of the acquirer’s CSR roadmap and ask how they’re tracking progress toward net-zero goals.

SMBs are also beginning to factor in sustainability—especially when these initiatives are woven into product features or customer-facing options.

Final Thoughts: Make the Strategic Choice

Selecting a payment acquirer is no longer a simple procurement task. It’s a strategic partnership decision that impacts customer satisfaction, operational performance, and future growth.

To summarise:

For SMBs, the focus may be simplicity and speed. For large enterprises, the emphasis may be on scale, flexibility, and strategic fit. But for every business, the takeaway is the same:

The lowest cost shouldn’t automatically win. The best long-term partner should.

About the Authors

Lee Jones, is the Chief Executive Officer of Worldline Merchant Services UK Limited and Managing Director of Enterprise UK. With over 20 years of leadership experience in market-leading technology companies, Lee is dedicated to positioning Worldline in the UK as an organization that provides merchants of all sizes with greater choice, value, and opportunities for growth. His leadership is centered on customer-centric innovation, ensuring businesses benefit from advanced payment technologies that enhance loyalty, attract new customers, and streamline operations.

Habib Ansari, is the Country Head at Worldline, leading the Merchant Services – SMB unit in the UK. His mission is to support tech-forward companies in achieving a seamless checkout process through his consultative approach. With over 15 years of industry experience, he is passionate about business development and has a keen interest in working with innovative payment solutions that enable businesses to optimise their payment processing strategies. Prior to joining the fintech space, Habib worked across a wide range of sectors while maintaining a strong connection to financial services and technology solutions sales.

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] helps businesses of all shapes and sizes to accelerate their growth journey – quickly, simply, and securely. With advanced payments technology, local expertise and solutions customised for hundreds of markets and industries, Worldline powers the growth of over one million businesses around the world. Worldline generated a 4.6 billion euros revenue in 2023.

For more insights or to discuss your acquiring needs, visit our website at Payments to grow your world | Worldline Global