payments review
A payments review is a 30 to 60 minute conversation with a software platform or marketplace about its customers and their payments: who processes what today, what the platform could earn from its own payments, and what would make its customers move. The platform leaves with a range, not a pitch.
The review has three stops. First, the customers: how many take payments through or beside the product, by what methods, through which providers, and roughly at what cost, as far as the platform knows. Second, the range: given those payments, the share that could reasonably move and the fee a platform in that trade could set, what payments revenue looks like at the low and high end, with the assumptions stated. Third, the move: which customers would go first, at which moments, what payment products would make the platform's payments the better choice, and what stands in the way, such as mandates, saved cards or contract terms.
Why it matters: most platforms have never put a number on their customers' payments, and the first time they do is usually the point at which payments stops being a feature on the roadmap and becomes a revenue line with an owner. The review is also where the model question gets settled in plain words: who holds the money (our regulated acquiring partner), who sets the fee (the platform) and who builds what.
What to expect: no confidential statements are asked for and nothing is signed. The output is a range on the platform's own numbers and a view on whether moving them is worth it. For some platforms the honest answer is that it is not yet, and the review says so.