Ecommerce Card Processing for Every Online Store
Accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover online with card processing tuned for ecommerce — higher approvals, smarter fraud screening, and lower effective rates.
Ecommerce card processing — sometimes called card-not-present (CNP) processing — is fundamentally different from in-person payments. CNP transactions carry higher interchange, higher fraud risk, and stricter underwriting. The flip side: when you optimize for ecommerce specifically, you can recover real margin most stores leave on the table.
Card-not-present interchange explained
Every Visa or Mastercard transaction is priced on an interchange table set by the card networks. Ecommerce transactions land in CNP categories that cost 0.30–0.80% more than card-present. But within CNP, qualifying for the right interchange tier (with full AVS, 3DS2, and proper Level 2/3 data for B2B) can shave significant cost.
- Visa CPS Card Not Present — base ecommerce rate
- Mastercard Merit I — properly authenticated CNP
- Level 2 / Level 3 data — major savings on B2B ecommerce
- 3DS2 — shifts liability and can improve interchange tier
Why approval rates matter as much as rates
A 1% improvement in approval rate is usually worth more than a 0.20% reduction in processing rate. Network tokens, account updater services, and intelligent retry logic on declined transactions can recover 2–5% of lost revenue every month — invisibly.
Card brand acceptance and surcharging
American Express historically charged premium rates, but OptBlue pricing has narrowed the gap. Surcharging credit cards is legal in most US states and can offset processing costs entirely — but it must be implemented correctly to comply with card brand rules.
What's Included
All major card brands
Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, JCB, and UnionPay acceptance.
Network tokenization
Visa Token Service and Mastercard MDES for higher approvals and lower fraud.
Account updater
Automatic card-on-file updates when customers get new card numbers.
3D Secure 2
Frictionless authentication with liability shift on qualifying transactions.
Level 2/3 data
B2B ecommerce savings of up to 1% on commercial card transactions.
Surcharging tools
Compliant credit card surcharging where permitted by state law.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I accept Amex without paying extra?+
Yes — OptBlue pricing rolls Amex into your standard processing statement at competitive rates, usually within 0.10–0.30% of Visa/Mastercard.
Is 3D Secure required?+
Required in the EU under PSD2/SCA. Optional in the US, but recommended for high-AOV or high-fraud-risk ecommerce — it shifts chargeback liability to the issuer on qualifying transactions.
What's the minimum AOV for Level 3 data savings?+
Level 3 savings apply to commercial cards regardless of AOV, but the absolute dollar savings are most significant on B2B orders above $250.
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