Question 1

Do you know your authorization rate by geography and payment method?

Accepted Answer

Authorization rate measures the percentage of payment attempts that are successfully approved. Top-performing stacks target 98%+ across all payment methods and geographies. If you don't know your auth rate by geography and payment method, there is likely revenue leakage you haven't quantified yet.

Question 2

What percentage of monthly churn comes from failed payments versus cancellations?

Accepted Answer

Involuntary churn — churn caused by failed payments rather than deliberate cancellations — accounts for 20–40% of total churn for most subscription businesses. This type of churn is largely recoverable through retry logic, dunning flows, and payment method updates. Most businesses underestimate how much of their churn is payment-related.

Question 3

What is your true blended cost and take-rate across all payment methods and markets?

Accepted Answer

Effective processing cost is the true blended rate a business pays across all payment methods, markets, and PSPs — including interchange, assessment fees, processor markup, and hidden fees. Most teams pay 15–30% more than industry benchmark due to suboptimal routing, legacy pricing tiers, and fees buried in processor statements.

Question 4

What share of your transactions are being initiated by AI agents, and is your stack ready for them?

Accepted Answer

Agentic Commerce refers to purchases initiated by AI agents on behalf of users. In 2026, roughly 20% of online orders involve an AI agent, representing approximately $70B in GMV. Most payment stacks are not configured to handle agent-initiated transactions correctly — leading to silent declines. Businesses should assess their exposure and configure their stack before this becomes a material problem.

Question 5

What does a payments health audit cover?

Accepted Answer

A Tradewind Payments Health Audit is a structured review of your full payment stack covering fee structure, authorization performance, payment method coverage, PSP configuration, and revenue leakage. It produces a prioritized action plan with a dollar value on every identified issue.

Question 6

When should a company switch payment service providers (PSPs)?

Accepted Answer

A company should consider switching PSPs when authorization rates are below industry benchmarks, when fees have outpaced volume growth, when international expansion requires local rails not supported by the current provider, or when the PSP's product roadmap no longer matches the company's needs. Staying with an outgrown PSP compounds into higher fees and lower conversion over time.

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