Checkoutcom has used alternative fees and a high-touch approach to build a market for its online payments toolkit in Europe Now its come to the US where the likes of Stripe and Braintree already own a sizeable chunk of the market The London-based company says the retail industry relies too much on APIs for a one-size-fits-all approach to technology and pricing Checkoutcom is attempting to outflank that by relying on its private ownership model which he said precludes heavy pressure to build a huge base of consumers By focusing on expanding mid-tier businesses Checkoutcom hopes to build relationships that encourage customized cross-selling as an alternative to the multi-billion dollar firms such as Stripe and Braintree Peter Caparso Checkoutcoms president of North American operations Its not a numbers game we want to understand the businesses said Peter Caparso Checkoutcoms president of North American operations We dont have a bank or a PE firm telling us this is what you need to do You need to hit a certain goal If a merchant wants to have a certain function created we pick up the phone Checkoutcom has about 300 employees and 100 developers Its 700 clients include Samsung TransferWise Hopper Virgin and Adidas The company recently opened offices in Boston and San Francisco where it will tackle an e-commerce enablement market that includes huge established brands Checkoutcoms niche includes small businesses that have gained some traction creating a sudden burden of merchant service and payment needs to accommodate the merchants more aggressive growth plan We get to the business right as they take off at a crucial inflection point for the merchant when it wants to expand into a new territory or offer new payment methods Caparso said Its online payments tools cover most international credit cards pass-through wallets such as Apple Pay stored value wallets such as PayPal and Alipay and alternative payment options such as Klarna Nets Boleto and iDeal Checkoutcom is also using a fee structure thats different from most APIs for payments which usually charge 29 plus 030 per transaction or something close to that Checkoutcom is charging interchange a formula of processing and card payment costs designed to spot the best rate which standardizes commissions that card issuers collect Caparso said The amount varies by card type bank merchant location and other issues making it more customized to the specific merchant Alternatives to the standard 29 plus 030 have been tried before including by mobile payment and marketing company LevelUp which has changed its fee policies several times over the years Caparso said combining Checkoutcoms fee structure lack of a long-term contract and no setup or maintenance fees creates a sense of cost transparency that should be attractive to merchants All of the markups are revealed so merchants know what they are going to have to pay Caparso said And theres a month to money agreement with no terms By focusing on a niche within the broader e-commerce merchant payment market Checkoutcoms strategy will become more common as other much larger merchant acquirers companies look for share Legacy acquirers such as First Data and Vantiv Worldpay have been entering the space often through acquisition said Raymond Pucci associate director of research and consulting services for Mercator Advisory Group who said the valued services now include API integration subscription payment needs and smart transaction routing options in addition to the basic e-commerce interface Watch for a high degree of provider differentiation to occur thats aimed at merchant verticals