Processing Fee Savings Calculator for BigCommerce Stores

What to pull from your BigCommerce processing statement

You need three numbers: total card volume for the month, number of transactions, and total processing fees. Get them from your processor or gateway statement, not your BigCommerce dashboard. Your BigCommerce plan fee and app subscriptions are separate costs and should not be included in the fee total.

Use a full calendar month that reflects normal trading. If you sell seasonally, avoid using only November or December unless that is the period you want to analyze. Holiday months can skew both ticket size and fraud screening costs.

Count refunds and chargebacks carefully. Depending on your agreement, the original processing fee may not be returned when you refund an order, so a store with a high return rate (apparel and footwear are common examples) can be paying fees on revenue it never keeps. If your statement lists refund volume separately, enter gross sales volume and note the refunds for the full breakdown.

Why BigCommerce stores often pay more than they realize

Card-not-present interchange is generally higher than card-present interchange because the fraud risk is higher. That part is set by the card networks and is the same for everyone. The part that varies is the markup and the line items layered on top, and online stores tend to collect more of them: gateway fees, per-authorization fees, address verification (AVS) fees, fraud screening fees, batch fees, PCI compliance or non-compliance fees, and cross-border or currency conversion fees on international orders.

Flat-rate pricing is common for newer online stores because it is simple, but it charges the same percentage on a low-cost debit card as on a premium rewards card. As order volume grows, that simplicity can get expensive. Tiered pricing has the opposite problem: many online transactions get pushed into a higher-priced tier, and the statement does not show why.

If you use BigCommerce B2B features, check whether your corporate and purchasing card orders are passing Level 2 and Level 3 data (tax amount, PO number, line items). Without that data, some commercial card transactions may qualify for higher interchange than they otherwise could. Large B2B tickets make that gap noticeable.

A worked BigCommerce example (hypothetical numbers)

Imagine a BigCommerce store selling outdoor gear. These figures are invented for illustration only. In a normal month it processes $60,000 in card sales across 600 orders, an average ticket of $100. Its statement shows $1,950 in total fees, an effective rate of 3.25%.

The calculator compares that against an interchange-plus estimate using assumed figures for eCommerce: an average interchange cost of 1.95%, a markup of 0.20%, $0.10 per transaction, and no monthly fee. That works out to $60,000 × 2.15% = $1,290, plus 600 × $0.10 = $60, for an estimated $1,350 per month. The difference is about $600 per month, or roughly $7,200 per year.

Now change one assumption. If the same store averaged $35 orders, it would run about 1,714 transactions for the same volume, and the per-transaction fees alone would be about $171 per month. Lower-ticket stores feel per-transaction fees more, which is why the calculator asks for your transaction count, not just volume.

Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.

What a good result looks like for a BigCommerce store

A small estimated difference is a useful result too. It can mean your current pricing is already reasonable and your time is better spent elsewhere. A large difference usually points to one of three things: flat-rate or tiered pricing at a volume where interchange-plus could make sense, stacked gateway and fraud screening fees, or commercial card orders missing Level 2 and 3 data.

Watch for factors the quick estimate cannot see. Subscription stores running recurring billing through a BigCommerce app should ask about account updater fees and decline retry costs. Stores with heavy international traffic should look at cross-border fees separately. Stores that authorize at checkout and capture when an order ships, common with pre-orders, backorders, and split shipments, should check for re-authorization fees.

Unlock the full breakdown to see where your estimated savings come from line by line, plus a checklist of questions to ask about your current BigCommerce gateway setup. A payments specialist can then review your actual statement if you want a closer look.

Frequently asked questions