Loading
Steelmark
Payment Processing Cost Reduction
An ecommerce retailer was losing a significant percentage of revenue to payment processing and invoice platform fees. Web Lifter redesigned the entire sales and payment workflow, replacing Stripe and Paycove with a direct Westpac PayWay integration and a custom-built invoicing platform. The new architecture reduced transaction costs, streamlined operations, and delivered immediate profit improvements without requiring any increase in sales volume.
The goal
Reduce payment processing costs and eliminate unnecessary transaction fees by redesigning the ecommerce checkout and invoicing workflow while maintaining a seamless customer experience.
What we did
- ✓Reviewed the existing payment stack and identified opportunities to reduce transaction costs without impacting operational efficiency.
- ✓Designed and implemented a direct integration with Westpac PayWay, replacing Stripe as the primary payment processor.
- ✓Built a bespoke invoicing solution tailored to the client's business requirements, removing the need for third-party invoice processing services.
- ✓Redesigned the end-to-end payment and invoicing process to reduce complexity, improve reliability, and minimise operational overhead.
The result
The project reduced transaction costs from 1.7% + $0.30 charged by Stripe plus an additional 1% charged by Paycove, down to a flat 1% through Westpac PayWay. This reduction generated tens of thousands of dollars in annual savings, directly improving profitability without requiring additional marketing spend, price increases, or sales growth. The business now retains substantially more revenue from every transaction while operating on a simpler and more efficient payment infrastructure.
Turning Hidden Transaction Costs Into Profit
Many ecommerce businesses focus heavily on increasing sales while overlooking the operational costs hidden within their technology stack. For this client, payment processing and invoicing fees were quietly consuming a significant percentage of revenue on every transaction.
The existing checkout process relied on Stripe for payment collection and Paycove for invoice generation. While both services provided valuable functionality, the combined fee structure resulted in transaction costs of approximately 2.7% plus a fixed fee per order.
After analysing the payment workflow, Web Lifter identified an opportunity to dramatically reduce these costs through infrastructure redesign rather than revenue growth.
A direct integration with Westpac PayWay was implemented to handle payment processing while a custom-built invoicing platform replaced the need for third-party invoice services. The new solution maintained the same customer experience while significantly reducing ongoing operational expenses.
The result was a reduction in transaction fees to just 1%, creating immediate savings on every sale processed through the platform.
Unlike many technology projects that focus on user interface improvements or feature development, this initiative delivered measurable financial outcomes. By addressing a recurring operational expense, the business now retains tens of thousands of dollars annually that would otherwise have been lost to processing fees.
This project demonstrates how strategic software development can create substantial business value by improving profitability rather than simply increasing revenue.
Selective by design, we take on problems worth solving