The other half of a florist's payment mix happens off the shop floor. A huge share of orders are gifts sent remotely, so the buyer reads a card over the phone or types it into a website while the recipient lives suburbs or states away. These card-not-present sales, plus relay-network orders and wedding deposits, cost more to accept and carry more fraud and chargeback exposure than the bouquet handed across the counter.
Why florists fees sit where they do
A florist's blended rate lands wherever its real mix sits. In-store tap-and-go on eftpos or Visa and Mastercard is the cheapest lane, so a shop dominated by counter sales trends toward the lower band. But florists carry an unusually high share of card-not-present phone and online gift orders, which attract higher interchange and gateway costs and pull the average up. Premium and overseas gift-sender cards, plus chargeback fees on disputed deliveries, add further drag, so most florists settle in the mid-range rather than the floor.
What to look for in a provider
Florists are best served by a setup that handles both lanes without penalising either. In-store, fast tap-and-go terminals that hold up under Valentine's and Mother's Day queues matter more than headline rates. Online and over the phone, an integrated gateway or virtual terminal with solid fraud screening helps tame card-not-present risk on remote gift orders. Look for clear handling of deposits and large wedding invoices, transparent treatment of chargebacks, and pricing that does not punish your seasonal volume swings. Because so much revenue arrives in two short windows, reliability and settlement timing often outweigh shaving a few basis points off the rate.