Discount definition: Payment provider fee.
The disagio is a revenue-based fee that an operator of an online store or a paid website has to pay for using the services of a payment service provider. Anyone offering a good or service on the Internet must ensure that potential buyers can pay for the product offered. The payment process should be as smooth as possible to avoid purchase cancellations. To do this, the store or website operator usually relies on a special provider to handle payment transactions on the Internet. These providers are also known as payment service providers.
A payment provider carries out payment transactions on the Internet for a surcharge.
However, the integration of payment options always involves additional effort, as the technical connection and the contractual framework have to be clarified. Online merchants who work with a payment service provider can reduce this effort considerably, as the provider takes care of the details and realization of the transaction processing. Since various payment options can be activated or deactivated at the push of a button, so to speak, cooperation with a payment service provider reduces the effort for the website operator enormously. Incidentally, every merchant can also find out which payment method the customers prefer. For payment transactions on the Internet, the payment provider processes the transaction after the online merchant has transmitted the payment data. In doing so, it initiates the payment settlement between the customer’s bank and the merchant’s bank, usually involving an intermediate step via credit card servicers, merchant banks or other payment procedure providers.
Discount calculated according to the amount of turnover
The payment service provider charges the store or website operator for this transaction processing in the form of the discount. Since the disagio is expressed as a percentage, its amount depends on the amount of sales. While the discount is significantly higher for content and web content, concrete goods and products are subject to a lower discount. The payment provider already retains this service fee during the processing of the transaction. Due to their large sales, corporate groups or retail chains in particular can obtain better terms for the discount than retailers.
Term from the banking industry
Originally, disagio is a term from the credit industry that refers to the difference between the issue and repayment amount for loans. It has its roots in Italian, literally meaning premium or discount, and became common practice with the use of double-entry bookkeeping. An issue premium is also sometimes retained when securities are issued.
