Bookshop Card Payment & EPOS Costs

Start with the bookshop’s payment routes

A bookseller may sell at the counter, through its own website, on account to a school or through a third-party platform. Those routes need not use the same processor or carry the same charges.

Use the processor’s transaction report alongside your till’s payment-method report. The number of books sold is not the number of payments. A reader buying three books in one card payment usually creates one processing transaction.

A fictional bookshop comparison

Suppose a bookshop takes £18,000 through the card service being compared, across 1,200 payments in a month. Both offers cover the same required service.

The lower percentage rate costs £8 more overall in this example. It is the combination of rates, payment counts and fixed charges that matters.

These are invented arrangements, not provider quotations or customer results. The example excludes refunds, minimum charges, annual fees, switching costs and any services outside the stated package.

If Christmas trading looks different from the rest of the year, use the seasonal cost calculator to assess twelve individual months.

Protect the bookselling functions you rely on

A payment saving can be undermined if a replacement till makes ordering or stock control harder. Gardners’ Gardlink material describes stock control and till functions together. The Booksellers Association also identifies specialist support for bookshop systems and their website connections. These are useful reminders to assess the entire workflow, not just a card reader.

Ask a supplier to demonstrate your own everyday tasks:

• Finding the correct edition by ISBN and scanning its barcode.
• Placing a customer order, recording a deposit and notifying staff when it arrives.
• Receiving stock, updating quantities and handling returns to a supplier.
• Recording vouchers, account sales and different payment methods accurately.
• Keeping website stock and click-and-collect orders aligned with shop stock.
• Exporting useful sales, payment and accounting reports.

List any subscriptions, book-data access, support, migration, training and additional till licences separately. If the existing system works well, explore changing payment provider while keeping your EPOS.

Count the payment when it happens

For your own stored-value gift vouchers, a card payment used to buy the voucher and a later redemption are different records. Do not count redemption as another card payment unless the customer actually makes a new payment, for example to cover a remaining balance.

Third-party book tokens can have their own settlement and handling arrangements. Check the scheme’s records rather than assuming the original sale passed through your processor. Keep any associated charges visible in the overall shop budget.

A deposit and a later card-paid balance can create two payments. Reconcile the deposit against the order so its value is not counted again on collection. For refunds, establish which processing charges remain payable and how the refund appears on each supplier’s reports.

Gift-voucher accounting and tax treatment are separate from this payment-cost exercise. Ask your accountant to confirm how your own arrangements should be recorded.

Events need their own cost lines

Author talks and workshops can introduce another payment route. Ticket Tailor, for example, distinguishes its ticketing fees from the payment processor’s charges. Other platforms may bundle these differently, so request the full price for the same event.

Record both ticket quantities and payment counts. A customer buying two tickets in one order might create two ticket fees but one card transaction. If admission includes a book, collecting that already-paid-for copy is not another payment. Extra books bought on the night are separate sales.

Keep the event budget alongside the main shop comparison. This guide is about the bookshop’s overall payment and EPOS setup, including ordinary book sales throughout the year.

Bookshop questions

Keep researching

Provider directory · Quotation worksheet · Seasonal cost calculator · More business-sector guides