Payment Optimization Strategies for U.S. Businesses

Modern businesses are constantly optimizing to stay ahead. You’re finding ways to lower costs, automate processes, improve customer experience, and drive higher revenue. 

It’s time to do the same with your money movement ecosystem, through a process called payment optimization.

2025 is the perfect time to optimize your payments. Consumer expectations, business needs, and shifting regulations are quickly evolving U.S. payment systems. 

This article explains how to leverage what’s new in payments to optimize your ecosystem.

You’ll learn: 

• What it means to “optimize” your payments
• The 4 key pillars of payment optimization
• Tips to modernize your ecosystem
• What to look for in a payments partner

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What is payment optimization?

Payment optimization is the process of refining your payment systems to improve efficiency, increase revenue, and reduce costs.

When your payments are optimal, you’ll approve the most transactions, at the lowest possible cost.  

Merchants that optimize their payments benefit from: 


✅ Cost savings 

✅ Improved cash flow 

✅ Higher conversion rates 

✅ Reduced fraudulent transactions

We’ll walk through how in the next section...

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How to optimize your payment ecosystem

Payment optimization is a continuous process — approval rates can always get higher, but costs shouldn’t increase. 

An optimal payment optimization strategy not only boosts your bottom line, it fosters customer loyalty by making transactions faster, easier, and safer.

Payment optimization involves a lot of moving pieces, but you can break the process into 4 key pillars to identify areas of improvement. 

These 4 pillars are:

1. Conversion

2. Authentication

3. Authorization

4. Cost

Let’s look at each of these components in-depth in the next section.

Tip: Payment optimization starts with your ecosystem. You need modern payment service providers (PSPs) that are built for the present, as well as the future. Payments in the United States are often archaic, complex, and expensive — meaning they come with limitations. Do your research on emerging payment products and consider layering them into your existing stack. It’s the easiest path to optimization.

Four pillars of payment optimization

An optimal payment strategy is based around an ecosystem that makes transactions faster, easier, and safer.

Let's look at the 4 pillars that make up payments optimization.

1. Optimizing for conversion 

Conversion is the process of turning a potential payment into a successful one. It’s how you make sure that when a customer visits the checkout page, they end up going through with the transaction.

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To improve payment conversion:

• Add one-click checkouts. This is a top priority for merchants because it speeds up transactions and directly improves conversion.  
• Eliminate passwords. Passwordless authentication increases payment conversion by 25%.  
• Create branded checkout experiences. 25% of respondents in a recent survey said they abandoned a cart because they “didn't trust the site with [their] credit card information.” Creating a branded checkout improves trust with customers.‍
• Add multiple payment options. Include cards, pay by bank, and mobile payments to cater to different customer demographics. 

2. Optimizing for authentication

Authentication is your process of making sure a customer is who they say they are. 

With open banking regulations making consumer financial data more accessible in the U.S., businesses now have the tools to aggregate and authenticate data accurately. 

The goal here is to balance authentication with efficiency — you want the highest fraud prevention with the lowest cart abandonment.

For low-friction payment authentication:

• Avoid manual payment data input. This includes entering debit card details or bank account/routing info — instead, use an embedded experience that lets users log in to their bank directly to connect an account for payment.
• Reduce friction at checkout. Passwordless authentication simplifies the checkout process and removes added steps where customers may drop off. Internal testing from Aeropay found biometric payments are up to 93% faster than traditional two-factor authentication. 
• Authenticate in real time with oAuth bank connections. This offers optimal payment data with full visibility into your customers. 

3. Optimizing for authorization 

Authorization happens after a customer checks out. When someone clicks “pay,” it means the transaction needs to be approved.

This usually involves verifying that the customer has sufficient funds and meets security requirements.

Authorization is that final hurdle before a payment is completed and directly impacts revenue and customer satisfaction.

Optimal authorization balances high approvals with low returns/chargebacks — this is the most common problem for merchants when it comes to authorization.

To improve payment authorization rates: 

• Use durable payment methods. Avoid card numbers that can expire or fail.
• Establish strong bank connections via APIs for smooth communication between banks and higher success rates.
• Enable smart retries to automatically retry failed payments at optimal times to increase approval rates.
• Add guaranteed payments. This technology removes the risk of declines and makes funds available in real time.

4. Optimizing for cost

Payments have become increasingly expensive in the United States — where card issuers take up to 4% of each transaction through interchange fees. 

The single best way to reduce the total cost of payment and boost profits is to add pay by bank at checkout. 

Pay by bank has the lowest transaction costs for U.S. merchants because it doesn’t include interchange fees. It’s a simple, direct movement of money between bank accounts.

‍Learn more about pay by bank.

Other ways to lower your payment costs: 

• Negotiate with your providers. Review the terms of your contract and secure better rates — consider volume-based discounts if your business has grown. 
• Implement tiered processing to route transactions through the most cost-effective payment method.

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5 ways to modernize your payment stack 

If you want to upgrade your payments quickly to avoid falling behind in 2025, try these tips.

1. Enhance authorization with machine learning

Machine learning (ML) tools can deliver real-time insights, optimize approval rates, and minimize risk in payments. These systems adapt as they process more data, continuously improving fraud prevention with minimal customer friction. 

For example, Aeropay's ML model analyzes data points like user behavior, merchant details, industry norms, and transaction history to determine whether to approve or deny payments.

2. Layer pay by bank into your existing payment methods

Pay by bank gives you a low-cost, seamless payment option that avoids the cost of card payment processing. 

With near-instant payment confirmation and minimal friction, pay by bank reduces failed transactions, improves cash flow, and enhances the customer experience. Plus, it’s perfect for industries with tight margins or regulatory requirements, like gaming or rent collection.

Add pay by bank.

3. Send B2B payments instantly, at lower cost

It’s 2025. Don’t rely on checks or wire transfers to pay suppliers, vendors, or partners. Instant payouts via RTP and FedNow rails are immediate and affordable. 

Real-time payments not only improve vendor relationships but also reduce your operational costs by automating reconciliation and cash flow management.

Add instant payouts.

4. Integrate multi-channel payment solutions

Consumers and businesses don’t just interact in person — there’s engagement across websites, mobile, social, and more.  A modern payment stack supports payments from all these channels seamlessly. 

Whether it’s enabling QR code payments for in-person transactions, embedded payment links in invoices, or direct API integrations for online transactions, offering multiple channels ensures you meet customers wherever they are.

5. Remove friction at the point of payment

Your customers want the highest level of convenience, otherwise they won’t give you their money. 

Here’s how to make checkout faster with payments technology:

Add biometric authentication. 

Move beyond passwords and outdated security questions. Fingerprint and facial recognition provide a secure, fast way for customers to authenticate payments. They’re up to 93% faster than traditional methods and offer a frictionless experience.

Leverage a network of automatically recognized users. 

By integrating systems that recognize returning customers, you can eliminate repetitive onboarding steps. When a user’s account or payment details are securely tokenized, their data can be automatically retrieved during subsequent visits. This significantly speeds up checkout by allowing customers to reuse previously linked payment methods with minimal input. It reduces drop-offs and ensures a smoother experience while maintaining security and privacy standards.

Upgrade from manual data input like card entry or account/routing numbers.

Manual entry of card details or account & routing numbers is outdated and error-prone. Implement embedded banking experiences that allow customers to log into their bank accounts directly. It not only improves accuracy but also speeds up the payment process, ensuring a smoother checkout.

Avoid blocking legitimate transactions. 

Overly strict fraud detection filters can accidentally flag valid purchases as fraudulent, creating unnecessary friction and frustrating your customers. Implement adaptive fraud prevention tools that can distinguish between real threats and legitimate transactions, reducing false declines and boosting approval rates.

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Optimization starts with your payments partner

Successful payment optimization starts with a critical look at your current stack.

Are you overpaying on processing costs? Are you seeing more and more payments fail? 

Consider a modern payments platform like Aeropay, which provides the low cost of ACH processing with an advanced interface that’s simple, intuitive, and highly secure.

Empower your customers to easily link their financial account and pay by bank, with future transactions completed in a single click.

Aeropay has identified and resolved the biggest sticking points for merchants accepting bank payments — our suite of tools optimizes payment performance with features like Guaranteed ACH which removes the risk of failed payments and makes funds accessible in real time. 

End your dependence on outdated payment networks and take control of money movement at your business. Get started with a payments expert.