# Attach Rate: The Single Biggest Lever in Embedded Payments

## Payments 101

### What attach rate actually means

Attach rate: the single biggest lever in embedded payments

One number that tells you how much of your payments opportunity you’re capturing.

**The definition**  
Merchants using your payments product ÷ total merchants on platform

If you have 1,000 merchants on your software platform and 300 are processing payments through your embedded offering — your attach rate is 30%.

**What it tells you**  
The % of your potential payments revenue you’re actually earning. Every merchant not attached is a merchant whose payment volume — and the revenue share that comes with it — is going to whatever bank or processor they signed up with before you had a payments product.

**Not to be confused with wallet share** — which measures the % of a single merchant’s total payment volume flowing through your platform. Attach rate is about breadth (how many merchants). Wallet share is about depth (how much of each merchant’s volume). Both matter. This piece is about attach rate.

### Why a small change in attach rate is a massive revenue event

Same platform. Same merchant base. Completely different payments business.

5,000 merchants. **$1M avg annual processing volume each.**

Two platforms. A $17M difference in payments income.

**Industry average attach is below 20%** · Forward partners average 70%

**Industry average**  
20% attach rate  
Merchants attached 1,000  
Avg volume / merchant $1M  
Gross payments revenue $10M  
Cost of payments 12%  
Payments income $8.8M

**Forward partners 70% ATTACH RATE**  
70% attach rate  
Merchants attached 3,500  
Avg volume / merchant $1M  
Gross payments revenue $35M  
Cost of payments 25%  
Payments income $26.25M

Payments income difference: 20% vs. 70% attach: **+$17.45M / year**

### What this means at the merchant level: doubling ARPU without raising prices

When a merchant attaches to payments, the revenue impact per customer is transformational.

**Typical SMB merchant profile**  
Annual sales $1M  
Volume $700K  
SaaS ARPU today $2,400  
% paid by card 70%  
Net take rate 0.75%

**Payments ARPU**  
+$5,250  
Card payment volume $700K  
Payments ARPU $5,250 / yr  
New combined ARPU $7,650 / yr

**ARPU increase (software + payments)**  
Prior: $2,400  
New: $7,650  
**+219%**

No price increase. No new product. Just one attached merchant — and the payments revenue that comes with it.

### What drives attach rate up — and what kills it

Attach rate isn’t set at launch. It’s built over time through deliberate decisions.

#### ↑ Drives attach up
- Payments native to the workflow  
- Native UX  
- Onboarding that converts  
- Merchant value prop  
- Cost transparency

#### ↓ Kills attach rate
- No active attach strategy  
- Merchants already have a processor  
- Your customers are swivel-chairing payments  
- Mispriced payments

### What this means for your platform
1. **Attach rate is the most underleveraged metric in embedded payments.** Most platforms track it loosely if at all. But it’s the single number that most directly determines whether your payments offering is a real business or a feature that never compounds.
2. **The gap between 20% and 70% attach isn’t a product problem — it’s a strategy problem.** The merchants are already in your platform. Getting them attached is a function of onboarding design, incentive structure, sales motion, and ongoing activation — not a better payments API.
3. **Attach rate is not a launch metric. It’s an ongoing discipline.** The platforms that win on payments treat attach rate the way they treat churn — something actively managed, reported on, and improved every quarter. **That’s the difference between a payments feature and a payments business.**

**We help platforms build and run the attach strategy — not just the payments infrastructure.** From onboarding design to ongoing activation, we work alongside your team to move the number that moves the revenue.