Between a good and a bad payment setup sits three points of revenue. The levers are unglamorous and very real.
Local rails beat clever code
The single biggest lever is where a transaction is acquired. A card issued in Brazil approves dramatically better through local acquiring than through a foreign acquirer — no SDK setting fixes geography. Routing per market is table stakes.
Friction only when demanded
3DS everywhere is a conversion tax; 3DS nowhere is a decline machine. The working answer is step-up authentication only when the issuer or regulation demands it, decided per transaction in milliseconds.
Retries with a reputation
Issuers score merchants on retry behaviour. Disciplined, bank-aware retry schedules keep that reputation clean, which quietly lifts approval on every future transaction. It is unglamorous compounding — which is why it works.