Definition
Retail payment leakage is the measurable loss of earned or earnable revenue between customer purchase intent and final retained settlement.
The core idea: retailers do not only lose revenue because customers say no. They lose revenue after customers say yes.
The nine RECLAIM pillars
| Pillar | Leakage type | Example metric |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Intent Leakage | Payment-step abandonment |
| 2 | Tender Fit Leakage | Preferred tender coverage |
| 3 | Authorization Leakage | Approval rate and false decline estimate |
| 4 | Authentication Leakage | 3DS, OTP, or login completion |
| 5 | Recovery Leakage | Failed-payment recovery value |
| 6 | Fraud & Abuse Leakage | Fraud loss, chargebacks, false positives |
| 7 | Loyalty & Stored Value Leakage | Suspicious redemption and promo abuse |
| 8 | Settlement & Fee Leakage | Fee variance and reconciliation breaks |
| 9 | Omnichannel Operations Leakage | BOPIS payment cancellations and refund mismatches |
Maturity model
| Level | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reactive | Issues are found through complaints, finance misses, fraud spikes, or outage reports. |
| 2 | Visible | Basic dashboards exist, but metrics are siloed across payments, fraud, product, and finance. |
| 3 | Managed | Leakage is measured by pillar, ownership exists, and recurring reviews happen. |
| 4 | Optimized | Teams actively test routing, recovery, authentication, fraud rules, checkout UX, and settlement controls. |
| 5 | Predictive | Leakage is forecast, benchmarked, automated, and treated as a revenue growth discipline. |
Scoring method
Each pillar is scored across five dimensions: visibility, measurement, ownership, control, and optimization. Each dimension is scored from 0 to 4. Each pillar has a maximum score of 20. The total RECLAIM score is the sum of all pillar scores divided by 180.
| Score | Rating |
|---|---|
| 0 to 25 | High Leakage Risk |
| 26 to 50 | Fragmented Control |
| 51 to 70 | Managed but Leaky |
| 71 to 85 | Advanced |
| 86 to 100 | Leakage Leader |
Recommended actions by maturity level
- Level 1: Build the leakage map and define common terms.
- Level 2: Create dashboards by pillar and assign cross-functional owners.
- Level 3: Quantify dollar impact and prioritize the top leakage pools.
- Level 4: Run controlled experiments across routing, UX, fraud, recovery, and tender mix.
- Level 5: Build predictive monitoring, benchmarks, and automated intervention.