Every holiday season, as consumers scramble to purchase all the presents on their lists, retailers enjoy the boost in sales as a little gift of their own. However, they are soon snapped back to reality when revenue falls back to normal in January and customer returns start to eat into the stellar profits they recorded before the holidays.

In fact, most U.S. e-retailers can expect return rates of between 20 and 40 percent of their total online sales, according to Rakuten Super Logistics' recently published "Holiday Returns Handbook."

For businesses without an optimized return process, these returns can cut into profits beyond just the cost of issuing reimbursements — they may lose even more on their bottom line having paid merchant card processing fees on sales that end up being refunded. To reduce the cost of processing credit and debit cards, merchants should be sure to have the credit voucher interchange returned when processing cardholder credits.

Interchange is one of the largest components of the fees merchants pay to accept card payments. It is collected from merchants as part of their discount rates and paid back to the card issuing bank.  When a merchant refunds a cardholder, credit voucher interchange kicks in, paying interchange fees back to the merchant's processor, which should flow back to the merchant.  Unfortunately this isn't always the case as many merchant providers don't pass along the refunded interchange.

This often overlooked nuance of merchant rates can represent a significant profit loss during one of the slowest times of the year in retail. Luckily, it can be mitigated by carefully planning the returns process and selecting the right merchant services provider.

Merchants should check their merchant processing statements, calculate their annual cardholder return volume and identify how they are billed for processing cardholder returns so as not to leave savings from credit voucher interchange on the table. Merchants should also seek direct interchange pass through billing from their merchant account provider. However, keep in mind that not all interchange pass through rate programs are the same, and many do not return the credit voucher interchange. Get a quote now at http://merchantrates.com to see the Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover card interchange rates.

For more best practices on returns, check out our Essential Merchant Guide to Card Payment Refunds!