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Though roughly one-fourth of merchants say they are unlikely to remain with their current processor, few are shopping for new processors, according to a recent Aite Group LLC report. Boston-based Aite says it surveyed 160 merchants between May and August last year for its research. Twenty-six percent of the merchants reported they are "not at all likely" to "not likely" to stay with their current processors, but only 8% reported they were searching for a replacement. Merchants experience "inertia" and "just don't want to move" despite being unhappy with their processors, says Adil Moussa, the Aite analyst who wrote the report "The Allure of Greener Grass: An Analysis of Merchant Attrition." Changing processors "is a perceived hassle. People flat just don't want to change," says Moussa. Some merchants believe "it's better to stick with the [processor] you have versus trying to move to someone else and [face] a glitch in the system," he says.
