# GMV (gross merchandise value)

https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/gmv/

*Last updated: 2026-08-03*

The total value of sales before fees, refunds and chargebacks. Useful for sizing a business; misleading as a measure of what actually reached the bank account.

## Why it matters to a merchant

A useful headline and a poor basis for a payments decision, because it says nothing about the shape underneath it. The same GMV made of a few large sales and of many small ones produces very different processing costs — which is why basket size, not turnover, is usually the number to bring to a pricing conversation. It is also the number most likely to be quoted at a provider by a merchant who has been told their volume gives them leverage. Sometimes it does. But a provider pricing a business reads the shape underneath — average sale, card mix, present versus not present, how much of it is foreign-issued — because that is what determines what the business actually costs to serve. A merchant who arrives with those four numbers is having a different and much shorter conversation than one who arrives with a turnover figure, and it is usually a better-priced one.

## Related terms

*What it costs, and what gets measured*

- [MDR (merchant discount rate)](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/mdr/)
- [Interchange](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/interchange/)
- [Merchant account](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/merchant-account/)
- [Effective rate](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/effective-rate/)
- [Per-transaction fee](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/per-transaction-fee/)
- [Blended rate](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/blended-rate/)
- [Interchange-plus](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/interchange-plus/)
- [Cross-border interchange](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/cross-border-interchange/)
- [Net settlement](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/net-settlement/)
- [Rolling reserve](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/rolling-reserve/)
- [Surcharge](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/surcharge/)

- [All 74 terms](https://www.uniwebpay.com/glossary/)

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