Credit cards are being employed in more and morebusiness-to-business (B2B) transactions. From the seller's point ofview, that can mean a lot of money walking out the door incredit-card fees.

A recently released reportfrom REL Consulting shows the use of credit cards in B2B hasincreased dramatically. According to REL, the information itgathers on large companies shows credit card use almost doubledbetween 2012 and 2013, to represent 9% of all B2B payments. RELestimates B2B sellers in the U.S. now incur an average of $2.2million in credit card processing fees per $1 billion ofrevenue.

“It's almost a hidden cost that a lot of organizations haven'treally noticed,” said Veronica Wills, a director at REL and leaderof its customer-to-cash practice. “The reason it goes unnoticed[is] a lot of organizations look at the profit for a particularproduct or service as being the direct cost versus what they sellit for, and the direct cost isn't going to include the cost of thepayment.”