How Calico Corners and Finix upgraded national store payments

Background

Calico Corners has spent decades evolving from a traditional fabric shop into a full-service custom provider offering in-home design experiences, custom furnishings, and upholstery services. Operating across nationwide brick-and-mortar storefronts, e-commerce channels, and direct consultation services, Calico relies on a highly personalized sales model that blends physical showroom visits with extensive follow-up orders. Central to this model are Calico’s experienced design consultants, who build long-term, high-touch relationships with clients. 

The challenge

Creating custom home spaces is a major decision, so transactions rarely happen all at once. A client might build a quote in-store with a designer, review plans at home, and call back days later to place an order over the phone. While these card-not-present transactions represent the majority of Calico’s sales, legacy processors evaluated them using rigid, automated risk algorithms.

This issue highlights a broader industry problem: traditional payment processors frequently lump mid-market retailers into generic risk categories rather than taking the time to understand custom business models. Legacy providers also treated Calico as too small to matter, flagging routine phone sales as suspicious and placing blanket holds on funds—despite Calico’s exceptionally low chargeback history. For Calico’s design consultants and clientele, these unexpected fund holds created administrative strain, delayed orders, and disrupted customer relationships.

The solution

Calico turned to Finix because they needed a payment partner that looked at how their business actually operated. Together, they built a flexible payment setup centered on direct human service and support for store teams.

When Calico decided to switch to Finix, they set an ambitious schedule to transition their nationwide store network location by location. Setting up stores on a smooth rolling schedule meant updating hardware and helping staff adapt to new touchscreen devices efficiently.  Because many of these long-tenured team members had relied on traditional mechanical payment terminals for decades, maintaining simple, reliable, and intuitive store technology was vital.

Ensuring the technology works seamlessly kept store staff confident and allowed them to stay focused on client consultations rather than struggling with complicated hardware or software updates. Rather than leaving store teams to troubleshoot on their own, Finix provided direct, real-time support throughout the rollout to resolve issues quickly and keep stores running. To support Calico's primary card-not-present sales channel, Finix also collaborated directly with Calico's development team to build secure payment forms for phone, catalog, and web orders. The collaboration remains ongoing, and both teams treat payment processing as an active, supportive partnership.

Results & Impact

Beyond setting up payment channels, the biggest ongoing impact for Calico Corners has been eliminating daily operational friction. Billing management is largely hands-off, and store managers can resolve questions quickly through direct contact with real people rather than navigating automated support queues.

By partnering with a processor that evaluated Calico’s true risk profile rather than applying blanket holds, Calico eliminated billing anomalies across phone, catalog, and web sales. The smooth nationwide rollout was completed quickly and demonstrated that modern payment infrastructure could be deployed without interrupting store operations. Today, every avoided friction point keeps store teams focused on what matters most: supporting employees and delivering exceptional design experiences for clients.