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Industry Benchmark

Retail PCI Compliance Benchmark

PCI compliance benchmarks for retail organisations including brick-and-mortar, omnichannel, and point-of-sale environments. Based on 932 retailers.

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1,180
Avg Audit Hours
annually
1,050
Median Hours
50th percentile
$178k
Avg Annual Cost
USD
52/100
Maturity Score
Foundational
61d
Avg Remediation
per finding
35%
Automation Rate
evidence automated

Audit Hours Percentile Distribution

620
P25 (Top 25%)
1,050
P50 (Median)
1,480
P75
2,200
P90 (Highest 10%)
Distribution range (hours)
0 hrs2,200 hrs

Common Remediation Bottlenecks

POS system evidence collection78%
Multi-location scope management71%
Manual evidence collection65%
Vendor POS compliance verification52%

Common SAQ Types in Retail

SAQ-B
32% of orgs
SAQ-C
28% of orgs
SAQ-D (Merchant)
24% of orgs
SAQ-B-IP
16% of orgs

Frequently Asked Questions

What PCI SAQ type applies to brick-and-mortar retailers?

Most brick-and-mortar retailers use SAQ-B (imprint or standalone dial-out terminals), SAQ-B-IP (standalone IP-connected terminals), or SAQ-C (POS system connected to internet). Retailers with complex integrated POS environments or processing over 1 million Visa transactions annually may require a full ROC.

Why does retail have high remediation times?

Retail organisations average 61 days per finding — among the highest of all industries. The primary drivers are legacy POS hardware replacement cycles, multi-location coordination complexity, and vendor dependency for POS software patches and P2PE validations.

How does omnichannel retail affect PCI scope?

Omnichannel retail significantly expands PCI scope by combining in-store POS, e-commerce payment pages, mobile applications, and click-and-collect systems. Each channel can represent a distinct cardholder data environment requiring separate controls documentation and testing.

Why is retail automation adoption low compared to other industries?

Retail achieves only 35% evidence automation — the second lowest of all industries. Legacy POS systems often lack APIs for automated evidence collection, store-level IT capabilities vary widely, and multi-location environments make centralised tooling deployment challenging.

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How Does Your Retail Programme Compare?

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Based on n=932 retail organisations. Updated weekly.