Payment link purchase

General information

Payment link purchase is a payment type which uses initial request to generate a web link that customers can simply click to make purchases that involve a one-time transfer of funds from customer to merchant with or without authorisation hold.

This payment type is useful when you need to accept online payments which are not attached to time, physical POS, or online site. You can either have the ecommpay payment platform send payment link to customer through email or you can share it through SMS, messenger, social media, or use any other delivery media.

Payment model

You initiate payment link creation by sending a invoice/create request to the payment platform or by selecting the corresponding action in the Dashboard interface. Once the payment platform receives the request, it creates an invoice operation which eventually results in creating a payment link and delivering it to your web service. You can also have the payment platform to send the payment link to customer email. Here is a sample email with a payment link.

Figure 1. Sample email with a payment link


If required, you can cancel the payment link you recently sent, but only before the customer confirms the purchase. To deactivate a payment link, you need to send an invoice/cancel request to the payment platform.

By clicking payment link, your customers open Payment Page where they can enter their payment information and complete the purchase. Then, the purchase follows one of the following scenarios depending on the card_operation_type parameter value:

  • One-time one-step purchase   In this purchase type, the payment platform creates a sale operation that eventually debits customer account.
  • One-time two-step purchase   On the first step of this purchase type, the payment platform creates an auth operation that results in authorisation hold of funds on customer account. The second step may be initiated in one of the following ways:
    • by request from merchant's web service
    • by merchant employees that use Dashboard for this purpose
    • by the payment platform after a timeout.

For each of these purchase types that use payment link, the payment platform may perform some auxiliary procedures, though no additional input from the web service is required because all operations are performed by Payment Page.

Refund is supported for all successful purchases completed by using payment links. To initiate a refund, you need to submit a refund or select the corresponding action on the payment information tab in the Dashboard interface. For a refund within a card payment, depending on the refund time and amount and the payment instrument used for the payment, one of the following operations is initiated:

  • reversal if the refund is initiated within the operation day regardless of the purchase amount for a Mastercard card and provided that the total purchase amount is refunded for a card of any other card network;
  • refund if the refund is initiated for a card of any card network after operation day and regardless of the amount and within the operation day provided that a partial purchase amount is refunded for a card of all card networks except Mastercard.
Figure 2. State diagram for two-step payment link purchase


The rest of this section describes any possible statuses of a payment link purchase and the related operations. More information about processing payment link purchases is provided in the Payment Page and Dashboard sections.

Payment statuses

The following table describes the statuses of a payment link purchase.

error Payment not initiated because of request verification error Final status. The request can be resent with the same payment identifier and reattempt to perform the payment.
awaiting payment Payment processing initiated, waiting for payment link submission Intermediate status
expired Payment declined because of payment link expiry Final status
invoice canceled Payment declined by merchant Final status
invoice sent Payment processing initiated, payment link sent Intermediate status
processing Payment is being processed Intermediate status
awaiting 3ds result Payment processing is suspended until the information about the 3‑D Secure authentication result is received. If this information is not received within the required timeout time, then the payment status is set to decline. Normally, the timeout is 30 minutes, but it may differ depending on a provider. For more information about specific timeouts, contact technical support at support@ecommpay.com. Intermediate status
awaiting redirect result Operation processing is suspended until the payment system submits a message with the result. Depending on the result the payment system submitted, the status is set either to success or to decline. Intermediate status
awaiting clarification Operation processing is suspended until the payment platform receives the additional information from the customer. If the payment platform does not receive the required information within 30 minutes, the status is set to decline. Intermediate status
awaiting customer Payment processing is suspended until one of additional customer attempts to perform the payment is successfully completed—the status is set to success—or the maximum amount of the additional attempts is exceeded—the status is set to decline. (For more information, see Payment retries.) Intermediate status
awaiting capture Payment processing is suspended until the web service submits a capture or a cancel request. Intermediate status
canceled Authorisation hold previously placed by a auth request has been cancelled. Final status
decline Payment declined Final status
success Payment completed Final status. Also, refund is supported.
partially reversed Partial refund performed before closing the business day the initial payment was completed Final status
reversed Full refund performed before closing the business day the initial payment was completed Final status. Also, refund can be reversed.
partially refunded Payment partially refunded Final status. Also, refund can be reversed.
refunded Full refund performed after closing the business day when the initial payment was completed. The refund is performed in a lump sum or in several sums that in total equal to the initial purchase amount. Final status. Also, refund can be reversed.

The statuses of the invoice operation

The following table describes the statuses of the invoice operation.

awaiting payment Operation initiated, waiting for payment link delivery Intermediate status
expired Operation completed, payment link expired Final status
invoice canceled Operation cancelled by merchant Final status
invoice sent Operation completed, payment link sent Final status

The statuses of the sale and auth operations

The following table describes the statuses for the sale and auth operations.

processing Operation is being performed Intermediate status
awaiting 3ds result Payment processing is suspended until the information about the 3‑D Secure authentication result is received. If this information is not received within the required timeout time, then the payment status is set to decline. Normally, the timeout is 30 minutes, but it may differ depending on a provider. For more information about specific timeouts, contact technical support at support@ecommpay.com. Intermediate status
awaiting redirect result Operation processing is suspended until the payment system submits a callback with the result to the payment platform. Depending on the result returned by the payment system, the status is set to success or decline. Intermediate status
awaiting clarification Operation processing is suspended until the payment platform receives the additional information from the customer. If the payment platform does not receive the required information within 30 minutes, the status is set to decline. Intermediate status
decline Operation declined Final status
success Operation completed Final status

The statuses of the capture and cancel operations

The following table describes the statuses for the capture and cancel operations.

processing Operation is being processed Intermediate status
awaiting clarification Operation processing is suspended until the payment platform receives the additional information from the customer. If the payment platform does not receive the required information within 30 minutes, the status is set to decline. Intermediate status
decline Operation declined Final status
success Operation completed Final status

The statuses of the reversal and refund operations

The reversal and refund operations use the same statuses as the capture and cancel operations.