Requests, payments, operations

The ecommpay payment platform is used to process payment, acting as an intermediary between the merchant and the customer. Payment created in the payment platform is a set of tasks to transfer funds between them. It can be a transfer of funds from the customer to the merchant (purchase), or from the merchant to the customer (payout). Refund while refund is processed in terms of purchase and is not a separate payment type. However, payments also include payment instrument verification that can involve transferring a zero amount or holding of a specified amount on the customer account ans subsequent cancellation of this holding.

In the ecommpay payment platform there are following payment types:

  • purchase—one-time transfer of funds from customer to merchant performed in one step or two steps.
  • recurring (purchase in some cases)—recurring transfer of funds from customer to merchant on demand or auto performed.
  • payout—transfer of funds from merchant to customer.
  • account verification—checking a customer card validity that can include transferring of zero amount funds or holding of a specified amount on the customer card account and subsequent cancellation of this holding.

Processing of each payment of any of these types is initiated by the merchant. The merchant can initiate the payment processing either using the API of the payment platform (the Gate API or the Payment Page API) by sending the request or using the user interface (Dashboard) by performing the corresponding action, equal to the request.

When using Payment Page, you can open the payment form for processing one-time and COF purchases, as well as for payment instrument verification. Once the customer confirms payment processing, in the payment platform the payment object is created and the first (or the only one) operation associated with this payment is initiated.

Figure 1. The relationship diagram for requests, payments, and operations

When the payment takes more that one operations, normally merchant needs to send the request for initiating to each subsequent operation. However, in some cases, the payment platform automatically initiates the subsequent operation. For instance, refund processing can be initiated by using Gate or Dashboard, and previously held funds can be debited to the customer account automatically after specific time lag.

Using Payment Page, you can perform the following targeted actions:
  • one-time one-step purchase processing
  • authorisation hold as a part of one-time two-step purchase
  • COF purchase registration
  • payment instrument verification

The other topics of the Payment models and statuses section contain the information about payment types that can be initiated by using Payment Page.