Online payment gateways explained

At Ecentric, our universal payment gateway (UPG) is an easy and secure platform for businesses wishing to accept online payments.

What is a payment gateway?

At Ecentric, our universal payment gateway (UPG) is an easy and secure platform for businesses wishing to accept online payments. Traditionally, online payments would occur with credit cards, however, Ecentric’s UPG allows for various payment methods including EFT’s, mobile phone payments and secure call centre transactions.

How do payment gateways work?

To understand how a payment gateway works, it is important to understand how this platform fits into the journey of an online payment. The following happens when an online payment occurs:

The customer selects a product or service they wish to purchase online. When satisfied with their selection, they proceed to the payment page to finalise the transaction. This payment page can be customised to suit your business, on aesthetics and technical maintenance capacity.

The customer is then prompted to enter their payment information, such as their credit or debit card details. These details are then securely passed onto our payment gateway. This information is then tokenised or encrypted before fraud checks are done. Once these are completed, the payment details are sent to the acquiring bank, which then shares the information with the relevant card scheme.

The card schemes, the most popular being Visa and Mastercard, then perform further fraud checks before sharing the payment information with the issuing bank. Once the issuing bank has completed its fraud screening, it will either authorise or reject the transaction. This final authorisation message is then shared back to the card schemes and the acquirer.

If the transaction is approved, the acquirer is tasked with collecting the customer details and payment information from the issuing bank and puts the funds on hold to be transferred to the merchant’s account. This process, which is known as settlement, typically occurs after the fact.

Should the transaction be approved, the merchant’s software utilises the information to either confirm or decline to payment with the customer making the online purchase. Hence, the Ecentric payment gateway in this process acts as the third party that validates the consumer’s information, provides encrypted security to the process and allows for successful fraud-free communication between the consumer, merchant, acquirer, issuer and card schemes if applicable.

Why use Ecentric payment gateways for your business’s online transactions?

As the ‘middleman’ in an online transaction, Ecentric payment gateways have the role of adding security to the approval process that needs to occur between the customer and the merchant. This gateway allows ease in the online payment process and helps instill safety against fraudulent behaviours, for both customer and merchant.

The near 100% uptime of Ecentric’s online payment solutions allows merchants the peace of mind that their clients can experience secure, convenient and successful payments every time. Our universal payment gateway can also be accessed across all devices, such as smartphones, tablets and PCs with excellent responsiveness.

The uniqueness of our universal payment gateway

The advanced and market leading core engine use for the Ecentric UPG payment gateway simplifies the process and enables flexibility for the merchant to process payments and collections through multiple channels. From large enterprises to small businesses, all the services are available through a single service provider, Ecentric’s Universal Payment Gateway, with reconciliation and reporting available through a consolidated web portal. A single support desk delivers market-leading client services desktop our merchant customers across South Africa.

For more information on payment gateway solutions for your business, please get in touch with our team.

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