There are three different technology platforms that might be involved in processing your transactions:
-
Gateway
-
Merchant processor portal
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Customer relationship management (CRM) software
The following is a brief overview of the different platforms. Review the remainder of the article for greater details about each platform.
|
Platform |
Basic Description |
Functionality |
Stored Data |
Usage |
|
Gateway |
Payment terminal for transactions |
Processes payments and refunds |
Card information, billing address, shipping address |
Required |
|
Merchant Processor Portal |
Online access for merchant account |
Records merchant account activity |
Daily payment and dispute details |
Required |
|
CRM |
Digital contact directory of customer information |
Stores relevant customer and order information |
Customer contact information, order details, customer service notes |
Optional |
A gateway is a software or device-based service that receives, protects, and shares transaction information. It is the technology that makes it possible to accept your customers’ payments for the goods or services they buy.
If you want to process card-not-present transactions, you must have a gateway. The gateway is the equivalent of a point-of-sale (POS) terminal that reads card-present transactions in a brick-and-mortar store. Think of the gateway like a cash register for electronic transactions.
A gateway provides many useful services:
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Receives transaction information from your website and ensures safe transmission to the payment processor through encryption and tokenization
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Initiates the authorization process and returns responses
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Calculates taxes
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Can apply fraud detection tools such as geolocation, transaction velocity analysis, blocklists, device fingerprinting, Address Verification System (AVS), and more
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Converts currencies
-
Processes refunds
Some examples of the data that might be stored in your gateway include:
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The customer’s card number (truncated)
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The customer’s billing address
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The order shipping address
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Authorization code
-
AVS response
-
Card Verification Value (CVV) response
A merchant processor portal is a log of all transaction processing activity. It is the technology platform that reports the deposits and withdrawals made to your merchant account.
If you process credit or debit card transactions, you must have a merchant account, which will have a corresponding merchant processor portal. Think of your processor portal as an online bank statement.
Note
Your processor will determine which portal is associated with your account. Unlike your gateway and CRM, you do not get to pick which technology you use.
Some examples of the data that might be stored in your processor portal include:
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Merchant account information
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Dates and amounts of your settled batches of transactions (sales and refunds)
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Processing fees
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Chargeback information
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Monthly processing statements
Customer relationship management (CRM) software stores information about your various contacts and customers. It keeps track of the interactions you have had with your customers.
Think of your CRM as a digital contact directory or address book.
Depending on how you configure your software, a CRM typically acts as an all-in-one warehouse for every single data point related to your customers and their interactions with your business. It funnels transaction information from your gateway into the platform and combines it with general customer and order information. You can also update your CRM with chargeback information you receive from your merchant processor portal.
While you must have a gateway and merchant processor portal to accept transactions online, using a CRM is optional (though highly recommended).
Some examples of the data that might be stored in your CRM include:
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A customer’s name, email address, shipping address, billing address, phone number, and other relevant contact details
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A description of the products or services the customer purchased
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Information about how the customer interacts with your business (pages visited, offers redeemed, etc.)
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The marketing source or campaign that generated the sale
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Related customer service notes
Payment gateways can be contracted through the merchant account, provided in conjunction with other vendors’ services, or offered as a stand-alone product. In fact, some payment facilitators—like Shopify, Stripe, and PayPal—provide the functionality of all three platforms in one (gateway, processing portal, and CRM).
Even though a platform offers an all-in-one service, you might not use all the available functionality and instead mix and match platforms. In these situations, it is important to note how each platform is being used so you can clearly define which information is stored where.
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