New businesses are often a bit confused by the concept of a Payment gateway solution. Which is fair enough… There are a lot of moving parts to think about. We get it. But we're pioneers of our own Payment Gateway. That means we know a thing or two about how they work. 

Want the down-low?

Here's the answer to every question you’ve ever had about Payment Gateway Solutions.

When you buy things online, you need to give the seller the money they need for the transaction. 

But you'll have noticed that, these days, you don’t have to send over physical coins in a little envelope. Physical money is soooo last year... That means we need new, secure ways of transferring funds digitally.

Vendor websites (like the ones we'll make for you!) take you to a payment page. You put in your credit card details. The seller receives the money you pay. You get the product.

Simple, right?

This process is all controlled by a Payment Gateway, (or just 'Gateway’, to its friends). 

The humble gateway is a secure online link. It connects the seller (merchant) and the bank, so that you (the customer) can get hold of the goods you bought. It’s built into the running of your website, and can happen automatically or manually. 

With their technical names, the entities involved sound a bit like weird superheroes. Nevertheless, these are the folks involved with any gateway transaction: 

1. The Merchant is the business/individual/brand who does the selling. They use the payment gateway to accept card payments over the internet. 

2. The Acquirer is the licensed financial institution which provides a healthy backdrop to mitigate any risk. They’re usually licensed with Visa and Mastercard. 

3. The Issuing Bank is the customer’s bank, who need to verify that they have enough money in the account to process a transaction

4. The Payment Gateway refers to the technology through which all this communication happens.

Here’s a breakdown of what happens when you make a purchase on a website with Zap Pay embedded:

1. The customer fills in their card details; they will do this on the Payment Gateway, Zap Pay

2. Zap Pay encrypts this data, and sends it to the acquirer, DNA Payments

3. DNA Payments gets a notification that someone is trying to buy something over at Zap 

4. DNA Payments go through Visa (some will use Mastercard, depending on who they’re licensed with) to send a message to the Issuing Bank

5. The Issuing Bank will have a look at the customer’s bank account and verify that they have enough money to compete the transaction

6. They will then go back, through Visa, to DNA Payments. 

7. DNA Payments completes the sale, and Zap Pay confirms this on the original Zap site

This sort of format generally refers to e-commerce. However, as a competition business, the process can be slightly different. You’ve got to do payouts and receive payments so that you can send people their prizes. In a way, you take the role of both the merchant and the customer in that cycle. You need a Payment Gateway Solution which adapts to that. It should facilitate both RECEIVING funds and sending them out.

As a competition site, there are some bits and pieces to bear in mind: 

1. Payouts 

When people win cash, you have to send them that cash, right? This can be done via automatic transfer (especially for Instant Wins) or manually. 

2. Compliance and licensing 

As you know, competition sites in the UK are regulated in terms of gambling and lottery laws.  Payment providers can be more strict about these businesses. Sometimes they're known to reserve funds or delay payouts to mitigate risk. 

As complicated as it might seem right now, we recommend a basic understanding of this stuff.

Gateways are a vital part of ensuring the safety of your business. They support your funds and your customers' funds, building trust and transparency.

A good Payment Gateway Solution makes all the difference. They also provide valuable metrics. As a business, you should monitor the transactions you process so you understand what's happening with your cash flow and customers.

The right Payment Gateway Solution will support you against regulation changes, too. Competition sites need to consider this more than generic e-commerce sites. A secure, efficient Gateway verifies and complies with GDPR. It reassures people of their security, minimising the effects of regulation changes on your competition business.

Zap Pay is here, and it’s here to stay! 

Our very own payment gateway product for competitions like yours. 

Your Payment Gateway should suit your functions as an online competition business. No one understands that better than Zap. We’ve got heaps of experience supporting smooth transactions. If you have any questions about Zap Pay, all you’ve got to do is send us a message. One of our expert team will be there in no time at all.