Payment Gateways

payment gateway is a technology used by merchants to accept debit or credit card purchases from customers. The term includes not only the physical card-reading devices found in brick-and-mortar retail stores but also the payment processing portals found in online stores. However, brick-and-mortar payment gateways in recent years have begun accepting phone-based payments using QR codes or Near Field Communication (NFC) technology.

A payment gateway is a transaction processing technology that captures, stores, and transmits card information from the customer to the acquirer. It then shares the payment acceptance or decline notification back to the customer. In other words, the payment gateway works as the middleman between a customer and the merchant. By acting as an interface between a merchant’s website and their acquirer, an online payment gateway can simplify how merchants process card payments.