Payment gateway (virtual POS)
What is a payment gateway (virtual POS)?
A payment gateway, or virtual POS, is the service that lets an online shop take card payments, with the card details normally entered on the provider’s page rather than inside the shop. The shopper confirms there, the shop receives an approved or declined answer, and the money moves towards the merchant’s account. The contract, the fees and the payout schedule sit between you and the provider.
Example
A shop takes 100 orders of €60. With cash on delivery the money arrives after the parcel does, and 8 deliveries are refused at the door: €480 is never collected and the shipping both ways is still paid. With a card, the amount is authorised as the order is placed, goods leave against a confirmed payment, and a change of mind becomes a refund that both systems can see.
Taking cards is not free. At an illustrative 1.5 per cent, collecting €6,000 costs €90. What your own rate is, whether there is a minimum per transaction and how many days pass before the money reaches your account are in the provider’s contract, not in the shop.
Mechanically the order runs like this: the shop sends an amount, a currency and an order number; the shopper confirms in a banking app or with a code; the provider answers and the shop writes that answer onto the order. If an answer is lost, the order has to be reconciled afterwards rather than left hanging between two systems.
Why it matters for a business
Cards change the order of the money: you collect before you ship. Refused parcels fall away, cash comes in sooner, and buyers abroad who have never used cash on delivery can order at all.
Card details never enter your shop. They are typed on the provider’s page and the payment is confirmed by the shopper’s bank, as European payment rules require, which keeps your PCI DSS obligations narrow and leaves the risk where it belongs. During an online store build we connect the module and test it with real orders; the contract with the bank or provider stays yours.
What to ask
- Whose name is the contract in, and whose account does the money land in?
- Are card details entered on the provider’s page or in fields inside the shop, and what does that mean for your obligations?
- Can a refund be issued from the admin panel, and is it recorded on the order?
- What happens when the provider does not answer: does the order sit unconfirmed, and how is it reconciled later?
- Which cards and wallets are supported, and do recurring payments work if you sell a subscription?
- Is there a test environment where orders are run end to end before launch?