Off-Site Payment Gateway


	Off-Site Payment Gateway
	Last Edited - 01/14/2014 10:00am PST
	Category Path - Glossary

An off-site payment gateway is a company that performs the processing of an online purchase, and then makes the decision of whether to approve or decline the transaction. The gateway is the system that transfers the funds from the customer's financial institution over to the merchant's bank account.

An example of an off-site gateway would be: PayPal Website Payments Standard

Off-site payment gateways differ from regular payment gateways in that they require the customer to leave your website and complete the transaction on the gateway's website.

When customers pay with an off-site payment gateway, they leave the store entirely and complete the transaction on the off-site payment gateway's website.

After the customer has completed the transaction on the off-site payment gateway's website, the gateway then sends the shopping cart software a notification of the transaction. This happens behind the scenes, and invisibly to the customer. When the shopping cart software receives this notification, it creates and/or updates the store's records that are associated with that particular order.

pending off-site payment gateway transactions

When the customer leaves your store to complete their transaction on the off-site payment gateway's website, the store first takes a snapshot of the order and saves it in a list of Pending Off-Site Payment Gateway Transactions.

Those records can be reviewed by going within the shopping cart software's Administration Area at [Reports > Pending Off-Site Transactions]. When the off-site payment gateway's notification is received, the pending off-site transaction is removed, and an Order is generated for it.