Your ecommerce website is your online store and your payment gateway is your online point-of-sale terminal. A payment gateway is the secure technology that connects that store to the banking network, encrypting card details and authorising each transaction so that you get paid quickly and safely. When a customer pays, the gateway securely passes their card details to a payment processor, which checks and approves the transaction, then sends that answer straight back to your checkout, all in a few seconds. The gateway itself does not move the money; that is the processor's job. Its role is to keep card information secure while the approval happens fast.

Think about the few seconds after a customer enters their card details to check out online. Behind that pause, a secure chain of checks is quietly running between your business, Powertranz, and several banks. Here is what happens, step by step.

Before it starts

A customer places an order and enters their card details on your website.

Step 1: Request sent

Your business submits the purchase details over a secure connection to the Powertranz gateway.

Step 2: Formatted and forwarded

Powertranz formats that data and sends it on to the payment processor.

Step 3: Authorisation requested

The processor submits an authorisation request to the card network, such as Visa or Mastercard. The network routes it to the issuing bank (the bank that gave the customer their card).

Step 4: Transaction Response – Issuing bank responds

The issuing bank (the card holders bank) checks the account and responds with either approval or a decline.

Step 5: Transaction Response - Processor

That response travels back through the card network to the processor, who passes it to Powertranz.

Step 6: Transaction Response - Records updated

Powertranz updates its systems and sends the result back to your business.

Step 7: The customer sees the answer

Your business shows the customer their answer in real time, approved or declined, right there at checkout.

Step 8: Settlement submitted

At the end of the day, Powertranz submits a settlement file to the processor covering every approved sale.

Step 9: Transaction clearing

The processor clears that file through the card network (interchange)

Step 10: Transaction clearing - funds move

The customer is debited for the purchase, and your business account is credited.

All of that happens in the time it takes to click ‘Place your order’. Powertranz itself never moves the money; that job belongs to the processor and the banks in the chain. Our role is to carry the information safely and quickly at every step so the right answer, and eventually the right funds, land in the right place.

Small step, big shift

Powertranz is the gateway built for the Caribbean and Central America, partnered with 20+ Banks and processors and powers payments for 17,000+ merchants across the region. Powertranz connects more banks, processors and ecommerce platforms than anyone else in the Caribbean.

Learn more at powertranz.com/payment-gateway.