Who Checkout.com is
Checkout.com is a payments company headquartered in London, launched in 2012 by its founder and CEO, Guillaume Pousaz. It became a principal member of Visa and Mastercard in 2013, and today acquires and processes online payments for enterprise merchants and digital businesses, with payouts, fraud tools and network tokens around them.
In the UK, Checkout Ltd is an e-money institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority; in the EU, Checkout SAS is licensed by the French ACPR, with passports into other EEA countries; in the UAE, Checkout MENA is licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE for retail payment services. Its direct acquiring in Europe and the UAE is why our checkout and card acquiring modules connect to it.
What it does in your platform
Card acquiring
Acquires your merchants' online and in-app card payments as a direct acquirer, with captures, refunds and settlement matched to the ledger. For taps on a merchant's phone, the module uses an acquirer with tap-on-phone support in that country.
Checkout
Processes cards in your hosted checkout, with Apple Pay, Google Pay, 3-D Secure when the risk calls for it, and Visa and Mastercard network tokens for saved cards. Checkout.com's Flow components take the card details on the web and in iOS and Android apps.
How the connection works
The modules call Checkout.com's API from your platform, and Checkout.com reports back through webhooks signed in the Cko-Signature header. Your apps only receive the payment session for the buyer in front of them.
A payment session
When a buyer reaches the checkout, the module creates a payment session with Checkout.com, and Flow shows the methods this buyer can use, on the web or in your app.
The buyer pays
By card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. If the risk or the card's issuer calls for it, 3-D Secure runs in the same flow.
Checkout.com authorises
As acquirer, Checkout.com sends the payment over the card network to the issuer, and the buyer sees the answer at once.
A signed webhook
An event signed with an HMAC of its payload, made with your webhook key, gives the module the final status, and the ledger records it.
Capture and settlement
The module captures the payment when the order is fulfilled, Checkout.com settles the funds, and the settlement is matched to the ledger, so merchants see what they are paid.
Next to other providers
In the checkout, Checkout.com can carry all card payments or share them with other processors: traffic can follow whichever processor does better for each card type and country, and a decline can be retried on another when the reason allows it.
In acquiring, it covers online and in-app payments next to an acquirer for taps on phones, and every payment lands in the same ledger and backoffice. Merchants integrate once with the checkout, so changing a processor later does not change their integration or your apps.
When Checkout.com fits best
A strong fit when
- Your merchants sell online and in apps, in the UK, the EEA or the UAE.
- You want a direct acquirer with its own licences in Europe and the UAE.
- You want cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay from one processor, with network tokens for saved cards.
Also worth a look
- An acquirer with tap on phone, for merchants who take payments in person.
- A provider you already have a contract with: it becomes a connector too.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Checkout.com account and contract in place, with the Checkout.com entity that covers the countries your merchants sell in.
Methods and rules
We set up the payment methods with you: cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay, 3-D Secure, network tokens for saved cards, and your routing rules.
The keys
Secret keys and the webhook signature key go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else, so every event is proven to come from Checkout.com.
A full test run
Every flow runs first in Checkout.com's sandbox, from the first payment to refunds and settlement, before your first real buyer.
