On-line Credit Card Transactions

For sites where you will be taking payment by credit card directly from the web site, integration to an on-line credit card processor is required. Sentai has completed the integration to the largest and most widely used on-line processor, Authorize.Net, and will include this integration in the cost of Compass Ecommerce:Solutions licenses.  Authorize.Net provides Internet Protocol (IP) payment gateway services that enable merchants to authorize, settle, and manage credit card or electronic check transactions on-line.                                                                                            

Payment Gateways

Payment gateways facilitate electronic commerce by enabling merchants to accept credit cards and electronic checks as methods of payment for goods and services sold on-line. The gateway acts as a bridge between your web site and the financial institutions that process payment transactions. Payment data is collected on-line from the shopper and then submitted to the gateway for real-time authorization.

Authorization is the process of checking the validity and available balance of a customer's credit card before the transaction can be accepted. To authorize a given credit card transaction, the gateway transmits the transaction information to the appropriate financial institutions for validation and then returns the response (approved or declined) from the institution to the merchant or customer. The payment gateway supports real-time and off-line requests for credit card authorization.

How it works

Your web site will collect payment information by requesting the gateway's Payment Form. The system will also request the gateway's Receipt Page to return to the customer. For each request or transaction submitted to the Payment Gateway, the merchant generates and submits a unique fingerprint.

Collecting Payment Data

The page hosted by the gateway to collect payment data is referred to as the Payment Form, and it can be configured by the merchant to look like their web site. Using the gateway-hosted Payment Form, merchants can collect payment data securely without having a secure web site.

Rendering a Response to the Customer

The response returned by the gateway to the customer's browser is referred to as a Receipt Page. The merchant can configure the Receipt Page to look like their web site. However, the merchant also has the option of receiving the transaction response from the gateway, customizing it, and then sending a Receipt Page back to the gateway. The gateway then relays the merchant-generated Receipt Page to the customer's browser. This response option is referred to as Relay Response. Merchants who use Relay Response can exercise a greater degree of control over the messaging of a response to the customer.