Explain the Ecommerce Payment Process in One Paragraph

[WSM2006]

Howdy forum, I'm in need of some guidance. Can you explain the ecommerce payment process in one paragraph?

Here's what I have... maybe someone can tell me if I'm missing something or alternate verbiage would be better?:

A consumer visits a website and adds their selections to the shopping cart. Upon checkout, the merchant's shopping cart submits a credit card transaction to a payment gateway on behalf of the customer. When the payment gateway receives the transaction information, it passes the data to the merchant bank’s processor that in turn submits the transaction to the credit card interchange (a network of financial entities that works to manage processing, clearing, and settlement of credit card transactions).

The credit card interchange then routes the transaction to the customer’s credit card issuer, who then approves or declines the transaction. The approval is passed and the appropriate funds and transaction information is sent back through the credit card interchange.

Transaction results are then relayed back to the merchant bank’s processor who sends it to the payment gateway, which stores the results and sends them to the customer and merchant for confirmation and verification. This is when, as a customer, you receive a receipt. The funds for the transaction are then passed to the merchant’s bank and deposited into the merchant’s bank account.

[jestep]

I would skip the interchange part. The way it was stated is somewhat confusing and unnecessary.


I would go for something more like this:

A consumer visits a website and adds their selections to the shopping cart. Upon checkout, the merchant's shopping cart submits a credit card transaction to a payment gateway on behalf of the customer. When the payment gateway receives the transaction information, it passes the data through the businesses merchant account to the credit card processing bank. (The processing bank is connected to a series of financial networks that work to manage processing, clearing, and settlement of credit card transactions).

The processing bank then sends the transaction to the customer’s credit card issuer, who returns an approved or declined response. If approved, the appropriate funds and transaction information is sent back to processing bank, where the funds are secured from the card holder and scheduled to be deposited into the merchant's bank account. If declined, a declined response is sent back to the processing bank.

Transaction results are then relayed back to the payment gateway, which stores the results and sends them to the customer and the merchant for confirmation and verification. This is when, as a customer, you receive a receipt. The funds from the transaction are verified upon the merchant batching, and later deposited into their bank account.