Glossary
Merchant
A merchant is the business that sells to payers and accepts their payments: an online shop, a marketplace seller, a subscription service, a gaming operator, a school. It contracts with a licensed payment service provider or acquirer, integrates a checkout or an API, receives the money on the agreed settlement schedule and carries the refunds and chargebacks of its sales. In a platform the merchant is the account on whose behalf payments are created.
What a merchant integrates
The simplest merchant uses a hosted checkout: it creates a payment and sends the payer to a page. A merchant with developers integrates the API server-to-server and takes the card data into its own PCI scope. Both receive webhooks about every change and use a cabinet for payments, refunds, balances, keys and reports.
Merchant, sub-merchant, seller
A payment facilitator or a marketplace has sub-merchants or sellers under its own account with the acquirer: it onboards them, collects on their behalf and pays them out. For the acquirer the facilitator is the merchant; for the platform each seller has its own ledger balance and payouts.
On the platform
In Tranzify a merchant belongs to a network, is onboarded with its company data and KYB documents by the licensed client, has its own API keys, webhook endpoint, fees, limits, balance and cabinet under the network’s brand; the client contracts with it and settles its funds.
Updated: 2026-11-08