Unified Payment API Reducing Merchant System Complexity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Merchants face challenges in offering multiple payment options on their webpages due to the need for separate libraries, APIs, and configurations for each payment method, along with security concerns and inefficiencies in processing online payments across various browsers and networks.
Innovation Solution
A system that integrates multiple payment options using a single API and client-side library, allowing merchants to customize payment interfaces and process transactions securely through a payment token, eliminating the need for merchants to store sensitive information and reducing reliance on additional server flows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If merchants use separate libraries and APIs for each payment method, then each payment method can be processed independently, but the system complexity and configuration requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple payment method integrations into a single unified API and client-side library. Instead of requiring separate integrations for each payment provider, the system provides a unified interface that handles multiple payment methods through one integration point, significantly reducing system complexity while maintaining versatility.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified API and client-side library are designed to be universal, supporting multiple payment methods through a single interface. This multi-functional approach allows merchants to offer various payment options without implementing separate integration logic for each provider, eliminating the need for multiple separate libraries and configurations.
2Productivity
If merchants receive and store sensitive payment information, then payment processing can be completed, but security risks and compliance challenges increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts sensitive payment information handling from the merchant's system and transfers it to the payment service provider's secure environment. The client-side library collects payment data directly from customers and transmits it securely to the provider, bypassing the merchant's servers entirely. This extraction eliminates the security burden on merchants while maintaining payment processing efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The payment service provider acts as an intermediary between the customer and the merchant system. Sensitive payment information flows directly between the customer's browser and the provider's secure servers, with the merchant's system only receiving non-sensitive transaction data. This intermediary approach protects customer data from exposure to the merchant's infrastructure.
3Reliability
If merchants implement comprehensive security measures for payment data, then data protection improves, but resource requirements and implementation complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The payment service provider implements security measures autonomously within its own infrastructure, using its expertise and resources to protect payment data. The provider manages encryption, secure storage, and compliance requirements without requiring the merchant to implement these security systems. This self-service approach ensures high security standards while keeping the merchant's implementation simple.
4Adaptability or versatility
If merchants support multiple payment methods with separate integrations, then payment options increase, but bandwidth and server resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple payment method communications into a single unified integration channel. All payment method interactions occur through one client-side library and one API endpoint, consolidating bandwidth usage and server resource consumption. This eliminates the redundant overhead of maintaining separate integration channels for each payment provider.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system, method, and apparatus is provided for integrating multiple payment options on a merchant webpage. The method includes receiving, from a merchant system associated with a merchant webpage, a payment data capture request, generating, with at least one processor, web payment capture data based on the payment data capture request, the web payment capture data configured to adapt the merchant webpage to receive payment information input by a user, communicating, to the merchant system, the web payment capture data, receiving, directly from a client computer via at least one client-side script executed by the client computer based on the web payment capture data, the payment information input by the user, generating, with at least one processor, a transient payment token based on the payment information, and directly communicating the transient payment token to the client computer.