Payment Processing & Acquiring · Use case

Run marketplace split payments

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Short answer

A platform-ready payment provider collects the buyer's payment, splits it between sellers and your commission, and pays each seller out. The central question is who onboards and carries responsibility for the sellers: the provider, as part of its platform product, or you.

What this use case is

A platform-ready payment provider collects the buyer's payment, splits it between sellers and your commission, and pays each seller out. The central question is who onboards and carries responsibility for the sellers: the provider, as part of its platform product, or you.

Who builds this

Goods and services marketplaces
Booking platforms
SaaS platforms with payments
Gig platforms

What your customer sees

  1. 1Buyer pays once for items from several sellers
  2. 2Each seller sees their share
  3. 3Sellers receive payouts on schedule

How Payment Processing & Acquiring solves it

1

Seller onboarded and verified through the provider

Seller onboarded and verified through the provider

2

Buyer pays at checkout

Buyer pays at checkout

3

Payment split into seller shares and your fee

Payment split into seller shares and your fee

4

Funds held for the delivery or refund window

Funds held for the delivery or refund window

5

Payouts to sellers

Payouts to sellers

6

Refunds and disputes allocated to the right seller

Refunds and disputes allocated to the right seller

Want to have

  1. Sub-merchant or connected-account onboarding
  2. Split payments with commission
  3. Holds and delayed payouts
  4. Payouts to sellers' bank accounts
  5. Refund and dispute allocation
  6. Per-seller reporting

Optional

  1. Instant payouts
  2. Multi-currency payouts
  3. Seller dashboards
  4. Platform tax reporting data

Design decisions

Seller responsibility

Provider onboards sellers
You onboard sellers

speed and lower exposure versus control of the seller experience.

Funds flow

PSP holds funds
Separate licensed account provider

one integration versus flexibility over funds.

What to put in your RFP

Sellers

  • onboarding
  • verification
  • countries

Money flow

  • splits
  • fees
  • holds
  • payouts

Exceptions

  • refunds
  • disputes
  • negative balances

Data

  • seller reporting
  • reconciliation

Commercials

  • processing and payout pricing
Add these to an RFP

How to evaluate providers for this use case

  1. 1Seller onboarding completion
  2. 2Clarity on who holds funds
  3. 3Handling of refunds after payout
  4. 4Payout coverage for seller countries

Pitfalls

  • Unclear responsibility for sellers
  • Negative seller balances after refunds
  • Reconciliation gaps between payments and payouts
  • Seller onboarding friction

What providers will ask you

  1. Seller count and countries
  2. Volume and basket size
  3. Holding periods
  4. Refund policy

Other Finlane categories that cover parts of this

This use case is solved mainly with Payment Processing & Acquiring. These categories cover specific parts of it and can be tendered alongside it.

Banking-as-a-Service

Holding funds and seller balances under a licence

KYC, KYB & Identity

Seller verification at scale

Chargebacks & Disputes

Buyer disputes across sellers

FX & Cross-Border Payments

Payouts to international sellers

Frequently asked questions

Solving this with another category instead? See Operate a marketplace payout flow

Other Payment Processing & Acquiring use cases

Accept online card payments

Add hosted checkout, drop-in or a fully custom card form with 3D Secure, wallets and stored credentials.

Enable in-store or unattended payments

Combine online acquiring with SoftPOS, terminals or QR code payments across markets.

Reduce checkout friction internationally

Route transactions to local acquirers to lift authorization rates and unlock local payment methods.

Scope run marketplace split payments with Payment Processing & Acquiring providers

Scope this use case