Payment methods
6
READING TIME
Virtual terminal: what it is, how it works, and how to manage it with Zru
What is a virtual terminal and what is it used for
A virtual terminal (also called virtual POS terminal or virtual Point Of Sale) is a payment system that allows businesses to accept online payments, through their website, app, or other digital channels. It is the digital version of the physical POS (also known as a card reader), designed for environments where the customer is not present.
The main function of the virtual terminal is to process payments securely. It collects the customer's details, sends them to the corresponding payment provider, and returns a response indicating whether the transaction has been approved or declined. This process takes place in seconds and is completely invisible to the buyer.
Virtual POS solutions are mainly used in e-commerce, marketplace platforms, mobile apps, and more generally, in any type of digital business.
While virtual POS systems have traditionally been associated with card payments, nowadays many providers also allow payments with Bizum (in Spain) and with wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Examples of virtual POS terminal in the market
Generally, a virtual POS can be requested from two main categories of providers:
Banks and financial institutions, such as BBVA, BNP Paribas, HSBC, etc.
PSPs (Payment Service Providers) like Stripe, Adyen, etc.
Virtual POS from financial institutions
This is the most common option for many businesses, as the way to request it is to contact their bank directly.
This type of virtual POS is usually linked to a specific bank account of the business and allows processing card payments from the online store.
Contracting involves a registration process with the institution (if the business does not already have an account with them), business review, and technical configuration.
The technical configuration and integration depend on the business (custom website, CMS, app) and the financial institution: in some cases, the business will have to integrate with the bank's acquiring or processing platform, and in other cases, they will integrate with a payment gateway provided by the bank or one of its partners.
Once the contracting, integration, and technical configuration are completed, the business can start operating and collecting payments from cards and/or Bizum.
Whenever you want to use Apple Pay and Google Pay, you must request it from the financial institution to activate it.
Virtual POS from PSPs
In this case, the business requests the virtual POS from a Payment Service Provider (PSP) that offers virtual POS solutions but also connections with other payment methods like PayPal, financing the purchase, etc.
Some examples of PSPs that provide virtual POS in Spain are: Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, or Mollie.
The contracting also involves a registration process with the PSP where a business review is conducted, but in some cases, it can be faster than contracting with financial institutions.
On the other hand, costs may be higher than if the virtual POS is contracted with Spanish banks.
The configuration also entails an integration with the PSP, either through an API or a plugin if the business is built on a CMS.
When does it make sense to work with more than one virtual POS terminal?
Working with a single virtual terminal may be sufficient in the early stages of a business, however, once the business grows or expands to other markets, it can be useful to have more than one.
One of the most common cases is international expansion: not all virtual POS offer the same geographical coverage or the same conditions in all countries. For example, if you are thinking of operating in Latin America, the POS from your payment provider may not accept local cards, so it might be interesting to have a local provider.
The type of card also has an influence because some providers do not allow payments with certain types of cards such as corporate ones or certain brands (local brands, Visa, Mastercard, Amex…). By having multiple providers, you ensure that you can charge a more significant number of people, as it does not depend so much on the cards they use.
Another reason is the service continuity. Occasional outages or incidents can happen with a provider, and having multiple virtual POS helps reduce the impact in these types of situations and avoid losing sales.
Moreover, having several virtual POS allows for fallbacks: if one POS rejects the transaction (due to an error from the processor, for example), it is automatically sent to another POS so that the transaction is not lost.
Finally, there’s the optimization of costs and conversions: not all POS offer the same performance in terms of payment acceptance, and being able to choose where to route each transaction increases the conversion rate.
Additionally, the fees of each PSP or payment entity vary depending on factors such as the specific POS, country of card issuance, type of card, etc. Payments can be routed to the most profitable options at any time and automatically to reduce costs associated with the transaction by up to 25%.
The simplest option to use more than one virtual POS is by using a payment platform that has orchestration functionalities, also called payment orchestrators: this way, the business can decide to which virtual POS to send each transaction, and this is done automatically.
Why use a virtual terminal through Zru
Zru is a payment management and orchestration platform.
Using a virtual POS through Zru allows you to use the payment provider or/y financial institution you desire, but with a much more flexible and centralized management.
Instead of integrating and managing each virtual POS separately, Zru acts as an intermediary layer that connects all of them in a single point.
Below, we outline the key advantages for the business.
A single technical integration with Zru
Instead of integrating and maintaining several virtual POS separately, businesses only need to integrate with Zru. Once this integration is done (via API or plugins), they already have access to all virtual POS, PSP, and payment methods they want to activate, with a single button.
This reduces the technical complexity and avoids having to spend time and resources developing, updating, and maintaining all the integrations for each payment method or virtual POS.
Payment orchestration directly from the dashboard
With Zru, you can route payments between multiple PSPs and virtual POS directly from the dashboard, without involving your development team.
On one hand, payment orchestration allows control over the path each payment will take, based on factors such as the type of card, the buyer's country, the issuing bank of the card, etc., which decreases payment errors and increases conversion. It also helps reduce costs associated with payment operations.
Creating orchestrations with Zru is quite simple and is done entirely from the dashboard, allowing financial and payment teams to work independently.
In this post you can discover more about payment orchestration and its advantages.
Access to more payment methods
In addition to virtual POS and PSPs, Zru is connected to over 100 local and global payment methods like PayPal, seQura, Klarna, Pepper, dLocal, MercadoPago, Revolut, Stripe, Adyen, etc.
This also facilitates international expansion, allowing you to adapt to your customers' preferred payment methods, as you can deploy new payment methods in a matter of minutes.
Customized checkout without code
Zru allows you to customize the checkout without involving developers, using a visual editor and simple click-based settings. This makes it easy to adapt the payment experience to your brand and improve conversion rates.
With just a few clicks, you can configure elements such as fonts, colors, the layout of each payment method, the cart layout, and other visual aspects of the checkout.
Centralized management from a single dashboard
All payment operations are managed from the Zru dashboard, allowing centralized control from a single place:
Sending payment links
Tracking transactions
Processing partial or full refunds
Downloading daily or monthly transaction reports
Managing and monitoring connections to payment methods, virtual POS, and PSPs
Configuring payment orchestration rules
Creating customized checkouts
Setting up multiple environments to organize operations by country, legal entity or business unit
To conclude
A virtual POS allows businesses to accept online card payments and run their sales operations.
There are several providers offering virtual POS solutions, from banks and financial institutions to PSPs, each with its own features and conditions.
Using a payment management and orchestration platform makes it possible to work with multiple virtual POS and payment methods at the same time, from a single environment, while keeping control over operations and the payment experience.
If you want to see how it works in your specific case, we can help. Just contact our team and request a demo.
Payment methods
6
READING TIME
Virtual terminal: what it is, how it works, and how to manage it with Zru
Table of contents
What is a virtual terminal and what is it used for
A virtual terminal (also called virtual POS terminal or virtual Point Of Sale) is a payment system that allows businesses to accept online payments, through their website, app, or other digital channels. It is the digital version of the physical POS (also known as a card reader), designed for environments where the customer is not present.
The main function of the virtual terminal is to process payments securely. It collects the customer's details, sends them to the corresponding payment provider, and returns a response indicating whether the transaction has been approved or declined. This process takes place in seconds and is completely invisible to the buyer.
Virtual POS solutions are mainly used in e-commerce, marketplace platforms, mobile apps, and more generally, in any type of digital business.
While virtual POS systems have traditionally been associated with card payments, nowadays many providers also allow payments with Bizum (in Spain) and with wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Examples of virtual POS terminal in the market
Generally, a virtual POS can be requested from two main categories of providers:
Banks and financial institutions, such as BBVA, BNP Paribas, HSBC, etc.
PSPs (Payment Service Providers) like Stripe, Adyen, etc.
Virtual POS from financial institutions
This is the most common option for many businesses, as the way to request it is to contact their bank directly.
This type of virtual POS is usually linked to a specific bank account of the business and allows processing card payments from the online store.
Contracting involves a registration process with the institution (if the business does not already have an account with them), business review, and technical configuration.
The technical configuration and integration depend on the business (custom website, CMS, app) and the financial institution: in some cases, the business will have to integrate with the bank's acquiring or processing platform, and in other cases, they will integrate with a payment gateway provided by the bank or one of its partners.
Once the contracting, integration, and technical configuration are completed, the business can start operating and collecting payments from cards and/or Bizum.
Whenever you want to use Apple Pay and Google Pay, you must request it from the financial institution to activate it.
Virtual POS from PSPs
In this case, the business requests the virtual POS from a Payment Service Provider (PSP) that offers virtual POS solutions but also connections with other payment methods like PayPal, financing the purchase, etc.
Some examples of PSPs that provide virtual POS in Spain are: Stripe, Adyen, Checkout.com, or Mollie.
The contracting also involves a registration process with the PSP where a business review is conducted, but in some cases, it can be faster than contracting with financial institutions.
On the other hand, costs may be higher than if the virtual POS is contracted with Spanish banks.
The configuration also entails an integration with the PSP, either through an API or a plugin if the business is built on a CMS.
When does it make sense to work with more than one virtual POS terminal?
Working with a single virtual terminal may be sufficient in the early stages of a business, however, once the business grows or expands to other markets, it can be useful to have more than one.
One of the most common cases is international expansion: not all virtual POS offer the same geographical coverage or the same conditions in all countries. For example, if you are thinking of operating in Latin America, the POS from your payment provider may not accept local cards, so it might be interesting to have a local provider.
The type of card also has an influence because some providers do not allow payments with certain types of cards such as corporate ones or certain brands (local brands, Visa, Mastercard, Amex…). By having multiple providers, you ensure that you can charge a more significant number of people, as it does not depend so much on the cards they use.
Another reason is the service continuity. Occasional outages or incidents can happen with a provider, and having multiple virtual POS helps reduce the impact in these types of situations and avoid losing sales.
Moreover, having several virtual POS allows for fallbacks: if one POS rejects the transaction (due to an error from the processor, for example), it is automatically sent to another POS so that the transaction is not lost.
Finally, there’s the optimization of costs and conversions: not all POS offer the same performance in terms of payment acceptance, and being able to choose where to route each transaction increases the conversion rate.
Additionally, the fees of each PSP or payment entity vary depending on factors such as the specific POS, country of card issuance, type of card, etc. Payments can be routed to the most profitable options at any time and automatically to reduce costs associated with the transaction by up to 25%.
The simplest option to use more than one virtual POS is by using a payment platform that has orchestration functionalities, also called payment orchestrators: this way, the business can decide to which virtual POS to send each transaction, and this is done automatically.
Why use a virtual terminal through Zru
Zru is a payment management and orchestration platform.
Using a virtual POS through Zru allows you to use the payment provider or/y financial institution you desire, but with a much more flexible and centralized management.
Instead of integrating and managing each virtual POS separately, Zru acts as an intermediary layer that connects all of them in a single point.
Below, we outline the key advantages for the business.
A single technical integration with Zru
Instead of integrating and maintaining several virtual POS separately, businesses only need to integrate with Zru. Once this integration is done (via API or plugins), they already have access to all virtual POS, PSP, and payment methods they want to activate, with a single button.
This reduces the technical complexity and avoids having to spend time and resources developing, updating, and maintaining all the integrations for each payment method or virtual POS.
Payment orchestration directly from the dashboard
With Zru, you can route payments between multiple PSPs and virtual POS directly from the dashboard, without involving your development team.
On one hand, payment orchestration allows control over the path each payment will take, based on factors such as the type of card, the buyer's country, the issuing bank of the card, etc., which decreases payment errors and increases conversion. It also helps reduce costs associated with payment operations.
Creating orchestrations with Zru is quite simple and is done entirely from the dashboard, allowing financial and payment teams to work independently.
In this post you can discover more about payment orchestration and its advantages.
Access to more payment methods
In addition to virtual POS and PSPs, Zru is connected to over 100 local and global payment methods like PayPal, seQura, Klarna, Pepper, dLocal, MercadoPago, Revolut, Stripe, Adyen, etc.
This also facilitates international expansion, allowing you to adapt to your customers' preferred payment methods, as you can deploy new payment methods in a matter of minutes.
Customized checkout without code
Zru allows you to customize the checkout without involving developers, using a visual editor and simple click-based settings. This makes it easy to adapt the payment experience to your brand and improve conversion rates.
With just a few clicks, you can configure elements such as fonts, colors, the layout of each payment method, the cart layout, and other visual aspects of the checkout.
Centralized management from a single dashboard
All payment operations are managed from the Zru dashboard, allowing centralized control from a single place:
Sending payment links
Tracking transactions
Processing partial or full refunds
Downloading daily or monthly transaction reports
Managing and monitoring connections to payment methods, virtual POS, and PSPs
Configuring payment orchestration rules
Creating customized checkouts
Setting up multiple environments to organize operations by country, legal entity or business unit
To conclude
A virtual POS allows businesses to accept online card payments and run their sales operations.
There are several providers offering virtual POS solutions, from banks and financial institutions to PSPs, each with its own features and conditions.
Using a payment management and orchestration platform makes it possible to work with multiple virtual POS and payment methods at the same time, from a single environment, while keeping control over operations and the payment experience.
If you want to see how it works in your specific case, we can help. Just contact our team and request a demo.
