Merchant guide
How online payment gateways work for merchants in Pakistan
A practical explanation of checkout, authentication, authorization, confirmation, settlement, reconciliation, payment methods, integration routes, and merchant selection criteria.
This guide explains the operating model. To evaluate EPS as a service, review pricing, integrations, and merchant onboarding.
What a gateway does
A payment gateway in Pakistan connects a merchant checkout with an approved wallet, instant-transfer, or account-based route used to evaluate the transaction. It gives the customer a way to pay and gives the merchant a reference and result that can be attached to the order.
The gateway is not the same thing as every payment method it can expose. A wallet is a customer payment method. A bank account route is another. The gateway is the merchant-facing layer that creates the payment attempt, coordinates the selected route, and returns the state.
The payment lifecycle
- Initiation: the merchant creates a payment session with the amount, currency, order reference, and return or callback information.
- Customer authentication: the selected payment route may ask the customer to verify the transaction.
- Authorization: the applicable financial route evaluates the request and returns an approved, declined, failed, or pending state.
- Merchant confirmation: the merchant server verifies the payment state before fulfilling the order.
- Settlement: approved funds move according to the merchant agreement, method, banking route, risk conditions, weekends, and holidays.
- Reconciliation: the merchant connects the gateway reference, order, refund, and settlement record.
A customer-facing “payment complete” screen is useful, but it should not be the only source of truth. The browser can be closed or interrupted, so the merchant server should verify the result independently.
Payment methods and customer context
Approved projects may use JazzCash, Easypaisa, NayaPay, Raast, and account-based routes through Bank Alfalah in PKR. The exact method mix depends on the merchant’s project, customer flow, limits, and current approval.
Availability is confirmed during onboarding and may change by project. A method should not be shown at checkout until it has been enabled for that merchant.
| Method family | Merchant question | Operating consideration |
|---|---|---|
| JazzCash and Easypaisa | Which wallet route is enabled for the project? | Mobile handoff, customer confirmation, limits, and refund support. |
| Raast | How is the instant transfer initiated and referenced? | Reference matching, status timing, and reconciliation. |
| Bank Alfalah | Which account-based flow is approved? | Customer confirmation, status handling, and settlement records. |
| NayaPay | Is the wallet available for this project? | Project approval, mobile flow, status verification, and limits. |
Hosted payment page and API integration
A hosted payment page can reduce frontend exposure and shorten implementation. The merchant backend still creates the payment with its API key and project ID, verifies the result, validates signed postbacks, and connects every status to the correct order.
Regardless of route, test approved, pending, failed, declined, abandoned, duplicate-callback, wrong-amount, and refund cases before production launch.
How a merchant should compare gateway services
- Business eligibility and required company documents
- Payment methods suited to the customer and order
- Hosted payment page, API, mobile, or payment-link integration
- Transaction pricing, setup scope, and refund terms
- Settlement schedule, reports, bank requirements, and exception handling
- Credential, callback, fraud, dispute, and incident controls
- Implementation support and live-transaction escalation
Do not select a gateway only from a headline transaction rate. A lower rate can become operationally expensive when payment status, refunds, reconciliation, or support does not fit the business.
Payment gateway FAQ
Does every gateway support the same payment methods?
No. Method availability depends on the provider stack, merchant profile, customer flow, region, integration route, and current commercial approval.
Can a merchant launch with hosted checkout first?
Often, yes. A merchant can start with a hosted payment session and add deeper server integration when callbacks, refunds, reconciliation, or platform workflows require it.
Is settlement the same as payment approval?
No. Approval is the transaction decision returned during the payment flow. Settlement is the later movement and reporting of approved funds under the merchant agreement.
What should happen if a callback arrives twice?
The merchant system should process events idempotently so the same approved transaction cannot fulfill an order or grant access twice.