Payments: your gateways, your money, inline checkout

Payments at `/dashboard/payments` connects your own gateway accounts to your store — six supported gateways covering cards, mobile money, bank transfers, wallets, and regional methods. Money lands in your gateway account, not ours. Credentials are stored per store, test keys let you rehearse checkout safely, and the checkout itself is inline: customers pay without ever leaving your store. ## The six gateways Each gateway is a direct connection to your own merchant account: - **Stripe** — global card payments: Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and local cards, with Apple Pay and Google Pay support - **PayPal** — wallet payments from PayPal balances or linked cards - **Paystack** — African payments: cards, bank transfers, USSD, and mobile money across Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Kenya - **Flutterwave** — pan-African payments: cards, mobile money, bank transfers, and USSD across 30+ countries - **Razorpay** — Indian payments: UPI, cards, netbanking, wallets, and EMI - **Mercado Pago** — Latin American payments: cards, Pix (Brazil), OXXO (Mexico), and local methods across 13 countries Enable the ones your customers use; several can be active at once and shoppers choose at checkout. ## Connect a gateway 1. Open **Payments** in the dashboard and pick the gateway card. 2. Toggle it on and enter the credentials from that gateway's own dashboard — API keys, secret keys, or app credentials, exactly as the gateway provides them. 3. Save. The payment method appears at checkout for that store immediately. Credentials are **per store**. If you run three stores, each one connects its own gateway accounts — useful for separating brands, currencies, or bank accounts without any extra configuration. ## Use test keys first, then go live Every gateway connection runs in either **test** or **live** mode. Enter the gateway's test keys, place a checkout order yourself, and confirm the whole loop — payment screen, confirmation, order status, receipt — behaves as expected. Then swap in the live keys. The mode is a per-gateway toggle, so flipping from rehearsal to real selling is a two-minute job, and no customer ever sees a test charge by accident. ## The checkout stays inline This is the part your conversion rate cares about: the payment experience renders **inside your store's checkout**. Card fields, mobile money prompts, and wallet buttons appear in the checkout page itself — the customer never bounces to a hosted payment page and back. When payment is confirmed, the order is marked paid, the receipt email fires, and downstream machinery — CRM timelines, automations, commissions, opportunity wins — updates from that single event. ## Fund the store wallet for subscription billing Separate from customer payments is how *you* pay for BirrStore: the **store wallet**. Fund your wallet from the billing area, and subscription charges draw from it first — handy in regions where card success rates are patchy, because you can top up through the method that works for you and keep the subscription billing itself smooth. The wallet is for platform subscription billing; customer order payments always flow to your gateway accounts. ## What happens next - Place one real low-value order on live keys. Seeing the money arrive in your gateway dashboard closes the loop better than any test. - Review the payment methods your customers actually choose after a month — the mix tells you which gateway deserves a prominent placement at checkout. - Keep your gateway dashboards bookmarked; payouts, disputes, and settlements are managed there, since BirrStore connects to gateways rather than replacing them. ## FAQ **Whose account receives the money?** Yours, directly. BirrStore connects your gateway credentials; funds settle into your gateway account under your terms, minus whatever the gateway itself charges. **Can I mix gateways, like Paystack plus PayPal?** Yes. Enable both and customers pick the method at checkout. Each gateway keeps its own keys and test/live mode. **What happens if a payment fails mid-checkout?** The customer stays in your checkout with an error they can retry, possibly with a different method. No order is created for a failed payment, so your records stay clean.