Cardholder: Your customer making the purchase.Merchant: The business or any person making the sale.Payment gateways include these key stakeholders: In person, it’s the software built into a point-of-sale (POS) system or card reader that processes a transaction when the cardholder uses their card to make a payment. Online, a payment gateway is cloud-based software that connects a customer to the merchant. Its job is to capture the data, ensure funds are available and get a merchant paid. Via 's Secure Website What Is a Payment Gateway?Ī payment gateway is the mechanism that reads and transfers payment information from a customer to a merchant’s bank account.