How marketplace payments work. Money in from buyers, out to sellers.
Synapto is the embedded payments partner for UK marketplaces. A marketplace takes the payment itself and owes most of it to its sellers, so the work is different from a software platform's. This page sets out how the money moves and how we work with you at each stage.
How the money moves
One payment from a buyer, several parties paid from it. Our regulated acquiring partner holds the payment, then splits it, so your platform fee is never something you invoice sellers for afterwards.
How a marketplace differs from a software platform
On a software platform, each customer takes payments from its own customers, and moving them means moving each customer's merchant account. On a marketplace, the money comes to you first and most of it belongs to your sellers.
That changes four things. Every seller has to be verified before they can be paid. Every payment has to be split. Refunds and disputes have to come out of the right seller's share. And payouts become something your sellers judge you on.
- Sellers verified before their first payout
- Every payment split between seller and marketplace
- Refunds and disputes taken from the right share
- Payouts your sellers can see and reconcile
How we work with marketplaces
The same five stages as with software platforms, centred on sellers. Each stage ends with something written down that your marketplace keeps.
Understand your marketplace
First, we understand your marketplace, your buyers and your sellers: who collects from buyers today, how and when sellers are paid, where refunds and disputes land, and what it all costs. Sellers are grouped by size and by how they are paid now.
- The flow of funds, drawn
- Sellers grouped by size and payout method
- What payments and payouts cost today
Work out the offer and the split
Your platform fee and any other fees, how refunds and cancellations come back after an order, when each seller is paid, and what gives sellers a reason to use your payments. Written down with the onboarding your sellers will see.
- Platform fee and fee rules
- Refund and dispute rules
- Payout schedule and seller statements
Build and get ready
We build the seller onboarding and payouts agreed with you; your developer connects your marketplace. We agree how the offer is explained to sellers and who helps them get started.
- The seller onboarding and payouts we build
- What your developer connects
- How sellers are told about it
Launch and onboard sellers
Sellers verify inside your marketplace, in your brand: identity, ownership and bank details checked before their first payout. Payouts go to each seller's own account on the schedule you set, and we answer sellers' payment questions.
- Verification inside your marketplace
- New sellers on your payments by default
- Existing sellers invited group by group
Adoption and payment performance
We review with you which sellers are taking payments, where payments or payouts fail and what sellers need help with, then agree what to change. Sellers get statements they can read and your finance team gets a record it can reconcile.
- Which sellers are using your payments
- Where payments or payouts fail
- What to change next, agreed together
Sellers paid another way today
Most marketplaces already pay sellers somehow: bank transfers from a spreadsheet, another provider's payouts, or a mix of both. Sellers keep being paid as they are today until they have verified on your payments, so the change runs alongside payouts rather than interrupting them.
We agree with you which sellers to invite first, what they are told and when. Messages go out in your name, with your sign-off on everything sent.
- Existing sellers invited in planned groups
- New sellers start on your payments by default
- Every message sent in your name, with your sign-off
- Sellers paid as today until they have verified
What marketplaces ask about the move
For a seller, the change is a one-off verification inside your marketplace, then payouts on a schedule they can see, with a statement. We agree the order with you, so the sellers who matter most move when it suits them.
It comes out of that seller's share under the rules set when the split is designed, rather than out of your margin. How it works for your marketplace is written down before any seller moves.
No. They are your sellers, onboarded in your brand. Their funds are held by our regulated acquiring partner in their own name, and we answer their payment questions for you.
We build the payment products with you, such as seller onboarding and payouts. Your developer owns your marketplace's own integration, with a payments engineer here answering the payments questions while they build. We never put a date on your team's work.
The five stages are the same: understand, work out the offer, build and get ready, launch, then adoption and payment performance. The detail is different, because a marketplace takes the payment itself and pays sellers out, so the work centres on seller onboarding, splits and payouts. How we work with software platforms is on its own page.
Start with a payments review
Thirty minutes on how money moves through your marketplace today: who collects, how sellers are paid, and what your payments could offer them.