Federated payments

Federated payments are a method for processing commerce order payments that use a third-party service to capture, store, and process customer payment information. When you use a federated payment service, the merchant website does not have any direct access to customer payment information, such as the card number or card security code (CVV, CSC, and so on).

Instead, the federated payment service receives this information directly from the customer, securely saves that information, and sends a one-time payment authorization code back to the merchant website. This authorization code can safely be saved by the merchant website for order fulfillment because it cannot be used for any other purchases. The advantage this offers over other payment processing methods is that sensitive customer payment information is never accessible by the merchant website, thereby reducing liability and the security attack surface.