What are split payments in a marketplace?
Split payments are the automatic division of a single payment among several recipients, for example several sellers and the platform, at the moment of the transaction.
The customer makes a single payment at checkout and the payment system distributes the amount across each seller’s account and the marketplace’s commission.
Who holds the funds? The regulatory decision before the code
Before building the integration, it is important to establish who receives the customer’s money.
If the marketplace receives payments into its own accounts and only then transfers the amounts to the sellers, it may be providing payment services, an activity that requires authorisation.
PSD2 provides an exclusion for commercial agents, but only when the platform acts solely on behalf of the buyer or solely on behalf of the seller. According to the European Banking Authority, a B2C marketplace may fall outside the scope of PSD2 when it is authorised by the seller to negotiate or conclude the sale and does not also act on behalf of the buyer. Even so, the assessment depends on the business model and on the competent authority.
For this reason, for many marketplaces the simplest option is not to receive the funds directly. The payment is processed by an authorised payment institution, which splits and transfers the amounts to each seller.
As the regulatory framework depends on each business, always confirm your case with specialist legal advice.
How to structure split payments in 4 decisions
1. Link each payment to the relevant seller
Think of each purchase as an order that may include several sub-orders, one per seller. Each one has a corresponding split, that is, the portion of the payment intended for that seller.
Each seller has their own payment account. Store that account’s identifier in your system: it is this data that indicates who receives each amount.
Also use your own identifiers in API requests, such as the order and sub-order numbers, to easily match payments, splits and sales during reconciliation.
2. Calculate the amounts and the commission
Do the calculations internally in cents, using integers, to avoid rounding differences. Convert to euros with two decimal places only when sending the request to the API. Also set a rule for any cent differences, such as always assigning them to the last seller.
Before processing the payment, confirm that the sum of all splits matches the total purchase amount.
Finally, decide how you charge the marketplace commission. Each split can include a margin, deducted from the seller’s amount and transferred to the platform’s account.
For example, for a €100 purchase split between two sellers, with a 10% commission:
| Split amount | Marketplace commission | Seller receives | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seller A | €60.00 | €6.00 | €54.00 |
| Seller B | €40.00 | €4.00 | €36.00 |
| Total | €100.00 | €10.00 | €90.00 |
Note the difference between the two commissions. The margin in the example is the marketplace commission. easypay’s fees for processing payments are something else, and are not deducted from the amount of each sale: they are debited from a separate account, the Fees Account. For a €100 payment, the seller receives €100, less the marketplace margin, and sees separately what is a sale and what is a fee.
The marketplace decides who pays easypay’s fees: the platform itself or each seller, depending on the business model and on what is agreed. The Fees Account debited is that of whoever pays, and it must have a balance, which can be topped up in the backoffice with a Multibanco reference, MB WAY, card or funds from the easypay payment account.
3. Decide when the seller gets paid
If you do not want to release the money to the seller at the time of purchase, you have two options: authorisation with multi-capture, or a sale with a settlement period.
| Authorisation and multi-capture | Sale with settlement period | |
|---|---|---|
| When is the customer charged? | When the amount is captured | At the time of purchase |
| When does the seller get paid? | After capture | On the set settlement date |
| Timeframe | Limited by the validity of the authorisation | Between 7 days and 1 year, adjustable later |
| Payment methods | Card, MB WAY, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay | All, including Multibanco, direct debit and virtual IBAN |
| Ideal for | Orders processed within a few days | Longer timeframes or methods without authorisation |
With multi-capture, you authorise the full order amount and capture each seller’s share only when they confirm or ship the items. This flow also works with MB WAY, Portugal’s favourite payment method.
See the authorisations and captures guide for this process in detail.
4. Set the rules for refunds and chargebacks
Before launching, define what happens when something goes wrong:
- Refunds: when a customer returns an item from a single seller, only that seller’s split is refunded, and the marketplace margin associated with that split is automatically reversed. The other sellers are not affected. As fees are held in the Fees Account, returns also make it easy to distinguish the value of the returned product from the associated fee.
- Chargebacks: at easypay, chargebacks are always the responsibility of the seller to whom the payment belongs. The marketplace does not have to bear disputes over items it did not sell.
In both cases, the affected split moves to the “reversed” status, which lets you know exactly which seller and which order were affected.
Communicate these rules to sellers in the marketplace’s terms and conditions.
How to integrate split payments via API
Use these steps as a starting point and confirm the required fields in the API reference.
- Onboard sellers: each seller creates their easypay account through the onboarding process. Identity verification (KYC) for each seller is handled by easypay.
- Create credentials and test: use the sandbox environment to test the integration without moving real money.
- Create the payment with the splits: specify in
capture.splitseach seller’s account, the amount, the marketplace margin and, if you wish, the settlement period, all in a single request. If you use multi-capture, specify the splits in each capture (POST /capture/{id}). - Store the identifiers: associate the ID of the payment and of each split with the relevant order. Each split has its own status (pending, completed, failed or reversed after a refund or chargeback), which makes it easier to track each seller.
- Set up webhooks: use notifications to track status changes and confirm the information in the API before updating the order, as recommended in the webhooks guide.
- Adjust settlement: if there are delays in shipping or delivery, change the split’s settlement date, up to a maximum of two years.
- Handle refunds and reconciliation: use the refunds endpoint, the ledger report (
/report/ledger) and settlements (/settlement) to keep your accounts up to date.
Implement split payments in your marketplace with easypay
With easypay split payments, your marketplace receives a single payment from the customer and the split between sellers and the commission happens automatically, in a single API request:
- Splits, commission and settlement period in the same request, with no separate transfers to each seller;
- Multi-capture with MB WAY and card, to capture each seller’s share only when they ship;
- Settlement period per seller, adjustable after the purchase;
- Fees kept separate from sales, in the Fees Account, and the marketplace chooses who pays them: the platform or each seller;
- Refunds per seller, with the marketplace margin automatically reversed;
- Chargebacks borne by each seller;
- Rewards per split, to give loyalty credits to marketplace customers on payments made with card, MB WAY and digital wallets.
easypay is a payment institution supervised by Banco de Portugal, which allows the marketplace to rely on an authorised entity for the flow of funds.
Find out more about easypay split payments, test the integration in the sandbox environment or request a commercial proposal from easypay and structure your marketplace payments with ease.
Frequently asked questions
Does the customer see several payments?
No. The customer makes a single payment. The split between sellers happens afterwards, on easypay’s side.
Can I use MB WAY with split payments?
Yes. MB WAY supports authorisation and capture, so you can hold the order amount and capture each seller’s share when they ship the items.
Does each seller need an easypay account?
Yes. Each seller signs up with easypay, which verifies their identity. The marketplace then specifies each seller’s account in each payment.
Who pays easypay’s fees?
The marketplace decides: it can be the platform itself or each seller. Either way, fees are not deducted from the sales amount. They are debited from the Fees Account of whoever pays them, separate from sales, which simplifies reconciliation.
How does a refund for a single seller work?
Only that seller’s split is refunded, and the associated marketplace margin is reversed. The other sellers’ splits remain unchanged.
Who bears chargebacks?
The seller to whom the disputed payment belongs.
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