How a New‑Retail Payment Middle Platform Revolutionizes Multi‑Channel Payments

1. New‑Retail Panorama

New‑retail transforms traditional "goods‑to‑people" into "people‑to‑goods" by leveraging online platforms, enabling customers to shop anytime, anywhere, while merchants expand reach through digital storefronts.

1.1 Overview

Traditional retail is limited to fixed locations, low inventory visibility, and manual bookkeeping. Digitalization allows merchants to sell online, integrate with e‑commerce platforms (e.g., Taobao, JD), and use physical stores as traffic sources.

1.2 Payment in New‑Retail

Payments link customers, merchants, and platforms. An order is created, payment is captured, the platform notifies the merchant, inventory is updated, and funds are settled, with the platform taking a commission.

1.3 Business Models

Retail formats (convenience stores, supermarkets, e‑commerce) have distinct pain points, but all require efficient payment, inventory, and order management.

2. Aggregated Delivery Channels

Merchants face challenges when managing multiple O2O channels (e.g., Meituan, Ele.me). Repetitive product setup, order fulfillment, and reconciliation increase operational costs.

Synchronize products across channels.

Unify order fulfillment.

Consolidate reconciliation and inventory.

Manage membership and promotions.

Aggregating channels into a single SaaS solution lets merchants operate all stores from one backend.

3. Payment Middle Platform

3.1 Why Build It

Multiple business lines share common payment functions; duplicating development raises costs. A middle platform abstracts payment capabilities, allowing operations to manage merchant onboarding, account configuration, transaction reconciliation, profit sharing, and settlement from a single console.

3.2 Core Modules

Merchant Account Configuration – collect merchant info, submit onboarding to payment providers, and store credentials.

Payment Core – receive payment requests, route to appropriate channel, and handle order creation.

Payment Channels – plug‑in adapters for different providers (WeChat, Alipay, UnionPay, etc.).

Reconciliation – generate reports by store, day, cashier, or POS and support file downloads.

Profit Sharing – allocate a portion of transaction fees to agents based on predefined ratios.

Settlement – split collected funds to merchants and partners on settlement dates.

3.3 Payment Scenarios

B‑scan‑C – merchant scans customer’s QR code.

C‑scan‑B – customer scans merchant‑generated dynamic QR.

JSAPI – pre‑order payment via mini‑program or public account.

APP – in‑app payment using third‑party SDKs.

Each scenario follows a unified API flow: order creation, channel routing, status query, cancellation, and refund.

4. Merchant Onboarding & Account Configuration

4.1 Environment & Purpose

Merchants may operate offline stores, online shops, or both, requiring separate payment configurations. Onboarding registers merchant identity, compliance data, and payment credentials with the chosen provider.

4.2 Who Performs Onboarding

Merchants can self‑onboard directly with payment providers, or SaaS platforms can facilitate onboarding through agents or operations staff.

4.3 Process

Collect merchant basic, qualification, and settlement information; submit to the provider; receive merchant ID and keys; configure them in the SaaS backend for each store and payment channel.

4.4 Account Management

Multiple payment accounts can be created per merchant (e.g., Alipay offline, WeChat online). Operations assign accounts to specific stores, and the middle platform selects the optimal account during transaction routing.