Terminal API: Introducing web-based payment integrations

With a web-basedAPIas the tech behind your point of sale (POS) system, it’s simple to initiate payments from a broad range of clients. This includes web browsers, mobile devices, tablets and even your traditional cash register systems. Using a standardised protocol, it establishes communication from the POS to the terminal.

If your terminal is free to connect to the Adyen platform, you can start payments and update software remotely and securely. It’s a change that will benefit retailers and improve the transaction flow for shoppers, whatever the preferred method of payment.

Maintenance and configuration are two tasks any engineer working in the payments area would rather avoid. Once the initial API integration is complete, no further time consuming development is required to add or manage new payment methods.

No more resource-heavy coding or laborious updating of your payment libraries is required. Your terminals can now be automatically configured and updated, without messing with existing functionality. Plus, it's compatible with most programming languages and platforms. Rollout becomes automated, plug in your terminal and a world of localpayment methodsare at your fingertips. Store staff can also set up the terminal without engineering input.

Shoppers want to know their shopping trip wasn’t fruitless. 75% of them want sales associates to order and ship an item to them that isn’t available in the store.

With the Terminal API, the full ecommerce inventory is made available when shoppers are in your store. This is what is referred to as an “Endless Aisle”, and can increase sales by up to 14% (Drapers Multichannel Report).

Creating an app to connect your online inventory, offline hardware and cash register isn’t required when using the Adyen platform as your payments solution for ecommerce andPOS payments. Simply use your ecommerce platform and send the payment request to the terminal.

The Terminal API is an effortless way to integrate your POS systems with yourpayment terminal. A small web server works on the payment terminal and accepts standardised payment messages. There are two ways of implementing the Terminal API. Neither require client or server libraries:

1. Local Terminal API: Local communication to the payment terminal. Local network connection.

2. Terminal Cloud API: Cloud based communication to the payment terminal. Data is stored and controlled centrally. Merchants get a holistic view of all terminals in-store.

Payment requests can be made by cloud-based systems to our platform and are then routed to cloud connected payment terminals.

Cloud based systems can be web-based POS systems and ecommerce platforms for your endless aisle transactions. Our global network of data centers ensure that the communication is made using the fastest connections to ensure speed of payment. The server-to-server request comes with the ID of the terminal so Adyen can handle the rest.

Developers, find out more here:docs.adyen.com

Interested in finding out more about the technology behind the Terminal API and the people who built it?

Read next: How we initiate point of sale transactions globally