Payments Aren't Just Checkout Anymore
For most of the internet's history, "payments" meant one thing: a checkout page. A customer fills in a form, clicks pay, and the transaction processes.
That model still works. But it's no longer the only model — and for many businesses, it's not even the primary one.
Today, payments happen:
During phone calls — a customer pays while talking to an agent or AI
Via SMS — a payment link arrives mid-conversation and the customer pays on their device
In chat — a support agent or AI bot captures payment within a messaging thread
Inside software — embedded checkout within a platform's interface, white-labelled and seamless
Through AI agents — autonomous systems that sell, service, and collect payments without human involvement
Each of these is a payment channel. Each has different technical requirements, different user experiences, and different compliance implications.
The businesses winning right now aren't the ones with the best checkout page. They're the ones that can capture a payment wherever a conversation happens.
The Five Payment Channels
1. Embedded Checkout
The traditional model, evolved. A payment form lives inside your platform — your branding, your domain, no redirect to a third-party page. The customer pays within the flow they're already in.
When it's used: E-commerce, SaaS subscriptions, marketplace transactions, in-app purchases Technical requirements: API integration, hosted payment fields or SDKs, PCI tokenisation Key consideration: This is the channel most platforms start with. It handles the majority of online transactions.
2. Voice Payments
Payments captured during a phone call — via IVR, agent-assisted DTMF, or AI voice agent. Card data is entered by keypad or spoken aloud within a PCI-compliant environment.
When it's used: Contact centres, insurance renewals, collections, phone sales, AI voice agent conversations Technical requirements: Telephony integration, DTMF capture and suppression, PCI-certified audio processing Key consideration: Voice is the forgotten channel. Most payment infrastructure ignores it. But for businesses where the phone is a primary customer interaction — insurance, travel, utilities, collections — voice payments are essential. See What Are Voice Payments? The Complete Guide.
3. Payment Links
A URL that opens a branded checkout page. Sent via SMS, email, WhatsApp, or any messaging channel. The customer clicks, pays, and the transaction is confirmed — no app download, no account creation.
When it's used: Invoicing, post-call payment, field service, appointment deposits, collections follow-up Technical requirements: Link generation API, hosted checkout page, delivery via SMS/email API Key consideration: Payment links bridge the gap between conversations and transactions. An agent discusses an amount on the phone, sends a link via SMS, and the customer pays on their device — all within the same interaction.
4. Chat Payments
Payments captured within a messaging interface — website live chat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or in-app messaging. An agent or AI bot presents a payment option inline, and the customer completes the transaction without leaving the chat.
When it's used: Customer support, AI chat agents, conversational commerce, subscription management Technical requirements: Secure payment form rendered within chat, or payment link sent inline Key consideration: Chat is the fastest-growing payment channel for AI-driven businesses. AI chat agents can qualify, recommend, and close a sale — including payment — in a single conversation thread. See Chat Agent Payments: How AI Closes Sales Without a Human Handoff.
5. AI Agent Payments
Autonomous payment capture by AI agents operating across voice and chat. The AI handles the conversation; a payment layer handles the transaction.
When it's used: Automated sales, AI customer service, AI collections, AI-driven renewals Technical requirements: API-triggered payment flows, PCI-compliant capture environment, real-time result handling Key consideration: AI agents aren't a channel themselves — they operate across channels (voice and chat). The payment infrastructure needs to support whatever channel the AI is using. See How AI Agents Process Payments: The Infrastructure Guide.
Why Managing Channels Separately Breaks
Most businesses build each payment channel as a separate integration:
Stripe for online checkout
Semafone for contact centre payments
A custom SMS gateway for payment links
A different provider for chat payments
This creates four problems:
1. Fragmented Data
Each channel has its own dashboard, its own transaction records, its own reporting. Reconciling across channels is manual. Getting a single view of a customer's payment history requires stitching data from multiple systems.
2. Inconsistent Merchant Experience
If you're a platform serving merchants, each channel may support different PSPs, different payment methods, and different settlement flows. Merchant A can accept cards online but not over the phone. Merchant B can send payment links but can't take voice payments. The experience is fractured.
3. Multiple PCI Integrations
Each payment channel that handles card data is a separate PCI surface. More integrations mean more compliance scope, more audit surface, and more risk. Every new channel expands the attack surface.
4. Engineering Overhead
Four channel integrations means four sets of APIs to maintain, four providers to manage, four sets of webhooks to handle, and four potential points of failure. When a PSP changes their API, you update it in four places.
The Unified Payment Layer Approach
A single payment layer that supports all channels solves these problems by design.
One integration. Your platform connects to the payment layer once. Voice, links, chat, embedded checkout — all route through the same API.
One dashboard. Transaction data from every channel appears in one place. Refunds, disputes, and reporting are unified. You see the full picture.
One PCI surface. The payment layer handles card data for all channels within a single PCI-certified environment. Your compliance scope doesn't expand as you add channels.
One set of PSPs. The gateways configured for your platform work across all channels. Add Worldpay for your UK merchants and it's available for voice, links, checkout, and chat — without separate integrations per channel.
Channel expansion without re-integration. Starting with embedded checkout? Adding voice payments later doesn't require re-engineering your payment stack. It's a configuration change.
What Multi-Channel Looks Like in Practice
Platform Serving Enterprise Merchants
A vertical SaaS platform offers embedded checkout within its software. When an enterprise client requests phone payments for their customers, the platform enables voice checkout through the same payment layer — same PSP configuration, same merchant setup, same reporting dashboard. The enterprise client's Worldpay integration works across both channels without additional development.
Contact Centre With AI Agents
A BPO handles customer service calls for an insurance company. Human agents take payments via DTMF during live calls. The company deploys AI voice agents for routine payment calls (renewals, top-ups). Both channels use the same payment infrastructure. When DTMF isn't practical, agents — human or AI — send a payment link via SMS. Three channels, one integration.
AI-First Sales Operation
An AI chat agent qualifies leads on a website and collects payment to close the sale. For customers who prefer phone interaction, an AI voice agent handles the same flow. Both agents trigger the same payment layer. Transaction data, tokenised cards, and merchant configuration are shared across channels.
What to Look For
Channel Coverage Today and Tomorrow
Does the solution support the channels you need now? What about the channels you'll need in 12 months? Adding AI agent payments or voice checkout shouldn't require switching providers.
Unified Reporting
Can you see all transactions — across all channels — in one dashboard? Can merchants?
PSP Consistency
Do the same gateways work across all channels? If you add a PSP for checkout, does it automatically work for voice and links?
Single PCI Surface
Does adding a channel expand your PCI scope? It shouldn't. All channels should route through the same PCI-certified environment.
Tokenisation Across Channels
Can you tokenise a card during a voice call and reuse that token for an online transaction later? Cross-channel tokenisation is what makes the unified model powerful — a customer provides card details once, and they're available everywhere.
FAQ
Do I need all five channels? No. Most businesses start with one or two and expand. The point of a unified payment layer is that expansion doesn't require re-integration. Start with embedded checkout, add voice later, add AI agent payments when you're ready.
Is multi-channel more expensive than single-channel? Not with a unified layer. You pay per transaction regardless of channel. The cost of adding a channel is integration effort, not incremental payment infrastructure cost.
How does PCI compliance work across channels? All channels route through the same PCI-certified environment. Card data is captured and tokenised within that environment regardless of whether it entered via DTMF (voice), a hosted form (checkout/chat), or a payment link. Your PCI scope doesn't change as you add channels.
Can different merchants use different channels? Yes. Channel availability can be configured per merchant. Merchant A might use checkout and payment links. Merchant B might use checkout, voice, and AI agent payments. The platform controls which channels are available to which merchants.
What about settlement and reconciliation? Transactions from all channels settle through the same PSP relationships and appear in the same reporting. There's no need to reconcile across separate systems.
Ready to capture payments across every channel? Shuttle gives platforms a single integration for embedded checkout, voice payments, payment links, and AI agent payments — with 40+ PSPs and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance.
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