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We decided to break a long-standing industry pattern: treating virtual terminals as free, basic tools that never improve. For years, this mindset created a vicious cycle. Because these products were free, they generated no revenue, which meant they attracted no investment. As a result, they remained basic and uninspiring.
At our company, the problem was magnified. As a global business that grew through acquisitions and market expansions, we ended up with around 20 different virtual terminal products scattered across platforms worldwide. Each one was deeply tied to its own system, leaving us with a fragmented merchant experience that clashed with our vision of a unified omnichannel business.
To deliver on that vision, we knew we had to rethink virtual terminals from the ground up.
Our merchants were already experiencing the benefits of our unified GP API, which let them integrate once and access multiple payment channels. The next step was to bring that same sense of simplicity and consistency to the user interface level. At the time, merchants still interacted with different platforms, each with its own login and design. This presented us with an opportunity: to extend the unification we had achieved on the backend into a seamless, consistent experience on the frontend.
To build on that momentum, we began envisioning an interface layer that could align with the unified promise of our API. Even before a unified dashboard became the company standard, we had already begun experimenting with lightweight, modular components. We called these our “Lego bricks” because they could drop into any portal, work anywhere, and still feel consistent no matter how merchants logged in.
That head start made all the difference. By the time our unified platform approach came together, we already had the foundation in place.
One of the smartest choices we made was to build the Virtual Terminal as if we were our own merchant. By treating ourselves as a customer of the GP API, we ensured everything sat on the same solid foundation we provide to our clients. This approach continues to deliver benefits we had not anticipated.
When our support teams need to troubleshoot, there’s no extra training or custom tooling required. Because they already support the GP API, they inherently support the Virtual Terminal as well. In practice, we’ve simply given them a new user interface wrapped around systems they already know. For merchants, that means faster resolution times and more reliable support, since the same teams and tools are already in place. Transaction logs, error handling, and monitoring are built in because we use the same infrastructure that our merchants rely on.
Even with compliance, we leaned on what already worked. For PCI, we reused our proven Hosted Fields solution instead of reinventing secure payment capture. It’s a trusted, regulator-approved system that our merchants depend on, ensuring they receive the same high level of security and trust in the Virtual Terminal as they do everywhere else in our ecosystem. That means you get enterprise-grade reliability without added complexity.
Our technical architecture mirrors our business philosophy: flexible behind the scenes, seamless up front. We built the Virtual Terminal using a micro-frontend and microservices approach, which gives merchants the feel of a unified product, even though it’s powered by independently managed components. Each business unit can own its piece, while merchants experience a single, cohesive interface.
This design enables us to embed the Virtual Terminal directly into existing portals, such as MyAccount. To merchants, it feels like just another feature in the tools they already know. To us, it is a self-contained component that can be deployed, updated, and maintained independently without disrupting the broader system.
The benefits extend well beyond convenience. Our embedded-first philosophy means that the components we create, such as the translation engine for international markets, the framework for portal integration, and the transaction management workflows, are reusable across the organization. Other teams can plug them in without reinventing the wheel, accelerating innovation and maintaining a consistent overall merchant experience.
On the surface, building a virtual terminal looks simple: connect to a payment processor’s API, capture a card payment, and you’re done. But payment capture is only the starting point. The real complexity, and the real value for merchants, lives in the operational workflows below the surface.
Take a small business selling in-store. A customer brings a product home, finds a problem, and calls from miles away, frustrated and ready to issue a chargeback. Traditionally, resolving this meant juggling multiple systems and following clunky steps, all while the customer waited.
With our Virtual Terminal, the merchant can simply search by the customer’s name rather than a transaction ID, review the details, and issue a refund on the spot. What could have been a chargeback turns into a positive interaction that builds loyalty.
We’ve also designed for cross-channel realities. A merchant can take payments online, manage fulfillment in-store, or process a sale in-store and handle an online return later. Because everything runs through the same unified API layer, the data flows naturally across channels.
That’s the difference between a tool that just works and a product that drives loyalty.
The architectural choices we made early on are paying off in speed and efficiency. Where a legacy platform might roll out a single new virtual terminal feature per quarter with a whole team, we’re delivering four to five times that output with half the resources.
The difference isn’t just smarter coding, but stronger foundations. By building on top of the GP API, we automatically inherit processor integrations, compliance frameworks, and operational tooling. By designing modular components, we can reuse existing functionality, including authentication from MyAccount, search that spans multiple products, and transaction management workflows that integrate seamlessly into other applications.
For merchants, this means faster innovation, more consistent features across products, and a platform that continually improves without lengthy waits between updates.
Building on an API that wasn’t initially designed for our use case forced us to work across teams in new ways. To bring the Virtual Terminal to life, we had to go beyond transaction APIs into partner information, merchant data, and account details, understanding how each piece fits into the broader ecosystem.
The real challenge wasn’t the technology, it was coordination. Each team had its own priorities and release cycles. What was critical for the Virtual Terminal might have been routine for the API team. That diversity of focus pushed us to create stronger collaboration frameworks, which ultimately became just as valuable as the technical design itself.
Governance gave us another valuable lesson. We built a working product in just two and a half months. But approvals added another six months before production. That showed us organizational speed is just as important as technical speed. For merchants, that means features, improvements, and value can reach them faster than ever before.
What we’re launching this month is just the foundation: a virtual terminal that delivers the core functionality you expect today. Unlike traditional free add-ons, we’re treating this as a true product with dedicated investment, and that means our roadmap goes far beyond basic payment capture.
Next up are capabilities designed to solve real-world merchant needs:
Each of these reduces friction for you and your customers, whether that’s simplifying subscription billing, streamlining refunds, or rewarding loyal customers with a faster checkout experience.
Looking ahead, our ambitions stretch further. By 2027, this foundation will power differentiated merchant experiences that create lasting competitive advantages in the small business market. The architectural patterns, reusable components, and collaboration frameworks we’ve developed here are already influencing other teams across the organization, multiplying the impact well beyond the Virtual Terminal itself.
The greatest impact of this project may not be the Virtual Terminal itself, but the blueprint it creates for product development across the company. We’ve demonstrated that treating so-called “basic” functionality as a real product with dedicated investment can transform both the technology and the business outcomes.
Our modular architecture speeds up development cycles. An API-first approach guarantees consistent support. The embedded design philosophy gives us deployment flexibility, while the revenue model ensures continuous reinvestment and improvement.
Most importantly, we’ve proven that solving simple problems exceptionally well can be one of the most strategic moves a technology organization can make. Innovation often begins not with flashy features, but with getting the fundamentals right. And this is only the beginning, stay tuned for what’s next.
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