You put a lot into making your work. Long hours, sleepless nights, social life sacrifices. And when it’s finally finished and online, it’s time to start thinking about payments and content fulfillment. Rather, it’s time for Gumroad to start thinking about payments and fulfillment. And we do. We geek out on it every day (some of us more than others). Because, for you, those things should just happen.
So what happens when someone clicks ‘Buy this’?
Once the buyer enters their credit card number and email address, they hit Buy this (or I want this! or Pay). From that moment, and in the span of milliseconds, the following occurs.
First, a token is created for the purchase. This encrypted bit of the Matrix is what eventually (again, we’re talking about milliseconds) gets passed to our banking partners. In other words, we neither see nor store any credit card information.
Oh. Real quick. We check against the inventory of the item being purchased. Is it actually available to be sold? Yes? Great. Moving on.
Next are fraud checks. The token is run through our fraud algorithms, checking both buyer and seller characteristics.
Here’s a little about how we detect fraud. It has been edited slightly by our Risk team.
When approved, we send the token to our banking partners, where it goes through a checklist. Their systems check for two groups of information.
Verification:
- Is the card number a valid one?
- Does the provided name match the name on the credit card account?
- Is the expiration date accurate and not in the past?
- Does the address (usually the zip code), if provided, match the account’s?
Spendability:
- Is the credit card account in good standing and able to make purchases?
- Does the balance on the account cover the cost of the intended purchase?
When everything looks good on that end, Gumroad is notified. Then we deliver the goods, where they can be read, listened to, streamed, downloaded, saved to Dropbox, or sent to a Kindle.
And while all of that was happening, you were able to focus on your work. Well, maybe you had time to blink or hit a few keys on your keyboard. But it all adds up, right?
We’re only as strong as our creators, so it’s up to us to build and maintain a strong, safe platform. As far as payments go, it’s all about being invisible, fast, and secure. If you have any questions about security, or about anything in the spectrum of creation to consumption, feel free to reach out.