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For marketplaces

One terminal, many vendors, separate settlement.

Food courts, festivals, shared retail floors and pop-up vendor networks all break the one-merchant-per-terminal model that most payment platforms assume. Surfboard ships shared-fleet payments as a first-class API: each vendor keeps its own settlement, branding and reporting on hardware they share.

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  • 1 Terminal, many vendors
  • N Settlements, kept apart
  • Per vendor Branding and reporting
A food hall with several vendors
I Without the workarounds

Built for Shared Hardware, Independent Settlement

Marketplaces have always been awkward in payments. The hardware is shared. The vendors are independent. The customer experience needs to feel like one place. The reporting needs to feel like many. Surfboard's Multi-Merchant API and Service Providers API are designed exactly around this constraint set.

One terminal serves many merchants. Each merchant keeps their own branding, pricing, settlement, and reporting. The customer sees a coherent experience because the branding flips per transaction. The marketplace operator sees consolidated visibility. Each vendor sees their own books. The reconciliation pipeline stays clean because per-vendor settlement is the default, not a workaround.

II Marketplace patterns

Why marketplaces choose Surfboard

Six reasons marketplace operators select Surfboard over building custom routing or stitching together generic processors.

  • Multi-Merchant Terminals as a First-Class Concept

    Most payment platforms force one-merchant-per-terminal, a model that breaks the moment you run a marketplace. Surfboard's Multi-Merchant API is built for shared infrastructure: one terminal serves many vendors, each with independent settlement, branding, and reporting.

    • Food halls and shared kitchens
    • Festival vendor networks
    • Shared retail spaces and consigned-artist galleries
    • Pop-up event marketplaces

  • Per-Vendor Settlement, Not Aggregate Payouts

    Each vendor in your marketplace gets their own settlement schedule, their own payout, their own reporting. Funds route correctly to each merchant entity at the moment of settlement, no manual reconciliation, no aggregate-to-vendor splits.

    Compliance and audit trails stay clean even when the underlying device fleet is shared.

  • Per-Vendor Branding on Shared Hardware

    Customer at a food hall taps their card at vendor A. The terminal greets them in vendor A's brand. They walk to vendor B. Same terminal, vendor B's brand. The branding cascade flips per transaction based on the merchant the order belongs to.

    Critical for marketplaces where each vendor's brand identity matters for repeat customer experience.

  • Service Providers API for Sub-Aggregation

    Marketplaces of marketplaces, festival operators with sub-event organizers, mall managers with concession partners, all need to onboard third-party service providers under a parent entity. The Service Providers API covers the full lifecycle.

    • Onboard third-party application providers programmatically
    • Track application and approval status
    • Per-provider configurations and routing

  • Programmatic Vendor Onboarding

    Vendors join your marketplace, paste their URL, and have a fully branded, ready-to-trade payment setup in minutes. AI-generated branding from the URL, automatic terminal assignment, KYB verification, default billing plan, all programmatic.

    Pair with the AI API for instant white-label setup at marketplace scale.

  • The Whole Stack, Not Just Routing

    Marketplaces typically piece together routing, KYB, branding, settlement, and reporting from separate vendors. Surfboard ships them as one platform, Multi-Merchant for routing, AI + Branding for vendor identity, Reporting for per-vendor settlement, Notifications for vendor statements, and Tokenization for cross-vendor customer recognition.

    One integration. Years of marketplace-payments work already done.

III Reach for these first

The marketplace primitives Surfboard ships

Each one is reachable from the integration you have already written. Nothing below is a separate product to buy.

IV Shared hardware

Customer experience that feels like one place

The customer at a food hall doesn't think about which restaurant runs which terminal. They tap, they pay, they get a receipt. Behind the scenes, Surfboard routes the funds to the correct vendor, applies the correct branding to the receipt, and settles to the correct merchant entity.

Marketplace payments should be invisible to the customer. With Surfboard, they are.
V In code

Stand up your marketplace

Create a multi-merchant group, tag in vendor merchants, and the same terminal fleet routes correctly. Per-vendor settlement, branding, and reporting all preserved.

Read the Developer docs
                            // Create a marketplace multi-merchant group
  POST /partners/:partnerId/multi-merchant
  {
    "country": "SE",
    "zipCode": "11122",
    "name": "Hötorget Food Court",
    "email": "ops@hotorget.example"
  }

  // Onboard a vendor under the group with auto-branded portal
  POST /partners/:partnerId/merchants
  {
    "businessName": "Vendor A",
    "country": "SE",
    "registrationNumber": "5566778899",
    "multiMerchantGroupId": "mmg_hotorget",
    "brandingFromUrl": "https://vendor-a.example"
  }

Build it yourself

Step-by-step developer guides for everything on this page.

In-store · Guide
Multi-Merchant Terminals

Set up shared payment terminals for multiple merchants using the Multi-Merchant Group API. Ideal for food courts, events, and co-located businesses.

Read guide Online · Guide
Merchant Onboarding

Set up merchants and stores on the Surfboard platform. Walk through the full onboarding flow from merchant creation to KYB completion and store setup.

Read guide Online · Guide
Settlements & Reporting

Retrieve settlement reports, view adjustments, manage merchant charges, and register customer profiles for reconciliation and billing.

Read guide Online · Guide
Store Management

Create, update, verify, and manage in-store and online stores using the Surfboard Payments Store APIs.

Read guide
Browse all developer guides