When a payment gateway fails: monitoring third-party integrations
An online shop commonly relies on third-party services during a purchase: a payment gateway, delivery providers, third-party sign-in, or stock and ERP systems connected through an API. You do not control these dependencies, but customers experience their failure as a problem with the shop as a whole. Monitoring the server alone may not detect it.
What the problem is
Infrastructure monitoring will often alert you when your own server goes down. If the payment gateway begins rejecting payments, however, your website may appear to be running perfectly. The server responds, the page loads and the “Pay” button is in place. The process fails only after the customer clicks it.
Your systems are green, yet no purchases are being completed because the problem lies beyond the boundary covered by your monitoring. You learn about it when customers report that their “payment did not go through”, or when you notice that orders have suddenly stopped arriving.
How we address it
Monitoring does not end at the boundary of your code. A real browser can complete an entire, safely prepared purchase scenario, including third-party services. It uses a separate test account and, where the payment gateway permits it, a test mode so that it does not create real payments. If the gateway stops completing the process, monitoring records the failed step even though your website is technically available.
Delivery selection, third-party sign-in and key APIs can be monitored in the same way. Depending on the tool used, a failure may include a screenshot, video or technical trace that helps distinguish between a problem in your system and one at the supplier more quickly.
That is the difference from monitoring whether the “server is running”: it checks the outcome for the customer, not the state of one link in the chain.
What you gain
- You can detect a payment-gateway or delivery-provider error before customers report it.
- When an error occurs, you have more evidence to distinguish between a problem in your system and one at a third party.
- A record of the journey to support communication with the supplier.
Next step
Does your purchase journey depend on a payment gateway or another third-party service? During a no-obligation consultation, we will propose a safe scenario scope, interval and alerting method.