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Your own payment account — whose account does the money go into?
When a customer pays, whose account receives the money — yours, or the platform's? It's the single most consequential question in choosing where to sell online, and the one least often asked directly. The answer decides who controls your payouts, who can put a hold on your funds, and whose name a customer's bank statement shows. Two models exist; here is how to tell them apart — on any platform, including this one.
Two models, one important difference
Broadly, online selling platforms settle money one of two ways.
The aggregator model The platform is the merchant of record. Every seller's sales run through the platform's own payment-processor account; the platform collects the money, tracks what it owes each seller internally, and pays sellers out later on its own schedule — daily, weekly, or on request. This is common on marketplaces and some hosted store builders, and its appeal is speed: a seller can start taking payments in minutes, with no processor application of their own. The tradeoff is that the platform sits between the seller and the money at every step — it decides the payout schedule, and it can place a hold or reserve on a seller's balance if its own risk systems flag something, with the seller having limited recourse beyond the platform's own dispute process.
The direct-account model The seller connects their own account with a payment processor — their own Stripe account, their own PayPal business account — and the platform's checkout charges the customer straight into it. The platform never touches the money; it only orchestrates the checkout UI and hands the transaction to the processor. Payouts run on the processor's own schedule, in the seller's own name, and only the processor — not the platform — can place a hold, because only the processor is actually holding the funds.
How to tell which model a platform actually uses
The marketing language is often similar regardless of which model is underneath, so check for these instead:
Does setup ask you to create or connect your own processor account? If you're prompted to sign up for (or log into) your own Stripe, PayPal or similar account during setup, that's the direct-account model. If payments "just work" from the moment you enable a store, with no processor account of your own anywhere, you're very likely on the aggregator model.
Whose name is on the customer's statement? A direct account bills under your own registered business name with your processor. An aggregator typically bills under the platform's name (sometimes with your store name appended), because the platform is the merchant of record.
Who issues the payout, and on whose schedule? Direct accounts pay out on the processor's own standard schedule. Aggregator payouts run on a schedule the platform sets and can change.
Read the platform's own terms for the word "reserve" or "hold." A platform that can place a reserve on your balance is describing the aggregator model, even if its marketing copy talks about "your store" and "your revenue."
What "connecting your own account" involves
On a direct-account platform, connecting your processor is a short, standard flow: an OAuth authorisation on the processor's own screen, or pasting credentials the processor issued to you. Identity and compliance checks are the processor's job, under its own rules — the platform doesn't decide whether you're approved to take payments; your processor and bank do.
Connecting your own account on Olmira
1
Choose a gateway
Connect your own Stripe account (via a short OAuth flow, or by pasting your account details directly), or add your PayPal or Klarna credentials the same way. One gateway connection is included on every plan that can sell.
2
Verify the connection
Olmira runs a live check against the credentials before marking the connection ready, so a typo or an expired key is caught before a customer hits it.
3
Publish only once payment is real
A store page can't go live until a real, working payment connection exists — Olmira blocks publish rather than letting a storefront take orders it can't actually charge for.
4
Add a second gateway if you need one
Running two gateways at once — cards through Stripe and Klarna for buy-now-pay-later, say — needs the Multi-provider payments add-on (€5/month on Pro, included from Pro+). One connection is included; a second is the add-on's job.
How Olmira handles this
Olmira runs the direct-account model, deliberately: your own Stripe, PayPal or Klarna account is the one your customers pay, credentials are stored only as an encrypted cipher that even Olmira's own systems never expose in plain form, and Olmira takes no percentage of what settles into it — see the fee layers guide for the full cost picture.
One gateway connection is included with every plan that sells; a second running at the same time needs the Multi-provider payments add-on (€5/month on Pro, included from Pro+). If you take payment on a booking or appointment, that specific charge always runs through your connected Stripe account, regardless of which other gateways you've connected — Stripe is the only provider wired into the booking-payment flow today. And if you'd rather not connect a card processor yet, a manual method — bank transfer, pay on collection, or similar — is available and doesn't use up the included gateway slot.