Patent ID: 8762210

Claim:
A system for processing a transaction between a merchant and a consumer at a point of sale (POS), said system comprising: at least one processor programmed to: receive transaction information for the transaction from the consumer at the POS, the transaction information identifying an alternative payment option of an alternative payment provider to use for the transaction; request a universal merchant platform (UMP) to approve the transaction with the alternative payment provider of the identified alternative payment option, the UMP providing a unified payment implementation for transacting with a plurality of alternative payment providers, including the alternative payment provider, and the request including the received transaction information, wherein the request is provided to the UMP according to the unified payment implementation; in response to approval of the transaction, receive an order identifier from the UMP, the order identifier uniquely identifying the transaction; and, request the UMP to authorize or capture funds for the transaction using a payment implementation specific to the alternative payment provider of the identified alternative payment option, the request identifying the transaction with the received order identifier and provided to the UMP according to the unified payment implementation.