3DS2 Payments
Support 3D Secure 2 (3DS2) authentication for SCA-compliant card payments across NEXT's supported gateways, on storefront checkout and the Admin API.
3D Secure 2 Payments
3D-Secure v2 (3DS2) payments are fully supported in Next Commerce, both via the storefront checkout and for transactions created over the Admin API.
For EU-based merchants, or merchants selling to EU-based customers, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is mandated under the PSD2 directive for payment card transactions. 3DS2 offers a low or no-friction method to achieve SCA compliance on your store's transactions.
3DS2 authentication is supported on Next Commerce for the following gateways:
| Gateway | |
|---|---|
| NEXT Payments | Checkout.com |
| Adyen | NMI |
| Airwallex | Nuvei |
| BlueSnap | PayPal Commerce Platform |
| Braintree | Stripe Payment Intents |
| Test Gateway |
To support 3DS2 payments over the Admin API, see the Developers Guide
3DS Mode
Go to Settings > Payments and choose your gateway. On the 3DS card, choose a 3DS Mode:
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Off | Transactions are processed without 3DS authentication. |
| Smart | Skips 3DS in markets where shoppers rarely use it and adds 3DS on higher risk orders. Every other order is attempted with 3DS. |
| Always On | Every transaction is attempted with 3DS authentication. |
Gateways that had Enable 3D Secure Transactions turned on are now set to Always On, and gateways that had it turned off are set to Off. Nothing switches to Smart until you choose it.
Smart Mode
Smart mode lets one gateway take orders from both low-friction and SCA markets. It decides per order from the customer's billing address country, using the shipping address when there is no billing address.
| Billing country | Order risk | Result |
|---|---|---|
| United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand | At or below your risk tolerance | Charged without 3DS |
| United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand | Above your risk tolerance | Charged with 3DS, and the challenge is always shown |
| Any other country | Any | Charged with 3DS |
See How 3DS Modes Use Risk Screening for how risk scores change these results.
Smart mode applies to the initial checkout charge. Upsells, subscription renewals, wallet payments such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, and orders created in the dashboard follow their usual flow.
Smart mode reads the billing address country, not the country of the bank that issued the card. A card issued in the EU with a US billing address is charged without 3DS, and the issuer may decline it if it requires authentication. Orders charged without 3DS carry no liability shift.
Smart mode changes where the 3DS decision is made. It does not change where your merchant account is located, so cross-border approval rates on your gateway still apply.
How 3DS Modes Use Risk Screening
Risk Screening scores every checkout before payment. On a gateway with 3DS, an order scored above your risk tolerance is sent through 3DS instead of being declined.
| Risk score | Off | Smart | Always On |
|---|---|---|---|
| Above 90 | Declined | Declined | Declined |
| Above your risk tolerance, up to 90 | Declined | Charged with 3DS, challenge shown | Charged with 3DS, challenge shown |
| At or below your risk tolerance | Charged without 3DS | Without 3DS in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with 3DS elsewhere | Charged with 3DS |
If your risk tolerance is set to 90, the middle row never applies: every order above your tolerance is declined.
Higher risk orders that go through 3DS are never retried without 3DS, even when Optimized 3DS2 is turned on. If the customer fails the challenge, the payment fails.
3DS2 Merchant Profiles
Gateways that use a 3DS Merchant Profile need one before Smart or Always On can authenticate. NEXT Payments is configured for you, and Stripe Payment Intents uses Stripe's own 3DS, so neither needs one.
You will be prompted to enter the following values, most of which come from your processing provider or acquiring bank.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Merchant Name | The merchant name assigned by your acquiring bank |
| Merchant Country | The country your business is registered in |
| Acquirer BIN | The acquiring BIN (ABIN) issued for that card network |
| Merchant ID (MID) | The merchant ID issued for that card network |
| MCC Code | Your merchant category code |
Acquirer BIN, Merchant ID, and MCC Code are entered per card network — Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, and Discover.
Choose to Save your Merchant Profile.
Configuring each card type for 3DS is optional. For example applying 3DS Merchant Profile values to Visa but not to Mastercard will apply 3DS to Visa transactions, but pass Mastercard transactions as non-3DS.
Once the Merchant Profile is correctly set, your gateway will automatically apply 3DS on payment attempts.
Optimized 3DS2
Optimized 3DS2 is a checkbox under Smart and Always On. It is available on gateways that use a 3DS Merchant Profile, including NEXT Payments, and needs a merchant account that accepts both 3DS and non-3DS transactions.
When a customer submits their payment details, 3DS2 authentication starts and the 3D Secure server returns one of two flows:
- Frictionless - the transaction is authenticated without any input from the cardholder.
- Challenge - the cardholder must enter a one-time password from their card issuing bank to continue.
Choose Enable Optimized 3D Secure Transactions to skip the challenge flow and submit those transactions as non-3DS. Frictionless authentications still pass through as 3DS.
With Smart mode, Optimized 3DS2 only affects orders that Smart sends through 3DS at normal risk, which are the orders outside the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Higher risk orders always show the challenge.
If you turned on Optimized 3DS2 to keep 3DS away from US and other low-friction traffic, Smart mode now does that directly: those orders are charged without a 3DS request at all. Consider whether you still need Optimized 3DS2 for your remaining markets, where card issuers in the EU and UK may decline a challenged transaction that is resubmitted without 3DS.
Retry Non-3DS Enrolled Cards
You may optionally choose to automatically Retry Non-3DS Enrolled Cards as Standard Transaction to gracefully re-attempt any transactions on cardholders which do not support 3DS payments. Note that this setting should only be used with merchant accounts that support both 3DS and non-3DS transactions.