When you build a digital subscription business with Cleeng, you operate in one of two models - Merchant or non-Merchant. The model determines who will be your merchant of record.
A merchant of record (MoR) is an entity that is authorized, and held liable, by a financial institution to process a consumer’s credit card and debit transactions on your behalf.
Beyond accepting payments, an MoR also ensures your business is compliant with tax laws (local and global) and maintains relationships with financial institutions.
The two models differ in one thing: whether that entity is Cleeng or someone else.
Note: Merchant with a capital M is the name of Cleeng's product; merchant of record is the general industry role. A Merchant customer is one who uses Cleeng’s Merchant solution, which means Cleeng is the merchant of record.
Merchant model: Cleeng is your merchant of record
Choose Cleeng to be your merchant of record if you want to focus on growing your business and have Cleeng take care of payment, tax, and compliance topics.
When you use Cleeng's Merchant solution, Cleeng acts as your merchant of record and takes merchant responsibilities off your hands. For example, Cleeng signs the contracts with the payment service providers, handles all the additional work concerning payments like consolidating the reports, tax management, and payouts, etc.
Non-Merchant model: you or a third party is the merchant of record
Be your own merchant of record if you want to build more complex in-house business operations and focus on scaling the business, including payment, tax, and compliance topics yourself.
Alternatively, you can build a more extended ecosystem for your business and find another, third-party merchant of record.