E-commerce billing in Spain topped €28 billion in the second quarter of 2025, a 22.6% year-over-year rise according to CNMC. To reach this milestone, online payments have played a pivotal role, as ecommerce matures and the fintech ecosystem grows more sophisticated.
Over the past decade, Spain’s payments market has undergone a profound transformation. In terms of payment methods, card usage remains dominant, but is increasingly coexisting with alternative methods such as Bizum or smart wallets like PayPal, Google Pay, or Apple Pay. Added to this is a stringent regulatory framework focused on security, such as PSD2 or Strong Customer Authentication (SCA).
As the payments ecosystem becomes more complex, many ecommerce businesses are moving from traditional gateways to orchestration platforms. A model largely centered on card transactions, especially Visa and Mastercard, with multiple acquirers and processors involved. In fact, it is forecast that by 2035 this market will be valued at nearly $15 billion, according to consultancy Research Nester.
From gateway to orchestration, a qualitative leap in payment management
A payment orchestrator also acts as a payment gateway, but it goes one step further. The traditional gateway connects the merchant with one or more providers and securely transmits transaction information. It is the technical channel that enables the payment to travel from the online store to the acquirer. The problem arises when the business grows, operates across multiple markets, or works with several acquirers. With a conventional gateway, each new connection requires additional development, independent integrations, and fragmented information management. Moreover, if a provider experiences an outage, the merchant has little room for real-time maneuvering.
The payments orchestration introduces an added layer of intelligence and control. It not only centralizes connections into a single integration, but also enables dynamic routing of each card transaction based on criteria such as historical performance, currency, or card type. In other words, it adds automated decision-making about which TPV Virtual to route each payment to and how to handle failures.
«When someone makes an online card payment, the process is more complex than it seems. In just a few seconds, multiple players come into play: the merchant, the card network, the acquirer, the issuer, and the fraud-prevention system. This is where a payment orchestrator comes into play. It acts right after the customer enters their payment details. It verifies the information, selects the most efficient TPV Virtual, applies security measures such as tokenization, and even automatically retries failed payments«, explains Jorge Sorial, Country Manager of Craftgate in Spain.
Direct impact on conversion, resilience, and international expansion
These capabilities have a direct impact on the business, since a better selection of the right TPV Virtual can raise approval rates and, therefore, conversions. Moreover, the ability to reroute transactions in the face of technical incidents provides resilience and reduces the risk of interruptions during critical moments, such as promotional campaigns or seasonal peaks. Additionally, the ability to operate with multiple acquirers from a centralized environment makes international expansion easier without multiplying technical complexity.
Payment has become a strategic factor, and the difference between merely processing transactions and being able to optimize them in real time can mark the difference between a functional checkout and a truly competitive one.
