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What is a Customer?

A Customer in Revolv3 is an optional record that represents a person or business that makes payments through your platform. Think of it like a contact in your CRM—it stores information about the customer and links together all their payments, subscriptions, and payment methods. Key point: Customers are optional in Revolv3. You can process payments without creating customer records if you prefer to manage customer data in your own system.

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When to Use Customer Records

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Use Customers When:

  • You want to track customer history: See all payments, subscriptions, and transactions for a specific customer in one place
  • You’re building subscriptions: Subscriptions are easier to manage when linked to customer records
  • You want Revolv3 to manage customer data: Let Revolv3 store and organize customer information for you
  • You need customer lookups: Quickly find all transactions for a specific customer
  • You’re building a customer portal: Customers can view their payment history, subscriptions, etc.

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Don’t Use Customers When:

  • You manage customers elsewhere: If you have your own CRM or customer database
  • One-time anonymous payments: Guest checkout where you don’t need to track the customer
  • You want minimal data in Revolv3: Keep customer data in your own system only
  • Simple integrations: One-time payments where customer tracking isn’t needed

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How Customers Work

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Customer Records Are Optional

You can:
  • Create customer records and link payments to them
  • Process payments without customer records (set customer to null)
  • Mix both approaches (some payments with customers, some without)
Example without customer: 
{
  "Invoice": {
    "Amount": { "value": 10.00 }
  },
  "customer": null  // No customer record
}
Example with customer: 
{
  "Invoice": {
    "Amount": { "value": 10.00 }
  },
  "customer": {
    "firstName": "John",
    "lastName": "Doe",
    "email": "john@example.com"
  }
}

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What Gets Stored

When you create a customer, Revolv3 stores:
  • Basic info: Name, email, phone
  • Addresses: Billing and shipping addresses
  • Payment methods: Cards and bank accounts linked to this customer
  • Subscriptions: All subscriptions for this customer
  • Payment history: All invoices and transactions
  • Metadata: Custom data you want to store

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Automatic Customer Creation

Revolv3 can automatically create customer records when you process payments.

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Best Practices

  1. Store only what you need: Don’t store sensitive PII unless necessary and compliant
  2. Keep it optional: Remember customers are optional—don’t create them if you don’t need them
  3. Update when needed: Keep customer information current (email, address, etc.)

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Privacy and Compliance

When storing customer data:
  • Validate and sanitize: Clean data before sending to Revolv3
  • Respect privacy laws: Follow GDPR, CCPA, and other applicable regulations
  • Use retention policies: Delete customer data when no longer needed
  • Don’t store unauthorized PII: Only store data you’re authorized to collect

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API Usage Notes

  • Customers API: Use the Customers API to create, retrieve, update, and delete customers
  • Include in payments: You can include customer data in payment requests, or reference an existing customerId
  • Anonymous flows: For guest checkout or tokenized flows, omit the customer object entirely

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Common Questions

Q: Do I have to create customers? A: No, customers are optional. You can process payments without customer records. Q: Can I update customer information? A: Yes, use the Customers API to update customer records. Q: What if I manage customers in my own system? A: You can skip customer records entirely and manage everything in your system. Q: Can one customer have multiple payment methods? A: Yes, customers can have multiple payment methods. Q: What happens if I don’t provide a customer? A: The payment processes normally, but no customer record is created. This is fine for one-time payments.

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Next Steps