Building Revela: Escrow Payment Flow (Part 2)

Protecting both buyers and sellers through clear rules and atomic state.

The Trust Problem

In art auctions, buyers don't want to pay before they see the item. Sellers don't want to ship before they're paid. Both need protection if the other backs out.

Escrow solves that. Implementing it in a way that stays simple and auditable was the goal.

One Flow, Clear States

Orders move through a fixed sequence: pending shipping cost → invoice generated → paid → shipped → delivery confirmed → seller payout → completed. Edge cases (deadline exceeded, refunded, cancelled) are explicit states, not afterthoughts. Every transition is triggered by a single event and recorded. No ad‑hoc updates—so we get a clear audit trail and predictable behaviour for support and disputes.

Fees and Deadlines

We use a simple fee structure: platform fee on the hammer price, buyer's premium, shipping pass-through (no fee on shipping). Deadlines are enforced automatically: 7 days to provide shipping cost, 2 weeks to ship after payment. If a step is missed, the order moves to a defined outcome (e.g. deadline exceeded) instead of staying stuck. Sellers don't block the flow: if IBAN isn't on file yet, we notify and still advance the order; payout happens when details are in. That keeps the process moving and avoids "waiting on one thing" bottlenecks.

Why Not Stripe Connect?

We use Stripe for buyer payments but chose manual IBAN payouts instead of Stripe Connect:

• Less complexity — No per-seller Stripe KYC; our own verification covers it.
• Control — Each payout is reviewed; fits a curated, human-in-the-loop model.
• Flexibility — Works for sellers who can't or don't want to use Connect.
• Cost — At our volume, manual payouts are cheaper.

The trade-off is more operational work. For a curated platform where we're already reviewing every listing and every user, that's acceptable.

Takeaway

Escrow isn't just "hold the money." It's a clear state machine, visible deadlines, and deliberate trade-offs (e.g. manual payouts) so the product stays lean and trustworthy.

Explore the platform: revela.club — or get in touch if you're building something that needs clear payment and trust design.