diff --git a/src/middleware/node/get-payload.ts b/src/middleware/node/get-payload.ts
index 30c924ad..05c5c1d9 100644
--- a/src/middleware/node/get-payload.ts
+++ b/src/middleware/node/get-payload.ts
@@ -18,13 +18,19 @@ export function getPayload(request: IncomingMessage): Promise<string> {
   if (request.body) return Promise.resolve(request.body);
 
   return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
-    let data = "";
+    let data: Buffer[] = [];
 
-    request.setEncoding("utf8");
-
-    // istanbul ignore next
     request.on("error", (error: Error) => reject(new AggregateError([error])));
-    request.on("data", (chunk: string) => (data += chunk));
-    request.on("end", () => resolve(data));
+    request.on("data", (chunk: Buffer) => data.push(chunk));
+    request.on("end", () =>
+      // setImmediate improves the throughput by reducing the pressure from
+      // the event loop
+      setImmediate(
+        resolve,
+        data.length === 1
+          ? data[0].toString("utf8")
+          : Buffer.concat(data).toString("utf8"),
+      ),
+    );
   });
 }
diff --git a/test/integration/get-payload.test.ts b/test/integration/get-payload.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..507f4a93
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/integration/get-payload.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+import EventEmitter from "node:events";
+import { getPayload } from "../../src/middleware/node/get-payload.ts";
+
+describe("getPayload", () => {
+  it("returns a promise", () => {
+    const request = new EventEmitter();
+    const promise = getPayload(request);
+
+    expect(promise).toBeInstanceOf(Promise);
+  });
+
+  it("resolves with a string when only receiving no chunk", async () => {
+    const request = new EventEmitter();
+    const promise = getPayload(request);
+
+    request.emit("end");
+
+    expect(await promise).toEqual("");
+  });
+
+  it("resolves with a string when only receiving one chunk", async () => {
+    const request = new EventEmitter();
+    const promise = getPayload(request);
+
+    request.emit("data", Buffer.from("foobar"));
+    request.emit("end");
+
+    expect(await promise).toEqual("foobar");
+  });
+
+  it("resolves with a string when receiving multiple chunks", async () => {
+    const request = new EventEmitter();
+    const promise = getPayload(request);
+
+    request.emit("data", Buffer.from("foo"));
+    request.emit("data", Buffer.from("bar"));
+    request.emit("end");
+
+    expect(await promise).toEqual("foobar");
+  });
+
+  it("rejects with an error", async () => {
+    const request = new EventEmitter();
+    const promise = getPayload(request);
+
+    request.emit("error", new Error("test"));
+
+    await expect(promise).rejects.toThrow("test");
+  });
+
+  it("resolves with a string with respecting the utf-8 encoding", async () => {
+    const request = new EventEmitter();
+    const promise = getPayload(request);
+
+    const doubleByteBuffer = Buffer.from("ݔ");
+    request.emit("data", doubleByteBuffer.subarray(0, 1));
+    request.emit("data", doubleByteBuffer.subarray(1, 2));
+    request.emit("end");
+
+    expect(await promise).toEqual("ݔ");
+  });
+
+  it("resolves with the body, if passed via the request", async () => {
+    const request = new EventEmitter();
+    // @ts-ignore body is not part of EventEmitter, which we are using
+    // to mock the request object
+    request.body = "foo";
+
+    const promise = getPayload(request);
+
+    // we emit data, to ensure that the body attribute is preferred
+    request.emit("data", "bar");
+    request.emit("end");
+
+    expect(await promise).toEqual("foo");
+  });
+});
diff --git a/test/integration/node-middleware.test.ts b/test/integration/node-middleware.test.ts
index a5568a42..6f150e69 100644
--- a/test/integration/node-middleware.test.ts
+++ b/test/integration/node-middleware.test.ts
@@ -372,7 +372,7 @@ describe("createNodeMiddleware(webhooks)", () => {
   });
 
   test("Handles timeout", async () => {
-    jest.useFakeTimers();
+    jest.useFakeTimers({ doNotFake: ["setImmediate"] });
 
     const webhooks = new Webhooks({
       secret: "mySecret",
@@ -407,7 +407,7 @@ describe("createNodeMiddleware(webhooks)", () => {
   });
 
   test("Handles timeout with error", async () => {
-    jest.useFakeTimers();
+    jest.useFakeTimers({ doNotFake: ["setImmediate"] });
 
     const webhooks = new Webhooks({
       secret: "mySecret",