Manage Merchant Accounts

Overview

To use the Global Ecommerce Shipping APIs, a shipper must have a merchant account enrolled within your developer account. The APIs supports the enrollment models described here.

Merchant Enrollment Models

The APIs support two models for enrolling merchants and handling their postage payments:

Individual Postage Account Model: A merchant signs up for a merchant account through Merchant Portal using a signup URL specific to your developer account. During signup, the merchant enters a payment method and creates an Individual PB Postage Account for paying postage directly. To implement this approach, provide the merchant the custom signup URL. When the merchant signs up, retrieve the merchant’s Shipper ID through the Authorize a Merchant API.

Bulk Postage Account Model: You create merchant accounts using the Register a Known Shipper API. You pay your merchants’ postage through a Bulk Postage Account and bill each merchant separately. To set up Bulk Postage, contact Client Support at ClientSupportTechServices@pb.com.

API Operations

Use the following APIs to manage merchant accounts:

API


Method

Resource Path


Authorize a Merchant

POST

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/credentials

Register a Known Shipper

POST

/v2/developers/{developerId}/merchants/registration

Update a Known Shipper

PUT

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/{merchantId}/updateMerchant

Update a Known Shipper - Partial

PATCH

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchant/{merchantId}/updateMerchant

Get Merchant Accounts

GET

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants

Get Account Balances

GET

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/{postalReportingNumber}/account-balance

Refill Account

POST

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/{postalReportingNumber}/account/fund

Get Refill Settings

GET

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/{postalReportingNumber}/autorefillrule

Update Refill Settings

POST

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/{postalReportingNumber}/autorefillrule

Add a Carrier Account

POST

/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/{postalReportingNumber}/carrier-accounts/register?carrier={carrier}

Shipper ID

Every merchant added to your developer account receives a unique Shipper ID to identify the merchant in transactions. To retrieve a merchant’s Shipper ID, issue the Get Merchants API. The Shipper ID is the value found in the postalReportingNumber field. If the merchant has an Individual PB Postage Account, the PB Postage Account number is the value found in the paymentAccountNumber field.

Auto Refill

By default, a PB Postage Account is set up to automatically refill when the balance falls falls below a specified threshold. You can change the refill settings at any time. You can also manually refill an account and can disable automatic refill. For more information, see Payments FAQs.

Subscription Fee

Pitney Bowes has the option to charge a subscription fee to merchants who have their own PB Postage Accounts. For more information, contact PaymentsAPISupport@pb.com.

Merchant Portal

Merchants who sign up for their own PB Postage Accounts have access to their accounts through Merchant Portal. Pitney Bowes provides separate Merchant Portals for the Sandbox and Production environments:

Environment


Merchant Portal Link

Production

https://www.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com

Sandbox

https://developer.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com

Deactivate a Merchant Account

To deactivate a merchant account, please contact our Payments API Support team at PaymentsAPISupport@pb.com or +1 855 393-8874.

For More Information

For more information, see Merchant FAQs.