Merchants¶
Overview¶
To print labels for your shippers, you must add them as merchants under your developer account. When you add a merchant, the merchant receives a unique Shipper ID that identifies the merchant during transaction requests.
The PB Ecommerce APIs support two models for handling a merchant’s postage payments. Depending on the payment model you choose, either a merchant pays for postage directly by setting up an individual PB Postage Account with Pitney Bowes or you pay postage on behalf of the merchant by setting up a Bulk Postage Account with Pitney Bowes and billing the merchant separately.
When you add merchants, they have access to print USPS® labels through PB Expedited and USPS PMOD. The APIs integrate with other carriers as well, and once a merchant enrolls with your developer account, you can add other carriers to the merchant’s account. For available carriers and onboarding instructions, see the carrier reference pages.
Merchant Enrollment Models¶
The APIs provide the following ways to add merchants to your developer account:
Enrollment Model |
API |
Description |
|---|---|---|
Individual Postage Account |
Merchants sign up for their merchant accounts through Merchant Portal by using a Merchant Portal URL that is specific to your developer account. During signup, a merchant specifies a payment method and creates a PB Postage Account. The Merchant Portal handles all of the merchant’s payment details. To implement this approach do the following: |
|
Bulk Postage Account |
You manage postage funds on behalf of all your merchants through a Bulk PB Postage Account, also called simply Bulk Postage Account. To provide a merchant with a PB Shipper ID, you register the merchant with Pitney Bowes using the Register a Merchant API. To set up a Bulk Postage Account, please contact Client Support at ClientSupportTechServices@pb.com. |
Shipper ID¶
Every merchant added to your developer account receives a unique Shipper ID. You use the Shipper ID to identify a merchant when requesting transactions. You can retrieve a merchant’s Shipper ID using the Get Merchant Accounts API, which returns the returned Merchant Object. The merchant’s Shipper ID is the value found in the postalReportingNumber field of the Merchant Object.
If the merchant also has an individual PB Postage Account, the account number is the value found in the Merchant Object’s paymentAccountNumber field.
Note
The merchant’s Shipper ID is found in the postalReportingNumber field.
The merchant’s PB Postage Account number is found in the paymentAccountNumber field.
Payment Methods¶
Pitney Bowes offers the following payment methods to fund PB Postage Accounts:
U.S. Credit Card
ACH (Automated Clearing House)
Auto Refill¶
By default, a PB Postage Account is set up to automatically refill when the balance falls falls below a specified threshold. The refill amount and threshold are set when the account is created. You can change the refill settings at any time. You can also manually refill an account. If desired, you can disable automatic refill. For more information on funding PB Postage Accounts, see Payments FAQs.
Subscription Fee¶
Pitney Bowes has the option to charge a subscription fee to merchants who have their own PB Postage Accounts, which is the case for merchants onboarded through the Individual Postage Account enrollment model. For more information, please contact PaymentsAPISupport@pb.com.
Merchant Portal¶
Merchants who sign up for their own individual PB Postage Accounts have access to their accounts through the PB Merchant Portal. Pitney Bowes provides separate Merchant Portals for the Sandbox and Production environments:
Environment |
Merchant Portal Link |
|---|---|
Production |
|
Sandbox |
FAQs¶
See the Merchants FAQs.
API Operations for Merchant Accounts¶
Use the following APIs to manage merchant accounts:
API |
Method |
Endpoint |
|---|---|---|
POST |
/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/credentials |
|
POST |
/v2/developers/{developerId}/merchants/registration |
|
GET |
/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants |
|
GET
|
/v1/developers/{developerId}/merchants/{postalReportingNumber}/account-balance
|
|
GET
|
/v1/carrier/license-agreements?carrier={carrier}&originCountryCode={two-character-ISO-code}
|
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.