Auto Debit occurs when a user purchases merchandise on a merchant platform and the merchant deducts funds from the user's account by using an access token. To use this payment product, the merchant must obtain the user authorization (the access token) in advance.
Terms (Abbreviations) | Definition |
Access token | Security credentials with login session that identifies user, user's group, user's permissions, and, in some cases, specific applications. Access Token can be used for payment. |
Acquiring Partner (ACQP) | A Partner in its capacity as an acquirer or payment processor, including where it enters into a Merchant Agreement with a Merchant or an Indirect Participation Agreement with an Indirect Acquiring Partner, and processes Transactions directly or indirectly for its Merchants. |
Alipay+ | Alipay+ solution is a collaborative effort along with all Partners to provide more open, digitalized, and inclusive financial services to worldwide consumers and merchants. |
Auto Debit | An Online Payment product provided by Alipay+, whereby a User enters into an Auto Debit agreement to bind a User Account with a Merchant’s service and enjoy automatic payment for subsequent Transactions. |
Merchant | A person that enters into a Transaction with a User which is acquired by an Acquiring Partner or an Indirect Acquiring Partner, as applicable. |
Mobile Payment Partner (MPP) | A Partner in its capacity as a payment service provider where it issues a Mobile Payment Partner Product to a User, enters into a User Agreement with a User or processes a Transaction for a User. |
With Auto Debit, the consumer can place an order on the merchant platform and select Alipay+ as the payment method. Then Alipay+ displays the available MPPs for the consumer to select one to bind it to the merchant platform. After the account binding is done, the consumer can return to the merchant platform and use the bound account to pay, and the merchant can deduct funds automatically from the bound account of the user.
UX Scenarios
Account binding
For different merchant platforms, the user experience of account binding is different. The merchant platform can be a PC website (referred to as "Web" below) or a mobile app/WAP page (referred to as "Mobile" below).
- If the consumer binds the account on a Mobile page, the consumer is redirected to the MPP app or WAP page to continue the account binding process.
- If the consumer binds the account on a Web page, the consumer is redirected to a page that displays a QR code. Depending on whether the MPP app supports code scanning, the account binding experience varies:
- If the MPP app supports code scanning, the consumer scans the code and completes the account binding by using the MPP app.
- Otherwise, the consumer is redirected to a series of WAP pages to go through the account binding process, including logging in and entering the password.
Mobile
When binding an account on mobile terminals, the user can select a wallet from the payment method management page or the cashier page.
Start from the payment method management page
The following figure illustrates the process when the user selects a wallet to authorize for Auto Debit on the payment method management page in the merchant app/WAP page:
Figure 1. Account binding process from the payment method management page
Start from the cashier page
The following figure illustrates the process when the user selects a wallet to authorize for Auto Debit on the cashier page in the merchant app/WAP page:
Figure 2. Account binding process from the cashier page
In the merchant app/WAP page, the consumer performs the following steps to complete the authorization:
- The consumer selects Alipay+ on the merchant's payment method management page or the cashier page.
- The merchant redirects the consumer to an Alipay+ page to select an Alipay+ wallet to bind.
- Alipay+ redirects the consumer to the wallet side. The consumer then signs the authorization agreement and binds the wallet account as the payment method to be used for transactions on the merchant platform.
- The wallet presents the authorization result page to the consumer.
- The consumer is redirected back to the merchant page,
- If the authorization starts from the merchant cashier page, the payment result is displayed.
- If the authorization starts from the merchant's payment method management page, the bound wallet account is displayed.
Web
This section introduces the user experience of account binding on Web terminals.
Scan-to-authorize
If the consumer's wallet app supports code scanning, the consumer can use the wallet app to scan the authorization QR code on the merchant page to complete the account binding.
The following figure illustrates the account binding process starting from the payment method management page on the merchant website:
Figure 3. Account binding process from the payment method management page
The following figure illustrates the account binding process starting from the cashier page on the merchant website:
Figure 4. Account binding process from the cashier page
As illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, on the merchant website, the consumer performs the following steps to complete the account binding with scan-to-authorize:
- The consumer selects Alipay+ on the merchant's payment method management page or the cashier page.
- The merchant redirects the consumer to an Alipay+ page to select a digital wallet to bind.
- Alipay+ redirects the consumer to the authorization page. Where a QR code is displayed.
- The consumer uses the wallet app to scan the QR code to sign the agreement and complete the authorization.
- The wallet app presents the authorization result page to the consumer.
- On the website, the consumer is redirected back to the merchant page,
- If the authorization starts from the merchant cashier page, the payment result is displayed.
- If the authorization starts from the merchant's payment method management page, the bound wallet account is displayed.
Log-in-to-authorize
If the consumer's wallet app does not support code scanning, during the authorization process, the consumer can log in to the wallet authorization page to complete the account binding. The following figure illustrates the process:
Figure 5. Account binding process by login-to-authorize
As illustrated in Figure 5, on the merchant website, the consumer performs the following steps to complete the account binding with login-to-authorize:
- The consumer selects Alipay+ on the merchant's payment method management page or the cashier page.
- The merchant redirects the consumer to the Alipay+ page to select a digital wallet to bind.
- Alipay+ redirects the consumer to the wallet side. The consumer then logs in to the wallet page.
- The wallet redirects the consumer to the authorization page, where the consumer signs the authorization agreement and binds the wallet account as the payment method to be used for transactions on the merchant platform.
- The consumer is redirected back to the merchant page,
- If the authorization starts from the merchant cashier page, the payment result is displayed.
- If the authorization starts from the merchant's payment method management page, the bound wallet account is displayed.
Note: If the terminal type of the wallet is Web, the user can only be redirected back to the merchant's Web page.
Payment with an authorized wallet
After binding an Alipay+ wallet, the consumer can pay for Auto Debit transactions with the bound account at the merchant side. The following figures illustrate the payment process on the mobile terminal and on the web terminal:
Figure 6. Payment with an authorized wallet on the mobile terminal
Figure 7. Payment with an authorized wallet on the web terminal
As illustrated in Figure 6 and Figure 7, if the consumer has authorized the merchant before, the consumer can use the bound wallet account to complete an Auto Debit payment by completing the following steps:
- The consumer selects the wallet as the payment method on the merchant cashier page.
- The consumer clicks the pay button to pay.
- The merchant displays the payment result page to the consumer.
Note: For recurring payments, this process is not experienced as the payment is automatically done.
For more information about the page design and brand display, see UX Design Guidelines for Auto Debit.
Alipay+ Auto Debit offers the following main features:
User authorization
Payment
Obtain payment results
Refund and cancellation
Business operations
Other highlights
- Authorization for wallets: Consumers can authorize the merchant to deduct funds from the consumer's Alipay+ wallet by binding the wallet account to the merchant platform.
- Revocation of the authorization: Consumers can also unbind the wallet account to revoke the authorization.
- Authorization/revocation result notification: When the wallet confirms that the binding/unbinding is successful, Alipay+ actively pushes the binding/unbinding result to the ACQP, who can then relay the result to the merchant accordingly.
- Easy redirection: Alipay+ provides the redirection URL that suits the situation, with which the merchant redirects the consumer to the wallet to complete the authorization.
The following figure illustrates the account binding workflow of Auto Debit.
Figure 9. Account binding workflow
1-2. The merchant sends a request to Alipay+ to get Alipay+ payment method information.
3-4. The user selects Alipay+ for binding. Then the merchant sends a request to Alipay+ through the ACQP to get the Alipay+ authorization URL.
5-7. Alipay+ sends a request to the MPP to get the MPP auth URL, which is eventually returned to the merchant. Then the merchant redirects the user to the MPP auth URL, which is the MPP agreement page.
8-10. The user confirms the account binding on the MPP agreement page. An auth code is then created by the MPP.
11. After completing the account binding, the user is redirected back to the merchant page with the auth code.
12-18. The merchant sends a request to Alipay+ through the ACQP to get the access token with the auth code. After getting the access token, the merchant shows the agreement result page to the user.
To get started with the Alipay+ integration, see Get started with Alipay+ integration.
For more information about how to integrate the Auto Debit functionalities, see Integration overview for Auto Debit.
