Accept WeChat Pay at checkout
Turn on WeChat Pay to unlock new revenue in China, with no configuration required. Available for one-time items.
What's new?
We've updated the Paddle platform to support WeChat Pay as a payment method. This means that wechat_pay is now an allowed value for the payments[].method_details.type field against a transaction in the Paddle API.
How it works
China is one of the world's largest digital payment markets, with a population of over 1.4 billion and an online payment market worth trillions of dollars per year. Consumers in China are used to paying with mobile apps like WeChat Pay, which is built into the WeChat super-app.
You can now turn on WeChat Pay as a payment method for Paddle Checkout. Once enabled, Paddle automatically presents it as a payment option for one-time purchases for customers in China — no additional configuration required.
It's only presented on desktop.
Deferred capture
Most payment methods supported by Paddle are instant capture type payment methods. This means that payment is authorized and captured in one step.
WeChat Pay is a deferred capture type payment method, which means funds are captured after payment is authorized. For WeChat Pay, this typically happens within ten minutes, but may take longer in some cases depending on the customer's bank or app.
Paddle Checkout includes a new screen to let customers know that funds are being captured. The checkout is completed at this point, so Paddle.js emits a checkout.completed event.
The transaction is completed when payment is fully captured, at which point a transaction.completed event occurs.
For this reason, we recommend avoiding using Paddle.js events for fulfillment. To be sure a payment was fully captured, use webhooks and wait for transaction.completed to occur.
Summary of changes
API and events
This is a summary of the changes to responses in the Paddle API and events:
| Entity | Field | Change | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transaction | payments[].method_details.type | New allowed value | Returns wechat_pay. |
Next steps
This change is available now.
It's a non-breaking change, meaning it doesn't impact existing integrations. You should test your checkout success workflows to make sure they're compatible with deferred capture payment methods.
You can enable WeChat Pay in Paddle > Checkout > Checkout settings. You don't need to establish a local entity or sign up for any merchant accounts.