Provide a Signup URL

Summary

A signup URL directs a new shipper to the Signup page on Merchant Portal where the shipper creates a merchant account associated with your developer account. You can use the URL’s query parameters to customize the signup process. Once a shipper signs up, you retrieve the new account by issuing the Merchant Authorization API.

To provide a signup URL, you must use the Individual Postage Account enrollment model described in Merchant Enrollment Models.

The signup URL opens the Signup page:

Signup page on Merchant Portal

When the merchant clicks the Sign up button, the Create Account form opens:

Create Account form

Signup URL

The following are the signup URLs for the Production and Sandbox environments:

Environment Signup URL
Production https://www.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com/home?developerID={ID}[&optional_parameters]
Sandbox https://developer.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com/home?developerID={ID}[&optional_parameters]

You can optionally provide a signup URL that skips the initial Signup page and opens directly to the Create Account form. The following URLs open directly to the form:

Environment Signup URL
Production https://www.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com/create/accountInfo/home?developerID={ID}[&optional_parameters]
Sandbox https://developer.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com/create/accountInfo/home?developerID={ID}[&optional_parameters]

Required Developer ID Parameter

Parameter
Description
developerID Required. Your Pitney Bowes developer ID. To retrieve your developer ID, log into Developer Hub, click your username, and select Profile.

The following example shows the signup URL with the required developerID parameter:

https://www.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com/home?developerID=12341234

Optional Parameters for Referral Codes and Payment Methods

Parameter
Description
referral_code Attaches a referral code to the merchant that you can use to identify who referred the merchant to your software. The referral code can use up to 25 characters and can use alphanumeric characters, underscores (_), hyphens (-), and dots (.).
paymentMethod

Specifies the list of payment methods the merchant can choose from to fund the PB Postage Account. By default, the merchant’s choices are credit card, PB Line of Credit, or ACH. You can optionally limit the choices by setting this parameter to one of the following:

  • PurchasePowerOnly: The merchant must use PB Line of Credit.
  • ACHOnly: The merchant must use ACH.
  • LOC_ACH: The merchant can choose either PB Line of Credit or ACH.
  • CreditCard_LOC: The merchant can choose either PB Line of Credit or credit card.
  • CreditCard_ACH: The merchant can choose either ACH or credit card.
  • CreditCardOnly: The merchant must use credit card.

The following example specifies a referral code of “123” and a payment method of “LOC_ACH”:

https://www.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com/home?developerID=12341234&referral_code=123&paymentMethod=LOC_ACH

The following example specifies only a payment method:

https://www.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com/home?developerID=12341234&paymentMethod=LOC_ACH

Optional Parameters for Pre-Populating Merchant Information

The following parameters pre-populate the Create Account form with merchant information. The parameters pre-populate the form no matter whether the signup URL opens first to the Signup page or opens directly to the Create Account form. You can use a subset of the parameters or all of the parameters.

Parameter
Description
fName Pre-populates the merchant’s first name.
lName Pre-populates the merchant’s last name.
email Pre-populates the merchant’s email address.
companyName Pre-populates the merchant’s company name.
addressLine1 Pre-populates the merchant’s street address.
addressLine2 Pre-populates the second line in the merchant’s street address.
city Pre-populates the merchant’s city.
state Pre-populates the merchant’s state.
postalCode Pre-populates the merchant’s postal code.
phone Pre-populates the merchant’s phone number.

The following example shows the signup URL with the pre-population query parameters:

https://www.pbshippingmerchant.pitneybowes.com/home?developerID=12341234
&fName=David
&lName=Miller
&email=david.miller@example.com
&companyName=Books
&addressLine1=100%20Ferris%20Ln
&city=Garden%20Grove
&state=CA
&postalCode=92841
&phone=7142520000

The following shows the pre-populated Create Account form:

Create Account page pre-populated with merchant information