WordPress payments

WordPress payments – what you can do

You don't need WooCommerce, or a store, to take card payments on a WordPress site. With Merchant360 you can collect three ways – donations, one-time payments, and subscriptions – right on your own pages, and every payment lands in the same Merchant360 dashboard as the rest of your business.

Here's the important safety part in plain terms: the payment form is hosted by Merchant360 and shown inside your page, so the card number is typed on Merchant360's secure surface, not on your WordPress site. Card data never touches your server. That keeps your business in the simplest, lowest-burden level of card-security (PCI) compliance.

This works with any WordPress site – the block editor, the classic editor, or a page builder like Elementor or Divi – because all you're adding is a small snippet or a link.

What your customers see

The Pay Widget is one tool that changes shape based on which payment types you turn on. There are six in all: a fixed amount, donations, save a card on file, pay an external invoice, pay a Merchant360 invoice, and subscriptions. The three most common are pictured above – a donation form (the giver picks an amount from preset chips or a custom value), a one-time form (a set price and a Pay button), and a subscription form (recurring sign-up).

Every one carries your business name and brand color, the card is entered on Merchant360's secure form, and the customer never leaves your page. You can put more than one on your site – say a donation widget on your Donate page and a membership sign-up on another.

The two invoice types are a little different, because the customer is paying a bill rather than a set price – those get their own section below ("Letting customers pay an invoice").

Two ways to collect

There are two no-code ways to take a payment, and both handle donations, one-time amounts, and subscriptions. Pick whichever fits the page.

1) A payment link. You create a link in Merchant360 and put it behind a button or a menu item. When someone clicks it, they pay on a secure Merchant360 page and come right back. This is the fastest option and needs nothing pasted into your site.

2) The Pay Widget (embedded). You paste a small snippet onto a page and the payment form appears right there, so the customer pays without leaving your site. This is the most seamless option.

How the embed works – three steps

Adding the embedded form is three steps, and if you can add a block to a WordPress page you can do all of it yourself. The next two sections walk through each part.

Step 1 – set up your Pay Widget

In Merchant360, go to Accept Payments → Pay Widget and turn it on (this needs your card processing to be active). Then set it up the way you want it to behave on your site.

1. 1Payment types: choose what the form accepts – a fixed amount, donations, save a card on file, pay an invoice, or subscriptions. You can turn on more than one.
2. 2Amount range: set a Minimum and Maximum. These are enforced on Merchant360's servers, so no one can edit the page to pay outside the range.
3. 3Branding and receipts: set your brand color and the from / BCC email for receipts. Your logo comes from your business profile.
4. 4Copy the embed: click Copy on the embed snippet. That snippet is the whole secure form – you'll paste it into WordPress next.

Choose what your widget accepts

The Payment types list is where you pick what the form does. Turn on as many as you like – a visitor can only use the ones you've checked, even if a snippet asks for one you haven't enabled.

1. 1Fixed amount – you lock the price in the snippet; the customer just enters their card.
2. 2Donations – the donor picks the amount from preset chips or types their own.
3. 3Save card on file – capture a card for later (a future invoice or subscription) with no charge today.
4. 4Pay external invoice – the customer types your invoice number and the amount.
5. 5Pay Merchant360 invoice – the customer looks up an invoice you sent from Merchant360 by email and customer code.
6. 6Subscriptions – recurring billing on a plan you set up (monthly, quarterly, or yearly).

Step 2 – add it to a WordPress page

Now put the snippet on your site. You're adding it to whichever page you want people to pay on – a Donate page, a checkout page, a membership sign-up, and so on.

1. 1In WordPress, open the page you want (Pages → edit, or add a new one).
2. 2Block editor: click the + to add a block, search for "Custom HTML", and paste the snippet into it. Classic editor: switch to the Text tab and paste it there. Page builders (Elementor / Divi / Beaver Builder): drop in an "HTML" widget and paste it.
3. 3Click Update / Publish, then open the live page. The Merchant360 payment form appears right where you placed the block.
4. 4Do a real test: make a small live payment (or use test mode first). It should show up immediately in your Merchant360 dashboard.

Donations

For a Donate page, set the payment type to Donations (on the Pay Widget, or when you create a payment link). The donor chooses how much to give; you can set an optional minimum and maximum to keep gifts in a sensible range.

It's a great fit for nonprofits, churches, schools, fundraisers, and tip jars. Donors get an emailed receipt, and every gift is tracked against the donor in your Merchant360 customer list.

1. 1Pay Widget → Payment types → turn on Donations, set an optional Minimum, then embed it on your Donate page (Step 2 above).
2. 2Prefer a button? Create a payment link with the amount left open ($0.00 = donor chooses) and link it from a Donate button or menu item.

One-time payments

For a set price – a product, a service, a deposit, an event ticket – set the payment type to a fixed amount. The customer sees the price and pays it on the spot, with no invoice needed.

Use the Pay Widget embed for a built-in checkout on the page, or a payment link for a simple "Pay now" button. A payment link locks after the first successful payment, so it can't be paid twice.

1. 1Fixed-amount embed: Pay Widget → set the amount (or an amount range) → paste on your page.
2. 2One-off button: Accept Payments → Payment Links → New Payment Link → set the amount and (optionally) a description and expiry → Copy URL → link it from a button on your WordPress page.

Subscriptions

To bill on a recurring schedule – memberships, dues, retainers, a monthly box – use subscriptions. You first create a plan (the price and how often it bills) in Merchant360, then let customers sign up from your WordPress site. Merchant360 charges the saved card automatically each cycle and retries a failed charge for you.

See the Recurring billing chapter for the full details on plans, free trials, metered usage, and dunning.

1. 1Create the plan: Accept Payments → Recurring → New Plan (set the amount and interval – weekly, monthly, or yearly).
2. 2Offer it on your site: turn on Subscriptions in the Pay Widget and embed it on your sign-up page, or send a subscription payment link. The customer enters their card once and is billed automatically from then on.

Letting customers pay an invoice

Two of the six payment types are for collecting on a bill rather than a set price. Both are worth turning on if you send invoices, and they behave differently – one looks the invoice up for the customer, the other lets them type in a reference from somewhere else.

These are loginless: your customer never creates an account or signs in. The lookup itself is the security – an invoice only comes back when BOTH the invoice number and the exact email you sent it to match, so a stranger guessing invoice numbers learns nothing, while your real customer gets in with the two things they already know.

Pay a Merchant360 invoice – for invoices you sent from Merchant360 (Accept Payments → Invoices). The customer doesn't need the emailed link: they can find the invoice themselves. When they open this widget they first see a short look-up step with two fields – the invoice number and the email address the invoice was sent to. They enter both and click Look up.

On a match, the widget shows the invoice – who it's for, the total, anything already paid, the balance due, and the due date – and locks the amount to the remaining balance so they can't over- or under-pay. They enter their card and pay, the invoice is marked Paid (or Partial) automatically, and both of you get a receipt. If nothing matches, they see "We couldn't find that invoice. Check the invoice number and the email it was sent to" – no invoice details leak to a wrong guess.

Pay an external invoice – for invoices that live somewhere else (QuickBooks, Xero, a paper invoice). There's no look-up, because Merchant360 doesn't hold that bill. The customer simply types your invoice number and the amount they owe (and an optional note), then pays. The number is saved on the payment so you can reconcile it back to your own system.

1. 1Turn it on: Pay Widget → Payment types → enable Pay a Merchant360 invoice and/or Pay an external invoice, then embed the widget (or share its link) on a "Pay your bill" page.
2. 2Merchant360 invoice – the customer looks it up by invoice number + email, sees the balance, and pays; the invoice updates itself.
3. 3External invoice – the customer types the invoice number + amount from your other system and pays; the reference rides along on the transaction.

Receipts, branding & keeping it secure

However a customer pays – donation, one-time, an invoice, or a subscription – they get a branded email receipt, and the payment appears in your Merchant360 dashboard alongside everything else, where you can refund it, see reporting, and follow it through to your bank.

Because the card is always entered on Merchant360's hosted form (never on your WordPress site), you keep the lowest PCI burden and a website problem can never expose a card. If your account runs a credit-card surcharge, it's shown clearly to the customer before they pay.