How it works

Learn about PXP's Links solution.

Overview

PXP's Links service is a secure payment link generation mechanism designed to streamline payment collection for merchants across diverse business scenarios. By leveraging comprehensive configuration options, flexible link behaviours, and integrated fraud protection, it enables you to create customised payment experiences that match your specific business requirements and customer needs.

Whether deployed for one-time transactions like invoices and orders, or for recurring scenarios like subscriptions and donations, Links empowers you to generate secure, branded payment experiences with real-time control over payment methods, customer data collection, and post-payment behaviours — helping increase conversion rates, reduce payment friction, and maintain consistent brand experiences across all customer touchpoints.

Each payment link renders a branded, responsive payment page, with support for single-use or open-use configurations, and customisable expiration periods.

You can create links either manually via the Unity Portal or automatically via our API.

Link types

You can choose between two link types:

Single-use: The payment link automatically deactivates after the first succesful payment. Ideal for one-time purchases, invoices, and specific orders.
Open-use: The payment link accepts multiple payments and remains active until expiration or manual cancellation. Ideal for subscription sign-ups, recurring payments, and donations.

For both types, you can set the validity period to 24 hours, 48 hours, or a custom duration. Once that period is up, the payment link is automatically deactivated and can no longer be used.

Branding and appearance

Payment links are customisable at the site level in the Unity Portal.

For every site, you can choose:

A display name.
A logo.
A background image.
A font.
Button styling (colour and shape).

These settings apply to all payment links created under each site, ensuring consistent branding across all customer interactions.

Supported payment methods

Payment links support the following payment methods:

Cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Diners Club.
Digital wallets: PayPal and Apple Pay.

You can control which payment methods are available to customers, allowing you to optimise for your target market, reduce processing costs, or meet specific business requirements.

Customer data collection

Configure which customer information fields are required during payment, to balance conversion optimisation with business data requirements.

All fields are optional by default. Only the fields you specify will be marked as required.

Available fields

Name	Use case
Email	Order confirmations, marketing, customer support.
Phone number	SMS notifications, delivery coordination.
Name fields	Personalisation, shipping labels, identity verification.
Address	Shipping, billing verification, tax calculations.
Date of birth	Age verification, compliance requirements.
Customer number	Internal tracking, loyalty programs.
Product specifications	Customisation options, configuration details.

Best practices

Minimise required fields to optimise conversion rates.
Collect essential data needed for order fulfillment and customer service.
Consider regional requirements (GDPR, age verification laws).
Balance fraud prevention with user experience.

Address verification system (AVS)

Configure the Address Verification System for enhanced fraud protection. AVS verifies billing addresses against card issuer records, providing additional security for card-not-present transactions.

Configuration options

Customer-provided address: The customer enters their address during payment (recommended for most cases).
Merchant-provided address: Pre-fill known customer addresses for repeat purchases. This is available for single-use links only.
Skip AVS: No address verification for low-risk transactions or digital goods.

AVS helps reduce chargebacks and fraud by comparing billing addresses. Consider your risk tolerance when choosing AVS configuration, as stricter verification may reduce conversion but increases security.

Post-payment configuration

Define what happens after customers complete their payment.

Confirmation page

Display PXP's branded confirmation page with payment details.
Include custom messages for customer communication.
Suitable when you want customers to see payment confirmation before leaving.

Redirect

Immediately redirect customers to your specified URL (must use HTTPS).
Handle the post-payment flow on your website.
Include custom messages during the redirect process.
Ideal for seamless integration with your existing customer journey.

Intents

When you create a payment link, you have to provide an intent that describes the purpose of a transaction. Each intent dictates a specific transaction flow and affects how the transaction is handled by the system.

The following table describes the possible intents that you can set when you create a payment link

Intent	Description	Use cases
`Purchase`	Capture funds immediately after authorisation.	Standard e-commerce transactions Digital goods
`Authorisation`	Reserve funds on the customer's payment method.	Order processing workflows Pre-orders
`EstimatedAuthorisation`	Reserve funds on the customer's payment method without charging it, based on an estimated amount.	Account verification Payment method validation

States

When a payment link is successfully created, its status is automatically set to Active. As time goes on and actions are taken, the status is updated.

The following table describes the possible states that a payment link can go through.

State	Description
`Active`	The link is available for payment. This is an initial state after link creation or successful link cloning.
`Cancelled`	The link has been deactivated.
`Completed`	For single-use links: The customer has completed their payment and the payment has been processed. For open-use links: The link was used successfully for payment at least once and has now expired.
`Expired`	For single-use links: The link has passed its configured expiry length. For single-use links: The link has passed its configured expiry length without being used.
`Error`	The link is in an error state due to an invalid configuration or a system error.

Security and compliance

Links includes multiple security layers to protect transactions.

Fraud protection

Address Verification System (AVS) for billing address validation.
Payment method restrictions to limit fraud vectors.
HTTPS requirements for all redirect URLs and webhooks.

Authentication and access

PXP-UST1 protocol with HMAC-SHA256 signatures for API access.
Token-based credentials with configurable expiration.
Request correlation IDs for tracking and troubleshooting.

Compliance

PCI DSS compliance for card data handling
GDPR considerations for customer data collection.
Regional compliance support for various markets.