Channel Merchants
A merchant is a record on the platform side, while a channel merchant is that merchant's receiving identity on a specific payment channel (WeChat, Alipay, Lakala...). To accept payments, a merchant must have at least one enabled channel merchant; routing, gateway checkout and allocation all hang off channel merchants. For merchant records themselves, see Merchant Management.
Concept Overview
- One merchant can have channel merchants on multiple channels: a channel merchant = merchant × payment product. For example, a merchant may have "WeChat (ISV)", "Alipay (direct)" and "Lakala" channel merchants at the same time.
- The payment product decides the form: you pick a product when creating; the product carries the channel and mode (ISV / direct). In ISV mode you enter the sub-merchant number on the channel side (e.g. a WeChat special merchant); in direct mode you enter the merchant number and credentials directly.
- Immutable after creation: the payment product and the system-generated channel merchant number cannot be changed; only the channel merchant name can be edited.
- The environment flag is frozen at creation: if the product is in sandbox mode at creation time, the channel merchant is flagged "sandbox" — even if the product later switches back to production, this flag does not change (see the environment section of Payment Product Configuration).
Two Entry Points
| Entry | Location | Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Global list | Merchant Management → Channel Merchants | Cross-merchant view, filterable by channel merchant number, name and owning merchant; creation from here starts with picking a merchant |
| Merchant workbench | Merchant Management → Merchant List → Manage → Merchant Workbench → Channel Merchants | Locked to one merchant; the list shows all its channel merchants, and creation skips the merchant step |
Both entries share the same data and detail pages. For day-to-day provisioning of a specific merchant, the workbench entry is the smoothest.
Creating a Channel Merchant
From the merchant workbench, the flow is "pick product → fill channel config → done". Starting from the global list adds a merchant-picking step in front.
Pick a payment product: filter product cards by mode (ISV / direct) at the top. Only enabled products are listed; if a product is currently in sandbox mode and sandbox is available, a sandbox badge appears on the card to warn that this provisioning will land in the sandbox.
Fill in the channel config: the form is loaded per product, usually "channel merchant name + channel-side number". Typical fields:
Product Fields WeChat (ISV) Channel merchant name, special (sub) merchant number WeChat (direct) Channel merchant name, WeChat merchant number Alipay (ISV) Sub-merchant number, owning ISV app, optional auth token or QR-scan authorization Others Channel merchant name + their own numbers/credentials, per the on-page form Done: close the page after success; the new channel merchant appears in the list.
The channel merchant number is system-generated
The "channel merchant number" is generated by the platform and globally unique — it is not your number on the channel side. Channel-side numbers (such as a special merchant number) are separate form fields.
Managing a Channel Merchant
Click "Manage" in the list to open the detail page, organized as grouped cards (groups vary slightly by channel):
| Group | Content |
|---|---|
| Basic management | View basic info, rename the channel merchant (some channels show extra info, e.g. the WeChat special merchant number) |
| Trade config | Allocation receivers (for allocation-capable products); Alipay direct also has transfer scene management |
| App management | Channel-side apps (Alipay apps, WeChat capability binding, etc., depending on the channel) |
| Terminal ledger | Under development, not yet available |
| Danger zone | Delete the channel merchant (see deletion rules below) |
Enable / disable: use the status switch on each list row. Disabling immediately stops this channel merchant from receiving payments and routing will no longer hit it; enabling restores it. The configuration health check raises alerts like "no usable channel merchant under this merchant" — follow the prompt to provision one.
Allocation Receivers
To use allocation, "allocation receivers" (accounts that receive allocated funds) must be registered on the channel side. Entry: detail page → Trade Config → Allocation Receivers, which opens a drawer.
Available receiver types depend on the product: WeChat (merchant ID / openid; ISV mode also supports sub-merchant openid), Alipay (user ID / login name), Douyin (merchant ID / openid).
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Add receiver | Fill in type, account and name; pick the allocation relation and binding app per product, then submit — submitting initiates the binding on the channel side |
| Obtain account by QR | For openid / user ID types, generate an authorization QR code for the payee to scan; the account is filled back automatically on success (WeChat and Douyin require an app to be selected first, otherwise the account dimension won't match) |
| Rebind | Failed or unbound records can retry with a different app (typical case: the previous failure was caused by picking the wrong app) |
| Edit alias | The alias is a platform-side note, never sent to the channel; editable in any state |
| Unbind | Only bound records can be unbound (dangerous — it affects fund flow on the channel side; requires confirmation) |
| Delete | Only non-bound records can be deleted — this removes the platform-side record only and does not affect the channel-side binding |
Failed bindings leave a trace
If the channel side returns failure on submit, the record is kept with a "bind failed" status and the reason is visible in its detail; fix it and use "Rebind" instead of deleting and recreating.
Deletion Rules
Deletion lives in the detail page's danger zone and requires typing the channel merchant name to confirm. Rules:
- A channel merchant with transactions, orders or refunds cannot be deleted (those records trace back to it);
- Deletion also cleans up its route config, gateway config and related data;
- If you simply want it out of use, use the disable switch on the list row instead of deleting.
Related Links
- Merchant Management — merchant records and the merchant workbench
- Payment Product Configuration — product enable/disable and environments (sandbox/production)
- Routing — how channel merchants get hit by routing