How to Enable Apple Pay with Your Payment Gateway
Overview
- ► What is Apple Pay?
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- Apple Pay is an alternative payment method that allows Apple device users to make payments using cards stored in their digital wallet.
- When customers store their credit or debit cards within their digital wallet, Apple creates a token that correlates to the method of payment that can be used for one-time or recurring transactions.
- Supported card types that a customer may add to their wallet varies by region. Only cards are currently supported. Alternative Payment Methods are not presently supported.
- Support for Apple Pay varies by region and payment provider. Merchants should consult with their payment provider to confirm regional support.
If you have already established a relationship with a payment gateway that supports Apple Pay, you must complete the steps in this article to establish credentials for configuring this capability in your payment gateway. The Payment-Gateway-specific configuration requirements may vary. Aria-integrated Payment Gateways that support Apple Pay include:
Apple Pay Merchant Enrollment\Requirements
- An Apple Developer account is required to begin the process of accepting Apple Pay. Once an Apple Developer account is established, a merchant account can be acquired.
- Once a developer account is created, a merchant ID and payment processing certificate can be provisioned.
- To use Apple Pay with Aria, the merchant ID and private key associated with your payment processing certificate will be required to handle the pay load data decryption.
- To present the Apple Pay option to customers on web applications or mobile devices, clients must develop a front-end presentation according to Apple developer specifications. This requires the client to:
- Display the Apple Pay payment button on Safari browsers
- Create Payment Request using Apple’s API
- Create Payment Sheet that will be presented to the customer
- Provide the Payload Data to Aria via API for decryption and payment authorization and capture.
Key Components to Configure
As stated, you must configure these elements in your payment gateway:
- Merchant ID: Links your Apple Developer account to your gateway.
- Domain Verification: Proves you own the website where Apple Pay will be used.
- Payment Processing Certificate: Secures payment data.
- Apple Pay Button: Integrates into your checkout page via the gateway’s API.
Note: These instructions are current as of the update date of this article, but be sure to confirm them at developer.apple.com.
Step 1: Set Up an Apple Merchant ID
To use Apple Pay, you need an Apple Merchant ID. Here’s how to create one:
- Sign in to your Apple Developer account (or create one at developer.apple.com).
- Navigate to “Certificates, IDs & Profiles” and select “Merchant IDs.”
- Click the “+” button to create a new Merchant ID.
- Enter a description (e.g., your business name) and a unique identifier (e.g., com.yourbusiness.applepay).
- Save your Merchant ID for later use in your payment gateway.
Step 2: Configure Your Payment Gateway
In your payment gateway, you’ll need to link your Apple Merchant ID and set up a few components:
- Merchant ID: Enter the Merchant ID you created in your Apple Developer account.
- Domain Verification: Apple requires you to verify your website domain to ensure secure transactions. Download the domain verification file from your Apple Developer account and upload it to your website’s root directory (e.g., yourwebsite.com/.well-known/apple-developer-merchantid-domain-association). Then, register the domain in your Apple Developer account and enable it in your Payment Gateway dashboard.
- Payment Processing Certificate: Generate a certificate in your Apple Developer account under your Merchant ID. Download it and upload it to your payment gateway. This certificate encrypts payment data for secure transactions.
- Supported Payment Methods: Ensure your gateway is set to accept Apple Pay-compatible card types (e.g., Visa, Mastercard, or Amex).
Payment Process
- Apple Pay is available to customers using an Apple Device and the Safari browser.
- When a customer visits your website or uses your app on an Apple Device, they will be presented with the Apple Pay button to complete their purchase or subscription.
- This transaction will create an encrypted payload object that contains the Device Personal Account Number (DPAN) and cryptogram.
- The encrypted payload object is sent to Aria via record_alternative_payment_(m). We will decrypt the payload object using our Apple merchant credentials or the client supplied Apple merchant credentials based upon the client’s configuration.
- Once the DPAN token and cryptogram are obtained, Aria will send this to the specified processor to process transactions and can be used for recurring transactions.
An overview of the payment process appears below:
Apple Pay Decryption Process
- Aria will use the private key and payment processing certificate to decrypt the Apple Pay payload data object.
- The decryption process is as follows:
- Signature Verification
- Extract the leaf and intermediate certificate authority from signature
- Verify the chain of trust from signature to root certificate authority
- Validate the token’s signature
- Extract merchant ID
- Generate the shared secret using the private key and ephemeral public key (received from token data)
- Derive the symmetric key
- Decrypt the cipher text from the token
- Signature Verification