Starting with version 6.0.0 of WooPayments, we’ll be experimenting with a different signup process. This new system, called “gradual signup”, is designed to make it easier to verify your information step by step, and allows you to take payments more quickly than before.
At first, only a small portion of new merchants will see the gradual signup process. Depending on the results of this experiment, we may expand that percentage in the future.
Does this affect my site?
↑ Back to topThis experiment only affects new WooPayments sites. If you’ve already signed up for WooPayments on your site, the experiment will not affect that site in any way.
If you’re just now signing up on a new site, you must first connect to WordPress.com as shown in the Startup Guide. If, after that step, you are taken to connect.stripe.com to begin entering your info, then your site site is not a part of the experiment.
If, on the other hand, you see the page below, then your site is using gradual signup.
How is gradual signup different?
↑ Back to topThe signup process for most merchants takes place on connect.stripe.com. However, gradual signup takes place first on your own site, and then later redirects you to Stripe’s site in order to confirm a few pieces of information.
Unfortunately there is no way to completely skip the Stripe-hosted signup form. Instead, we try to prefill the Stripe form fields for participants in the gradual signup process.
What are the advantages?
↑ Back to topGradual signup allows merchants to get up and running faster, with fewer pieces of information. For example, you do not need to enter your bank account or debit card info during the signup process. When you get to this page of the Stripe form:
… you can simply skip adding a payout/deposit account. Clicking Agree & submit will finish the account creation process and take your back to your site.
After you’ve finished gradual signup, you’ll see this popup in your WordPress dashboard:
To get started taking payments, click Enable payments only. The Payments > Overview page will show your account status as Pending until you add a deposit method.
When must I add a deposit method?
↑ Back to topYou can add a deposit method at any point to get paid!
However, if you have not added a deposit method after 30 days, or after you’ve taken more than $5000 in payments (whichever comes first), we will suspend your ability to take payments until you add a deposit method to your account.
How do I enable Dev Mode?
↑ Back to topTo turn on Dev Mode during gradual signup, choose the I’m building a store for someone else and would like to test payments option on the first page of the gradual signup form.
You will be taken to connect.stripe.com to create a test account. Doing so requires no personal information. The test account can then be used to process test transactions.
If you’ve already enabled Dev Mode using the constant, you will see a warning to that effect on the initial page of gradual signup:
In this case, you can either:
- Choose either option. In both cases a dev mode account will be created.
- Remove the
WCPAY_DEV_MODEconstant, restart the signup process, and then choose between live or dev mode.
Disabling Dev Mode
↑ Back to topIf you onboarded into Dev Mode through gradual signup, you can transition the site into live mode by going to Payments > Overview, finding the “Set up real payments on your store” section, and clicking the Set up payments button.
Additional payment methods
↑ Back to topBecause gradual signup is designed to get you accepting card payments right away, additional payment methods (such as Sofort, iDeal, etc.) are not enabled once signup is complete. If you need to accept those from the start, we suggest clicking the Set up payments and deposits button in the popup that appears after returning to your site.
If you click Enable payments only, however, and then try to enable an additional payment method, you will see this popup:
Click Continue and wait for the email to arrive. Follow the steps provided in the email to enable additional payment methods for your customers.