Aera Online Payments supports two integration models for online checkout:

• Redirect to Aera Hosted Checkout
• Embedded Hosted Checkout Form of Aera Into Your Own Checkout Page

Both options use the same backend APIs and support the same payment methods. The choice depends on your desired user experience, compliance model, and level of frontend control.

Choosing the Right Model

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Redirect to Aera Hosted Checkout

With the redirect model, the shopper is redirected to Aera’s hosted checkout page to complete the payment.

How it works

1. You create a checkout session via POST /session/payment/create.
2. Aera returns a checkoutUrl.
3. You redirect the shopper to this URL.
4. After payment, the shopper is redirected back to your configured return URL.

Benefits

• Fastest integration
• Minimal frontend development
• PCI scope reduction
• Built-in support for authentication flows (e.g., 3DS, wallet approvals)
• Consistent user experience across payment methods, Aera has tuned the Checkout page for conversion. You can also customize the look & feel, branding elements and priorities of payment methods of the Checkout page through Aera Merchant Portal

Recommended for

• Quick go-live
• Merchants without complex checkout customization requirements
• Lower operational and compliance complexity

Example

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Embedded Hosted Checkout Form

With the embedded model, Aera’s hosted checkout form is rendered inside the merchant’s own checkout page.

The shopper remains on your website while payment fields are securely served by Aera.

How it works

1. You create a checkout session via POST /session/payment/create.
2. You render Aera’s hosted form within your checkout page (e.g., iframe or SDK-based embed).
3. The shopper completes the payment within your page context.
4. Redirects for authentication (if required) are handled automatically.

Benefits

• Seamless checkout experience
• Full control over surrounding page design
• Maintains PCI scope reduction (sensitive fields hosted by Aera)
• Suitable for advanced UI customization

Recommended for

• Merchants with optimized conversion funnels
• Branded checkout experiences
• Advanced ecommerce implementations

Example

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Important: Additional Authentication and Redirect Scenarios (Embedded Checkout)

When using the Embedded Hosted Checkout Form, certain payment flows may require additional customer actions.

These can include:

• Strong Customer Authentication (for example, 3D Secure)
• Confirmation in external applications (such as wallet or alternative payment method apps)
• Bank or scheme-mandated authentication steps

Some authentication flows or alternative payment methods do not allow the user to remain within an embedded form (iframe) due to security restrictions or scheme requirements.

In such cases:

• The customer will need to be redirected to an external page to complete the action.
• Aera will send a postMessage event to the merchant frontend.
• The merchant application must listen for this event and perform the required redirection.

A separate integration guide to support the embed mode will be provided.