Accept cards in Palestine with Lahza

Lahza is a payment provider for merchants in Palestine. With your own Lahza account connected, your store can take card payments in ILS or USD. Buyers pay on Lahza's hosted payment page, so card numbers never reach your store, and the money goes to your Lahza account, not to VeloCMS. This guide covers what you need from Lahza, where to put it, and what to expect from test mode, go-live and refunds.

What you need from Lahza

• A Lahza merchant account. Live keys only work once Lahza has opened a live account for you, which is a separate step on Lahza's side.
• Your secret API key from the Lahza dashboard. There is a test key and a live key. Only the secret key is needed.

VeloCMS does not set fees or payout times for Lahza. Both are agreed between you and Lahza, so ask Lahza for them before you go live.

Paste your key into VeloCMS

1. Go to Admin → Settings → Commerce and open the Lahza section.
2. Paste your secret key into the Secret key field. It is stored encrypted and is never shown again once saved. Leave the field blank later if you want to keep the saved key.
3. Choose the mode that matches the key (see test and live mode below), then press Save.
4. Press Check connection. It makes one read-only request to Lahza with your saved key. A failure does not say whether the key is wrong or Lahza rejected the request for another reason, so a real test purchase is the only full check.

Add the webhook URL

The same section shows your store's own Webhook URL with a Copy button. Paste it into the webhook settings of your Lahza dashboard, once for test and once for live. The webhook is how Lahza tells your store that a payment succeeded, including when the buyer closes the tab before returning to your site. VeloCMS checks every payment with Lahza using your own key before it marks an order as paid, so the webhook only prompts that check and cannot mark an order paid on its own.

The section also shows when the last webhook arrived. If it still says that no webhook has been received after your first test purchase, the URL is not set up in Lahza yet.

Test mode and live mode

• A test key needs Test mode switched on, and a live key needs it switched off. VeloCMS refuses to save a key that does not match the mode (a test key starts with sk_test_).
• While Test mode is on, the Lahza button is shown only to you, while you are signed in to your site. Buyers never see it, so a half-finished setup cannot take real orders.
• Test payments are not real money, and an order created in Test mode is not a real sale.
• To check the whole flow, buy something from your own store while signed in, using a test card from Lahza's documentation. Then check that the order appears in Admin → Orders as Processing.
• To go live, paste your live key, switch Test mode off and save. Lahza needs a live account before live keys work.

Lahza's go-live checklist

Before Lahza approves a live account, it reviews your website. Lahza's go-live checklist (docs.lahza.io/guide/go-live-checklist) covers, in summary: a live website at a valid address with an SSL certificate; your logo and the card-scheme marks in the footer; contact details; privacy, refund, return and shipping policies; a working cart with buyer address fields; no card fields on your own site; an emailed purchase slip; and bot protection at checkout. Lahza can change this list, so read the current page and ask Lahza if anything is unclear. Passing Lahza's review is up to Lahza.

Refunds take a while

Refund a Lahza order from its detail screen in Admin → Orders, in full or in part. Lahza processes refunds asynchronously: your request is queued first, and the money moves later. VeloCMS therefore waits for Lahza to confirm before it changes anything on your side.

• While the refund is pending, the order stays as it was: stock is not restored and the buyer's access is not removed.
• Once Lahza confirms the refund and the confirmed refunds add up to the full order total, VeloCMS restores stock, revokes access to what the buyer received, and emails the buyer.
• If Lahza reports that a refund failed, the order stays paid and you are notified. Try again, or refund from the Lahza dashboard.
• A refund you start in Lahza's own dashboard is picked up through the same webhook.

What the Lahza option does not do

• No reader memberships and no recurring subscriptions. Use Stripe, PayPal or Lemon Squeezy for those.
• Only ILS and USD. If your store currency is something else, the Lahza button does not appear at checkout until the store currency is ILS or USD.
• No discount codes or gift cards on a Lahza payment. A buyer with a code or gift card applied to the cart is asked to remove it to pay with Lahza.
• No fee or payout-time information. Ask Lahza.