How to Accept Rand Payments on Kartra Using Paystack

If you're running a course business on Kartra from South Africa or anywhere in Africa, you've hit the same wall as everyone else: Kartra doesn't support local payment processors.

Your customers want to pay in Rands. They want to use the payment methods they trust. But Kartra only gives you Stripe and PayPal — neither of which works well for African markets.

Paystack changes that. It's built for African businesses, supports multiple local payment methods, and settles directly to your bank account. The missing piece is connecting it to Kartra.

That's where CheckoutJoy comes in.

What You'll Get

By the end of this setup, you'll have:

• A checkout popup on your Kartra landing pages
• Payments processed through Paystack in Rands
• Automatic lead creation in Kartra with custom tags
• Membership or course access granted automatically via Kartra automations
• Customers never leave your Kartra site

The whole setup takes about 15 minutes.

The Problem with Kartra's Native Payments

Kartra is a powerful platform for selling courses and memberships. But if your customers are in Africa, you're stuck with payment options that create friction:

• Stripe isn't available in most African countries
• PayPal has high fees and requires customers to have PayPal accounts
• No local payment methods means customers can't use the cards, bank transfers, or mobile money they prefer

Every piece of friction at checkout costs you sales. If a customer in Johannesburg has to figure out PayPal just to buy your course, many will abandon the purchase.

How CheckoutJoy Connects Paystack to Kartra

CheckoutJoy sits between Paystack and Kartra, handling the payment flow and automation:

1. Customer clicks your call-to-action button on a Kartra page
2. CheckoutJoy popup appears with your checkout form
3. Customer pays through Paystack (cards, EFT, SnapScan, etc.)
4. CheckoutJoy creates a lead in Kartra with your specified tags
5. Kartra automation triggers and grants membership access
6. Customer lands on your thank you page, already enrolled

Everything happens automatically. No manual enrollment, no Zapier, no technical complexity.

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Connect Kartra to CheckoutJoy

First, link your Kartra account:

1. In CheckoutJoy, go to Settings → Integrations → Kartra
2. You'll need your Kartra API Key and API Password
3. In Kartra, go to Integrations → API → My API
4. Copy both values into CheckoutJoy and save

2. Create Your Kartra Tag and Automation

Kartra uses tags to trigger automations. When CheckoutJoy creates a lead after purchase, it assigns your specified tag — which kicks off your automation.

Create the tag:

1. In Kartra, go to Communications → Leads → Tags
2. Create a new tag (e.g., "Course Purchased - CheckoutJoy")

Create the automation:

1. Go to Communications → Advanced Automations
2. Create a new automation:
   • If: Lead is assigned tag → select your tag
   • Then: Grant access to membership → select your product
3. Save

You can extend this automation to do anything Kartra supports — send emails, subscribe to sequences, add to other lists.

3. Create a CheckoutJoy Product

1. Go to Products → Add Product → Kartra Product
2. Name your product
3. Set the Kartra Activation Tag to the tag you just created
4. Set currency to ZAR
5. Set your price and billing type (one-time, subscription, or payment plan)

4. Create a Checkout Widget

1. Go to Checkouts → Widgets → New Widget
2. Select your Kartra product
3. Set your thank you page URL (a page on your Kartra site)
4. Enable Paystack under Payment Methods
5. Under Appearance, select Popup display mode
6. Set the popup trigger to "Use an existing element on the page"
7. Enter your button text as the selector (e.g., "Enroll Now")

5. Embed on Your Kartra Page

1. Copy the embed code from the Embed tab (Kartra section)
2. In Kartra, open your landing page
3. Click the gear icon → Edit Source Code
4. Paste the code at the top
5. Save

Now when visitors click your call-to-action button, the CheckoutJoy popup appears with Paystack payment options.

Payment Methods Your Customers Can Use

Paystack supports the payment methods African customers actually use:

• Credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard)
• Instant EFT / Bank transfers
• SnapScan
• Mobile money (in supported countries)

All payments settle to your Paystack account, and you can withdraw to any South African bank.

Why This Matters for Your Business

Every time a customer abandons checkout because they can't pay the way they want, you lose money. It's not just that sale — it's the lifetime value of that customer, the referrals they would have made, the reviews they would have left.

By adding Paystack to Kartra, you remove that friction. Your checkout becomes invisible — customers focus on your offer, not on figuring out how to pay.

Getting Started

You'll need:

• A Kartra account with a membership or product to sell
• A Paystack account (free to create)
• A CheckoutJoy account (14-day free trial)

The setup takes about 15 minutes, and you can test it with a real transaction before going live.

If you're selling to customers in Africa and using Kartra, this integration pays for itself with the first sale you would have otherwise lost.