A Non-Technical Overview for Website Owners and Web Solution Providers

Who Should Read This Book

This ebook is meant for the small business owner or non-technical web designer or solution provider that quickly needs to understand what solutions PayPal has to offer that might be useful for the task at hand. A programmer (hopefully a PayPal Certified Developer) will most likely be hired to do the actual work, but the right questions need to be asked and blind alleys need to be avoided. At SonicSpider we have interacted with a lot of people asking these very questions and who are struggling to find a solution that can both work and is affordable. That experience guides the contents of this ebook.

Years of experience from a Certified PayPal Developer using PayPal solutions packed into 22 pages of a non-technical easy to read style. It would take you days of research and reading of technical material to distill this information yourself. If you need to understand PayPal solutions quick so you can ask the right questions and narrow down the best solution for you needs - this is the place to start!

Table of Contents - 22 pages

• Introduction
• Who Should Read This Book
• The 10,000 Foot View
  • The PayPal Components
  • Why Would Anyone Use a Traditional Solution?
  • Next – Getting into the PayPal Solutions
• Website Payment Standard (WPS)
  • Appropriate Uses
  • So When Should I Consider a More Advanced Solution like the Pro version?
  • Overview of the Key Points
    • Shipping
    • Credit Cards
    • Customizing the PayPal Cart
    • Product Attributes
  • Conclusions for Website Payments Standard
• Website Payments Pro (WPP)
  • An Overview of the “Parts”
  • Direct Payment API
  • Express Checkout API
  • What are my choices for using WPP?
    • Using a third party shopping cart that supports WPP.
      • Sample API Signature
    • Custom Solutions
      • Roll up your sleeves and do the programming yourself
      • Find a module with source code and customize it yourself
      • Contact a Certified PayPal Developer
• Adaptive Payments API
  • Overview
  • Limitations of Adaptive Payments
• Other Payment Enhancements
  • Micropayments
  • Digital Goods
    • Express Checkout
    • Adaptive Payments
    • Limitations
  • Comparing Express Checkout with Adaptive Payments for Digital Goods
• Summarizing Your Options.
  • Stay with Website Payments Standard.
  • Use Website Payments Pro, but stick with a standard shopping cart.
  • Use WPP to program a WPP solution yourself.
  • Use a professional to develop a WPP custom solution.
• Wrapping it up

Sample excerpt from ebook

Appropriate Uses (Website Payments Standard)

There is an old adage, “If you have a hammer, everything is a nail”. This is so true with PayPal as well. There have been countless times that we encounter someone that either has pushed the system to the maximum and it is breaking, or imagines that it “should” do something easily and becomes frustrated when it does not. The key is to understand the limitations of a solution and how to best maximize its strengths, while avoiding or minimizing the weaknesses. Here is a quick breakdown as a reference.

• WPS Strengths
  1. Quick payment button for low overhead sales
  2. Quick subscription or donations for services, meetings, club dues or events
  3. Startup eCommerce Business
     1. While testing market acceptance
     2. Part time or short term sales
  4. Inexpensive – avoids other merchant expenses
  5. Quick and simple setup
  6. No “business qualifications” required
• WPS Weaknesses
  1. User experience from website can be confusing for some.
  2. Credit card use can be confusing because the emphasis is on PayPal payments.
  3. Spotty integration with other programming or custom applications.
  4. Some users may consider it an indication that you are not a serious business.
  5. You must tie your checking account to your PayPal account to avoid transfer charges.
  6. Other financial issues: (these also apply to WPP)
     1. Payments and funds do not appear to be governed by federal banking regulations or rules.
     2. Manual transfer of funds to your checking account.
     3. Funds can be delayed due to internal PayPal rules not traditional banking rules and regulations.
     4. Legal remedies are not regulated.
  7. Shipping is too simple.
  8. Product attribute support is minimal (sizes, colors, etc... .)

The strengths of WPS are fairly straight forward and a quick visit to the PayPal site will provide you with numerous tutorials and examples of how the system works. This will not be covered again here.

Our focus here is to help you understand where the limitations are, so that:

1. you can learn to live with those limitations.
2. you can make an informed decision as to which solution better matches your needs and legal requirements, or
3. you will understand what it will take to move on to a more advanced solution.

copyright © 2003-2010 SonicSpider LLC | All Rights Reserved | XHTML | CSS | Admin
General Terms of Service | Web Development Guidelines | Application Policies