Paypal "Website Payments Pro?"

Functional Merchant Accounts

[andmunn]

Anyone heard of the new paypal payments pro? Seeems like an ideal merchant solution -

[paypal.com...]

Curious to see what everyone thinks. It looks like the user can stay on your site - and all that good stuff... Is there something im' missing?

Andrew.

[Brett_Tabke]

> FYI, 2.2% to 2.9% + $0.30 is not competitive pricing for online transactions.

That is near half what 2co and world pay are charging. It is what alot of merchant accounts are paying.

But, it is misleading since:

- you can currently get 3% on any money in your paypal account.
- 1.5% cash back on any debit card purchases.
- drastically reduced paypal based transaction fees for premier biz or world seller accounts.

All-n-all, I think it is going to be cheaper or the same as any other merchant account with a fraction the hassles, twice the control, and 10 fold the service level as a authorize.net or verisign gateway.

> but you work for

I do not. I am on the PDN Advisory Board [paypal.com] for free becuase I think it is of value to have input on the system.

bt

[Lorel]

I have been hoping that PayPal would set up a new program that would protect digital products with passwords that change with every sale, but this doesn't appear to be it. I've had to use DigitalVault with each PayPal link.

[grobe]

One complaint about Paypal's optional payment system is that if you enter a credit card number associated with a Paypal account it forces you to pay via Paypal. Does this new system have the same problem?

[pp_rb]

No, it should not. If your customer chooses to pay through your credit card checkout that uses the PayPal Direct Payment API, it should not be declined due to a match with an existing PayPal account.

[javadude]

The link to the carts that have implemented Payments Pro has been updated. [paypal.com...]

We have implemented it for our shopping cart (emartcart.com/cartpalpalpro.htm) and although there were some challenges they have been great about getting issues fixed and things working.

The interface is much more secure and robust then the old html interface. Someone asked about OSC. I don't see it on the list yet but I heard someone is working on the integration with Payments Pro. We used the Java API for our integration so let me know if you have questions.

I suspect it will be too much work for most retailers. So, there should be a market for developers to implement custom carts.

As some of you have discused; why whould retailers care? From what we can see it does allow the consumers to purchase credit card accounts without having a PayPal account. This should stop some of the dropped sales that many retailers with PayPal only experience.

JavaDude

[sullen]

Looks good.

Has anyone managed to discover whether or not payments can be taken from countries which cannot have paypal accounts?

[akmac]

Am I missing something...

Doesn't step 3 " Customer clicks on Express Checkout button and is taken to a PayPal page with a login screen."

Not quite qualify this as "transparent"?

An improvement to be sure, but the nature of paypal (only give your payment info once) limits its transparency.

I could be wrong.

[pp_rb]

The Express Checkout for PayPal payments (where customers can log in to pay) is not meant to be entirely transparent. You could not ask the customers to enter their PayPal username and password on your website.

What's new here is that the credit card processing for customers who do not want to pay from a PayPal account is transparent - they stay on your site and enter their credit card and billing information, and you pass that information to PayPal via API for processing. The customer's credit card statement should not mention PayPal at all, so as far as they are concerned, they just paid you with a credit card.

To the buyer, it just appears that you are giving them the choice of PayPal or credit card payment. Those who choose PayPal get a faster checkout because they do not need to complete forms for shipping and billing information. Those who choose to just pay by credit card get whatever checkout experience you have designed for them.

[sun818]

In terms of comparing rates for merchant account rates and Paypal rates, Paypal rates will be lower. Do the math on your monthly statement. Divide your processing fees with your gross sales and you'll see that your true processing rate is a lot higher than what you were initially quoted. The merchant account providers get you with the non-qualified transactions, discover, and amex which all have higher processing rates than the low 2.x% processing rate.

The only issue with the Paypal Payments Pro that I see is not being able to take "international" cards, but perhaps they will let the seller assume the risk by allowing us to take payment from non-confirmable locations at a later time.

For those that already take Paypal, this will help you raise your monthly gross which could bump you up to a better processing fee tier.

[digitalv]

So with this are funds available instantly the way they are with a normal PayPal transaction?

[pp_rb]

Yes, they should be. I think Express Checkout still allows eChecks unless you specifically disable them in your Profile, but for any payment that uses an instant funding method (including credit card transactions via Direct Payment API), the payment amount should be immediately added to your balance.

Unless, of course, you take advantage of the new Authorization and Capture functionality, which allows you to authorize a payment and then capture the funds later. :)

[sun818]

> Express Checkout for PayPal

If I understand this correctly, the point of this feature is bypass any additional data entry by retrieving their details from Paypal.com

I know my shopping cart currently asks buyers to enter in their details before being able to select a payment method. By using "Express Checkout" the checkout details are uniform. I know I've had issues in the past where the details capture in the shopping cart were different from what the Paypal payment showed.

[nakulgoyal]

So paypal pro / ebay and google are going to compete now?

[sun818]

Is there any chance we can use the Direct Payment API without Express Checkout? I think most sellers would prefer having a payment gateway situation like AuthorizeNet or VeriSign instead of having the Express Checkout as a requirement.

[digitalv]

I always like to offer both - a lot of people who use PayPal only use it for selling it on eBay and view their PayPal balance as "extra money". I noticed immediately that sales went up when I started offering PayPal in addition to the regular credit card gateway.

PayPal is kind of unique like that ... if a site only accepts payments through PayPal it makes me wonder if they're legit. But if they accept both PayPal and credit cards (through a merchant account) I'll almost always pay with PayPal when given the option. Sometimes I like to pay with a checking account instead of a credit card, and frankly it's nice to not have to turn around and furnish every website on the planet with credit card details. PayPal is more secure that way and that's why I use it.

[jkwilson78]

Has anyone managed to discover whether or not payments can be taken from countries which cannot have paypal accounts?

I would like to know this as well.

We just accept PayPal at the moment and from the exit surveys we've taken of people leaving our order page the two biggest reasons are they can't use PayPal in their country or they do not want to use PayPal.

We're looking at WorldPay to remedy this but if Payments Pro allows payments from countries that can't use PayPal we'll just stick with them and begin the integration process.

Avy idea about this?

[ACDesign]

I signed up the day this came out and was approved a day later. I used it this weekend for the first time.

I was selling my artwork at a show and made an additional $700 using the virtual terminal. Yay Paypal!

[sun818]

Website Payment Pro is not available to international sellers, but international customers can pay you.

[wattsnew]

Might put some squeeze on the fees charged by some other processors :)

[elliotb]

Is there a timescale as to when payments pro will be made available to UK sellers?

[Hednisk]

> Website Payment Pro is not available to international sellers, but international customers can pay you.

Are you sure?

[imstillatwork]

I want to see it on a real world site, not a jpg screenshot on a demo. anyone running it?

IS it possible to use the API only, and not express checkout?

thanks!

Kevin

[pp_rb]

> Website Payment Pro is not available to international sellers, but international customers can pay you.

Are you sure?

Yes, you can use Website Payments Pro to process payments from international buyers. I think this is still limited to the countries where PayPal supports accounts. The manual may be out of date already since new countries may have been added after it was written. Refer to the PayPal website for the current list of supported countries.

[Brett_Tabke]

So far, I have looked at some of the recommended shopping carts - suffice to say, I'm not impressed.

PayPal have a free off-the-shelf perl solution?

[paypal.com...]

[pp_rb]

IS it possible to use the API only, and not express checkout?

No, you are required to offer Express Checkout as an option if you will be using the Direct Payment API.

[Abtain]

Since WPP has an API like authorize.net; I don't think you will have to put paypal as a checkout option.

But, I think accepting regular paypal payments is a good idea. The more payment options you offer, the better.

[imstillatwork]

actually I read the info after I posted. Express Checkout is required as AN OPTION. not too bad. With 3.00 percent on your pp balance, it all works out pretty good.

[ectect]

So far, I have looked at some of the recommended shopping carts - suffice to say, I'm not impressed.

Unfortunately I believe that most companies developing carts, including those listed in their third party solutions, were not advised of the changes coming up so the take up is bound to be slow.

[Brett_Tabke]

> With 3.00 percent on your pp balance,

is that awesome or what!? That is better than I am getting on working capital at the bank. (remember however, that it is uninsured)