Hi Guys, I really dont know much about how paypal, credit cards, or google check out work, so I'm looking to clarify some things: Lets say I have a site, that sells stuff (Like ebooks, pictures, etc...). I could make my shoppers enter their creditcard/paypal info whenever they buy something. But I feel an easier solut8ion would be for them to be able to deposite money onto my site so that they could buy things right away (without having to fill things out over and over again). Its as if there is an account with money on the site (like your own paypal). Here is an example: If you go to soundclick (a music site) you are able to put a lump sum of money into your account, and then basically buy songs/albums whenever you want to w/o further hassle. Two reasons I like this: 1. It helps you monitor exactly how much you are spending on that particular site. 2. It may possibly make transactions easier (not sure yet, since I'm a noob) My dream would be that people would browse things on my site. And when they implusively want something, all they have to click the "buy" button sending the item to the shopping cart or whatever. Once they are done finding stuff, they execute the order, and bam, they have everything they need. So, is this: A practical idea? Easy to set up w/ the payemnt systems, and banks, etc..? Easy to code (free scripts?)? Any other info would be great. Thanks guys.
I believe companies like web hosting companies, Namecheap.com and bigfish.com also allows you to add a balance to their system. However, you should on the other hand cater for the one-off customers as they only be interested in one item and that's it. Especially now that you may be new, it may be difficult to get people to trust you with money so you need to think this from your customer's perspective. You may want to show them with some form of discounts like what bigfish.com does. As for the payment services, just treat the prepayment as just another sales order. You will need a system which would allow this balance to be monitored and spent from. I don't really see this option as making payment easier, it may actually put off some customers who do not want to spend more than what they have to. The fear is that if you close, they are at the losing end.
could it be possible to have bothy systems in place? Mainly I want the account system because I want my users to be able to sell and buy on my site.
but i dont think it would be 100% coding. I mean you have to set stuff up with banks right something right? like you cant just code paypal right?
No, I don't mean you code Paypal. Basically, what you need is a database on your site to store the remaining balance for each of your customer. If there is any balance there, you will deduct from that balance and if you have $0 balance then you get the full balance from Paypal. If the balance is insufficient then you get them to pay the remainder from Paypal. Then for those who wants to prepay, you can have them pay you then load the sum to their account in your database. All of which can be done through working with Paypal's IPN.
As Eddy said...you would need to use PayPal's IPN (Internet Payment Notification) and have additional coding on your site. IPN notifies you when a customers pays you via Paypal and allows you take automatic actions (send products, emails, add to balance, etc..) when they pay. You then integrate this with a php/mysql database on your site to track customers balances, payments and purchases. There are free IPN scripts available but you would still need to program a backend after this to track customer balances. You don't need to program anything with the banks, just withdraw your profits from paypal via bank transfer or debit card.
thanks guys. that clarified the confusion i had. now i guess i have one last question: there are certain sites paypal does not like to work with. What if I have a gambling website? I am pretty sure they do not allow gambling sites. This is a problem, b/c I want to make a site about gambling, where ppl can buy gambling tutorials, articles, books, etc... it would be 100% related to gambling.
Why don't you contact Paypal directly and get a firm answer from them ? What we say can only be taken as speculations and you cannot rely on that for Paypal's policy. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame-outside