PayPal IPN vs. Express

[chris32882]

Alright, I'm not sure which to use as I can use both, but it would be confusing to the customers.

Using Express Customers don't have to have a paypal account..right?

and if I use IPN I will get Instant Payment Notification through ZC unlike Express check out.

I'm in the middle, I like the express, because its fast, but I wouldn't get IPN within ZC...

[DrByte]

Related FAQ: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=28

[chris32882]

PayPal Website Payments Standard (IPN) takes the customer to PayPal's site AFTER the ENTIRE checkout in order to make payment. The customer can pay without having a PayPal account (depending on what country YOU are in ... PayPal limits that feature for some countries). After the payment is completed, your store is notified of the completed payment, after which time the order is stored in your database. If the customer pays without making a PayPal account and declines the invitation to make one, your store sits in limbo and never gets the order (due to a bug in PayPal's logic, which they've not fixed yet). If they DO have OR make a PayPal account, you get the notification and the order is stored in your database. **IF there is any problem in PayPal's ability to communicate to your server, you will never see the order, because it relies entirely on PayPal's server being able to talk to your server in order to store the order.

PayPal Express Checkout ... gives the customer two options: They can jump over to the PayPal site to login to their account BEFORE completing checkout on your store (which allows them to select their address information there and never have to re-type their address details on YOUR site, thus the "express" part of the transaction) and then choosing shipping choices and discounts/coupons etc before completing the order ....... OR they can go to the PayPal site to login to their account AFTER making shipping/payment/coupon selections on your site (and creating an account on your store and typing their address info on your store), much like they do with Standard. With Express, they MUST have or make a PayPal account before they can provide payment details. However, Express does not rely entirely on the IPN communications to your store in order to release the order. Instead, it stores the order immediately when payment is completed. It doesn't have to rely on the PayPal server to talk to your server in order to store the order. Granted, you will want PayPal's server to be able to send IPN updates to you for any orders, in case you do refunds or adjustments to the order... so that those updates are reflected in your store's order history.

Website Payments Pro (I know you didn't ask about this one) appears to the customer only as a couple fields to enter their credit card number directly on your website. They have no idea that in the background you're processing their card via PayPal. They have to make an account on your site, and supply the address details, but once they confirm the order, the payment is collected immediately and the order saved. It doesn't rely on IPN to release the order. However, it does store any transaction updates done on the PayPal end such as refunds etc as long as IPNs can be received by your server.

Wow good info DrByte.

I'm thinking I am going to stick with PayPal Express, since the information will be saved on paypal...but I wont receiv any IPN unfortunally...

[DrByte]

I'm thinking I am going to stick with PayPal Express, since the information will be saved on paypal...but I wont receiv any IPN unfortunally...

I'm not sure why you say that. PayPal WILL send IPN, and thus you will receive it as long as your server is working properly.

[chris32882]

I'm not sure why you say that. PayPal WILL send IPN, and thus you will receive it as long as your server is working properly.

ahh, I miss read that, I'm sorry. So Express is the way to go I'm assuming, because PayPal Standard don't look stable (on PayPal's part)

[chris32882]

Related FAQ: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/index.php?article=28

Hey Nice Tutorial :)

[chris32882]

I'm not sure why you say that. PayPal WILL send IPN, and thus you will receive it as long as your server is working properly.

DrByte, what do you prefer

[DrByte]

DrByte, what do you prefer

The best choice is whichever works best to encourage your specific customers to complete checkout and payment.

(I prefer Express myself because I find it more reliable, but that's just my opinion.)

[chris32882]

Yeah, thats what I am thinking as well, with Standard there is that issue with PayPal not notifying you of payment if they don't sign up, that can be troublesome

[bluefirefly]

Sorry to jump in on this, but it's raised some questions for me as well.

Is this still a problem then with the PayPal Standard (IPN)?

If the customer pays without making a PayPal account and declines the invitation to make one, your store sits in limbo and never gets the order (due to a bug in PayPal's logic, which they've not fixed yet).

If so I guess I'll have to choose another option since PayPal Standard does not show detailed shop contents for the order, so I wouldn't know what was purchased.

I don't like it that PayPal Express requires a customer to sign up for a PayPal account though, because a lot of my customers don't have PayPal accounts and I don't want to lose any old or new customers because of that requirement. Have any of you found this to be a problem?

What about this: https://www.zen-cart.com/tutorials/i...hp?article=317

PayPal has an "Account Optional" setting in your PayPal account Profile, under Payment Receiving Preferences. Ensure that it is on.

...

Note that the PayPal Express Checkout product technically does not allow the option to make payment without having a PayPal account.

By technically do you mean you can't do it even with the account optional setting selected?

Thank you.