Minimal Information for Downloadable Products

During the creation of a customer account, the address details are collected. The address becomes the basis for shipping and billing addresses.

When selling downloadable goods is it possible to collect just the information required to process the order such as a telephone number and/or e-mail address rather than a full postal address?

It has been pointed out to me that I am collecting information which I'm never going to use - so why do I want it in the first place?

Any thoughts,
Ric

To collect payment, you need the customer's address, don't you? ie: so that the credit card company can verify that the cardholder isn't using a stolen card, etc to pass fraud checks.

Er, yes.

The situation arose when making payments through Paypal where no such credentials are required by the store.

However since another open thread that I have is about the option to pay by credit/debit card (even through Paypal) I see the reason for collecting the full address. I didn't think this one through.

Thanks,
Ric

A further thought...

Should I have set "Express Checkout: Require Confirmed Address" to 'Yes' to enable those security measures?

Thanks
Ric

A "confirmed address" is useful if you want PayPal to offer fraud protection on transactions. A confirmed address is generally one that has been validated to match the purchaser's credit card billing address, or in some cases verified by PayPal sending a letter by snail mail with a code for the customer to type into their account once they've received it, thus confirming that the customer has access to mail at that address and thus theoretically is authorized to claim that address as theirs.

If you allow unconfirmed addresses, then PayPal will not offer you their Seller Protection service for those transactions. There may be some exceptions to that ... I'm not a PayPal employee, so I'd recommend contacting PayPal to ask for clarification on what the limitations are if you choose to allow unconfirmed addresses.

So, despite not actually shipping to the customer's address, having a verified billing address does offer significant benefits, even if the customer is a little annoyed at being asked to provide it.

Thank you once again, a most helpful reply.

I do not intend to process credit card payments on the store preferring to hand off the whole payment cycle to PayPal. It is they who will authorise payments through a customer's PayPal account and, presumably, authorise a customer's credit/debit card transaction should that be the customer's choice.

It seems prudent therefore, given your comments and the fact that PayPal will be the only payment provider, to have confirmed address = yes. I shall make the change.

Kind regards,
Ric