PayPal Website Payments Standard

Before you can use PayPal Website Payments Standard as a payment option, you will need a PayPal account. If you don’t already have a PayPal account, you can quickly create a Personal or Business Account online at the following address: http://www.paypal.com/

1. Create a business account
   When you sign up, make sure to sign up for a business PayPal account.
2. Activate Instant Payment Notification (IPN)
   Once your account has been created, select Profile from the navigation bar and click on Instant Payment Notification Preferences under Selling Preferences. ProductCart uses this PayPal technology to update the store database after an order has been paid for using PayPal. By default, Instant Payment Notification is turned off. Turn it on and enter the following address in the URL field:

   http://www.yourstore.com/productcart/pc/paypalOrdConfirm.asp

   … where:

   • ”www.yourstore.com” is your store's domain name
   • “productcart” might have been renamed (see Rename the ProductCart folder)
3. Ensure Auto Return is OFF
   Now go to the Website Payment Preferences area and locate the setting called Auto Return. Make sure that this feature is disabled (OFF).

Return to your ProductCart Control Panel and configure PayPal Website Payments Standard as a payment option. Select: Payment Options > Add New Options > Real-time credit card processing… to load the Add Real-Time Payment Option form. Select PayPal from the list of available payment gateways, and you will be taken to a section of the page where you can configure the following settings:

• Website Payments Standard
  Customers shop on your website and pay on the PayPal Web site. No merchant account required. Select this option to activate PayPal Website Payments Standard.
• Express Checkout
  Customers shop on your website and pay on PayPal without creating an account in your web store. No merchant account required.
• Website Payment Pro
  Includes both Express Checkout and Direct Payment - with Direct Payment the customer shops and pays on your website. PayPal merchant account required.

See this page for an overview on PayPal Express and Website Payments Pro, and User Guides for US and UK customers (Website Payments Pro is available in the US, UK, and Canada only).

Please note that there is a scenario in which Instant Payment Notification could be automatically switched off by PayPal. Specifically, PayPal re-introduced a feature to notify merchants via e-mail of Instant Payment Notification (IPN) failures with the specific URL causing the failures. For example, a merchant might have entered an incorrect URL. This e-mail will be a way for the merchant to immediately find out.

If the problem is not corrected, IPN could be disabled and PayPal will then no longer be communicating a successful payment to ProductCart, which means that orders would remain ”Incomplete” in ProductCart.

IPN will automatically be disabled by PayPal:

• if PayPal is unable to deliver IPNs to the merchant's IPN URL for 5 days
• if the merchant has crossed the failure threshold of 100 failures.

Since the threshold is quite high, IPN should not be disabled automatically if there is a temporary connectivity issue between your Web server and PayPal (e.g. your Web server is being restarted). Still, if IPN is automatically disabled, you can re-enable IPN through your PayPal account.

To make sure that you are receiving the e-mail notifications:

• Log into your PayPal account
• Under Profile, select Instant Payment Notification Preferences (found under Selling Preferences)
• Click Edit Instant Payment Notification (IPN) settings
• Select Receive IPN messages (Enabled)
• Click Save

Below is an example of the IPN Failure Notification e-mail sent to merchants:

Hello Merchant First Name/Last Name, Please check your server that handles PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN). IPNs sent to the following URL(s) are failing: http://www.XXXXXX.asp If you do not recognize this URL, you may be using a service provider that is using IPN on your behalf. Please contact your service provider with the above information. If this problem continues, IPNs may be disabled for your account. Thank you for your prompt attention to this issue. Thanks, PayPal