We're developing an application that uses Paypal Express Checkout, and we're finding that we get two different landing pages. We're actually finding a problem that seems superficially similar to Can you force PayPal Payments Standard API to show credit card fields first?, but with a few differences:
Everything is fine with the sandbox, and we get exactly the appearance (credit card first) we want.
On the live site, about 50% of the time we get exactly the appearance (credit card first) we want.
Sometimes, we get a more "mobile-like" landing page, with the credit card stuff totally hidden in a "Check out as a guest" button, as shown.
This feels like a failing A/B test to me. We're sending exactly the variables in the question linked above, and as I said, all works fine with the older landing pages. I know there are also cookie issues, but in this case, we're seeing it even when Paypal is not able to identify an account and when cookies are cleared.
Does anybody know if there is anything we can do to work around this?
I can add code if needed, but the problem appears to be more data than logic.
I had the same question after I started to see users coming in from the 'new style' page.
I found the answer here:
Paypal express "order summary" page
I added the "force_sa=true" parameter to my Paypal URL:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_express-checkout&force_sa=true&token=…
The new page is definitely weighted to appear more often on mobile devices. Without the parameter I get the new style page on a iPad after about 5 refreshes, with the parameter I can refresh as much as I like and never see the new page.
Obviously, PayPal will roll out the new page to everyone in the end, but this technique allows us a stop gap while we get ready for it ;-)
The screen pictured is PayPal's new checkout. It is only partially deployed at this point, you can think of it as A/B testing.
Regarding whether the customer sees "credit cards first", this mostly depends on whether they have a PayPal email stored in their browser cookie. If they do, the top "Log in to PayPal" section will be expanded, the email filled out, and they just need to type in their password and do about 3 clicks to complete the checkout..
If they do not have a PayPal email stored in their cookies, the bottom Create an Account or Pay as Guest section will be expanded. (If you want guest checkout, pass SOLUTIONTYPE=Sole in your initial SetExpressCheckout request).
The customer can always switch between the two expanded sections, it's just a "smart default" of sorts.
Try doing all your "credit cards first" testing in an incognito / private browsing window.
Related
I have the following variables defined in my SetExpressCheckout API code:
SOLUTIONTYPE=Sole
LANDINGPAGE=Billing
USERSELECTEDFUNDINGSOURCE=CreditCard
Previously, this worked so that the shopper is first shown a form where he can enter his credit card details, followed by an option to log into his existing PayPal account. Since about a week however, everyone gets this screen:
Yes, I tested it from several machines, several countries, with cookies cleared, etc. And the sandbox is giving me the same issue.
Unfortunately, not all of our users are tech savvy and we've heard from several of them that they found no way to pay with credit card, even though the PayPal button to pay with a card is there - just not very visible because it's grey.
Is anyone experiencing the same thing lately? Have you found a way around it to display the credit card form first?
Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about this.
PayPal is split testing those checkout pages. I've seen 3 different versions pop up lately. The old/original one where the full form is displayed by default, this new page design/style with the button only, and I've also seen another new page design that does display the full form as well by default.
They are letting their split tests run their course, though, and in theory will choose the one that performs the best over all.
I have integrated Express Checkout with my application it works fine but sometimes paypal payment pages behaves very oddly. When user is directed to payment page, the page it shows is not same all the time. sometimes it shows saying "Login or Checkout as a Guest" and sometimes user see a page saying "Login as paypal or Create an account"
I have attached the image url Please see the following links.
First Layout
http://oi60.tinypic.com/149rpcn.jpg
http://oi60.tinypic.com/2r43ms2.jpg
Second Layout
http://oi58.tinypic.com/vxcl04.jpg
http://oi62.tinypic.com/v3j3hc.jpg
First layout makes sense. but second layout creating confusion when it says "create an account"? is that means creating paypal account or what? when i click on the option it simply shows me credit card details to enter. i dont know if that is related to the payment or asking to create new paypal account?
PayPal has been split testing the old EC pages with the new ones that you're seeing sometimes. In order to work with both sets of pages nicely, you'll need to make sure to add an additional parameter into your SetExpressCheckout request.
It looks like you're already using the following (and if you're not, you need to add them)
SOLUTIONTYPE=Sole
LANDINGPAGE=Billing
You need to also include the following to work well with the new pages.
USERSELECTEDFUNDINGSOURCE=CreditCard
Sounds an odd question since there's a whole PayPal developer section...
About a decade ago I wrote the code to integrate our e-com solution with PayPal.
Customer on merchant site > basket > login or register > checkout > pay using PayPal button > user goes to PayPal site and pays > e-com solution receives background post ("IPN?") to notify it of payment received > customer sent back to merchant site which then shows result.
Was a long time ago. E-com codebase was completely reworked. We didn't include PayPal at that time.
Looking for the documentation for same to do same. PayPal is never used by any of our merchants as the primary payment provider so this is an additional option to be provided at the checkout. So, not interested in the customer leaving the merchant's site at the basket, nor any of the more advanced features, nor uploading the cart contents.
I've spent ages trying to hunt this down. It looks like it's called "PayPal Payments Standard". The documentation argues with itself about whether this is for single items or multiple (e.g. a basket). Not interested in passing across the items, just the amount to pay.
From what I can see, the methodology is the same as it ever was except that I need to create a "button" labelled "Pay Now" - amount is the entire cart, the item is "cart contents" by calling the API to get me back the button code and thus the link that takes the user to PayPal. Every button created this way will say "Pay Now" and a new button is needed for every single transaction. There is however something nagging at me that this is not quite right.
I thought I'd found the documentation - the PDF integration guide. That just comes up with a link saying it's moved. Click that and I get a link saying it's moved. Click that and I'm back at the PayPal site again - no PDF. Round and round we go.
I must just be getting old or going blind.
Can anyone point me at the right solution and where the documentation is. Am an experienced coder so ideally I just want a PDF and sample code.
Thanks,
Mark
I need to implement Paypal express checkout and client needs the Paypal checkout to have their own theme (at least the header). Paypal facilitates that by providing an option to upload banner image and a logo. That works fine for me, but I have a different scenario here.
Paypal checkout has 3 (abstract) steps, first where Paypal asks for login, second where it asks you to review shipping address and final the payment confirmation page. I need Paypal checkout to have three different banner images for three different steps. The reason I want to do this is because I want to give a feel of navigation to the user, each banner image will have a tab selected for each step. It might sound confusing, look at the screenshot attached and you'll understand. Its a shot from a checkout on Etsy.com
Is this possible at all? If not, how have the guys at Etsy.com done this? Is there any other way to implement tab/navigation like the header in Paypal Checkout? Any suggestions?
Etsy uses a fixed header as well, specifically https://www.etsy.com/images/paypal/paypal-checkout-steps.png
However, the same header is used when you're returned to Etsy's website for order review and order completion.
To answer your question directly; in PayPal itself, you can't set up three different 'headers' for each step in the process.
As I've been integrating with PayPal, I've noticed that their sandbox UI is very different from their real UI.
When I set my button to post to sandbox.paypal.com, I get something like this:
But when I post to paypal.com from a browser that has never visited PayPal before, I get this:
Is there any way to setup the sandbox so its interface will be closer to the "real" PayPal's interface?
I've not seen it, but perhaps that's a New UI? The quote below is about all I've been able to find out about it though.
The Adaptive Payments consumer
experience will be upgraded to the new
PayPal payment flow design being
rolled out across all PayPal products.
The new UI will show the merchant's
business name instead of their email
address and will have a split slider
showing the payment breakdown on the
left and the login/approval on the
right.
David seems to be right — they are rolling out a new UI on the real site, but I guess the sandbox hasn't gotten it yet.
Also, clearing all my *sandbox.paypal.com cookies gives me a "pay with credit card" screen instead of the "log into PayPal" screen.
There is problem with new paypal interface, also mentioned in developer community forum on their website. many of the users are having problem since 1 month, and paypal is still working on it to resolve the issue.
Regards,
Mazhar Karimi