Need help decidingon Paypal product...

[Dev]

Newbie needs advice.

If I am a merchant, and want to use Paypal as payment option, and want my customer to be able to use a credit card OR Paypal, does customer need a Paypal account? i.e., must customer login to complete transaction?  If so, how do customers feel about that?

What is the best Paypal product for me to use, if I have my own Cart application and want minimal Paypal pages interaction with customer?

Help is most appreciated.

Thank you.

Dev

[skier]

Here's some info concerning the the differences between Website Payments Standard and Pro and Express Checkout.   This should help you decide what will work for your needs.

* Website Payments Standard has no monthly charge and you pay transaction fees on sales.
You need a premier or business account to use and you interact with the PayPal engine using regular HTML forms. The customer is redirected to PayPal's secure site to enter in their financial information, and proceed to make the payment.  Customers are not required to have a PayPal Account, they can pay with a Credit Card or open/pay with their PayPal Account.  The Checkout process is performed on PayPal's Secure Servers and PayPal and is responsible for storing the customer's credit card information. Once the payment has been made, they are redirected back to your site.  There's no montly fee, only individual transaction fees.

* Website Payments PRO costs $30/month plus transaction fees.
You need a business account and you interact with the PayPal engine via API calls. Pro is designed for your customer to have the option to pay with credit card and stay on your site. The customer completes the transaction on your site, they are not redirected to PayPal to complete the payment. This method gives you control over the customer experience and you are responsible for storing the customer's credit card information. Note, you will also be required to meet current Payment Card Industry or PCI compliance standards. Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) are network security and business practice guidelines adopted by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Card, and JCB to establish a "minimum security standard" to protect customer’s payment card information. This is a requirement for all merchants that store, transmit, or process payment card information. Pro is currently only available to US, UK and Canadian Accounts.

* Express Checkout "requires" customers to have a PayPal account, has no monthly charge and you pay transaction fees on sales.
Upon successful completion of the transaction, the customer will be redirected back to your site. Express Checkout uses both HTML and APIs.

Regards,

skier

[Dev]

Thank you for your quick reply.

Is there an option to handle ALL data collection at the merchant's site, then send data to Paypal for payment only?

Thank you.

[skier]

The key to deciding what product works best for you is:   Do you want the customer to Check Out on the PayPal Screens meaning they would be leaving your site and then returning if applicable or do you want to totally control the customer experience where as they remain on your web site to Check Out?    If you want them to remain on your web site, you would keep all the order data and would only be passing their credit card info to PayPal for processing, that would Website Payments Pro.

Regards,

skier

[Dev]

Thank you for your quick reply.

 Since I wish to control all screens (pages), it will be Website Payments Pro.

Thank you much.

Dev