Problems with buy now button....

[MrPuck]

First of all, I have a premier paypal account.  I started a website recently selling digital products for download and accepting payments through paypal.  My problem is two-fold.  First, after clicking the buy now button generated through paypal, my email address is displayed in large bold print in the header.  I do not want my email displayed at all as I use another email address for the site.  I tried, while generating the buy now button, to select the option of using a merchant ID as opposed to my email, but I'm assuming I have to pay for a merchant account to acquire a merchant ID.  Is there another option for me to prevent my email address from being displayed at the top of the screen?

My second issue really shouldn't be an issue, but it seems to be.  After clicking the buy now button on my site, paypal is supposed to redirect my customer to a specific URL where they download the product they just paid for once the transaction is complete.  I took it through a test run yesterday and it did not redirect me to the download page after the transaction, which is a problem.  That is the only way the download page is accessible to my customers.  Anyhow, once again, while generating the pay now button, I inserted the URL into the appropriate field, but it still failed to redirect.  What is going on here?

[skier · Accepted solution]

1. You need to upgrade your current PayPal Account to a Business Account.   Both Personal and Premier Accounts are designed to ONLY display an email address and there are no features or options to change this behavior.   Business Accounts are designed to allow you to display a Business or Organization Name or a Business Logo Graphic.

2. As for your second issue, you need to enable Auto Return within your PayPal Account.

"Auto Return" immediately brings your buyers back to your specified URL upon payment completion. This feature replaces the standard PayPal hosted "Payment Done" page with a page hosted on your website.

To set up Auto Return, you need to turn it on in your Account Profile and enter the return URL that will be used to redirect your buyers back to your site.

Log in to your Account
Select "Edit Profile"
Under "Selling Preferences"
Select "Website Payment Preferences"
Note first option - Select "On" - Auto Return for Website Payments
Enter the Return URL.
Click "Save."

The Return URL specified in your PayPal Account is good for all transactions however, you can override this by using the "return" variable in your individual item button code and direct the buyer to a different URL. Example, if you are manually coding your item, you would include the following line of code:

<input type="hidden" name="return" value="http://www.yourwebsite.com/successful.html">

How it works:
* If the buyer pays with a PayPal account, they are automatically taken back to the site.

* If the buyer pays with the Credit Card Option, they are taken to the receipt page where PayPal gives them the chance to print out a receipt. This is a legal requirement. After that, the buyer must click on the "Return to Merchant" link in order to return to the site.

Some addtional tips:

One method for Digital Downloads is to enable the Auto Return feature in your Account Profile. After a successful transaction, the buyer is immediately sent back to a specific page where they could download the item. Note, using this method, the URL can be shared with others as it is not secure.

Another method would be to use PayPal's IPN feature along with Auto Return. This method does require additional programming skills. After the payment is processed, PayPal posts the transaction details to your IPN script. At this point, you could have your IPN script either send out an email with the item as an attachment, or an email that has a link to a secure page where the item can be downloaded from.

Regards,

skier

[MrPuck]

FANTASTIC!  Thank you very much for your help!