- Understanding PayPal's Payment Button Solution
- How Easy Is Adding the PayPal Buttons?
- Generating the Button Code
How Easy Is Adding the PayPal Buttons?
If PayPal's Website Payments Standard sounds like the solution for you, just how easy is it to implement? Getting started is as simple as inserting the HTML <form> code for a payment button. The full code looks something like this:
<form action="https://http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post"> <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick"> <input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="value"> <input type="image" src="https://http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_buynowCC_LG.gif" border="0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!"> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1"> </form>
Of course, PayPal generates the exact code; all you have to do is copy it from the PayPal site and paste it into the underlying code of your own web page. If you're comfortable with this copy-and-paste operation, then you're good to go. (Naturally, you have to repeat this process for each item you sell online.)
On the other hand, if looking at this HTML code makes your head spin, or you simply don't have the time to do it yourself, you'll need to pass off the job to someone else on your staff or hire an outside developer. Implementing this type of HTML-based solution is relatively easy for an experienced developer, and shouldn't take much time; you can budget lightly for it.
What Buttons Can You Use?
PayPal offers several types of buttons for different types of products and services, as shown in the following table.
PayPal Payment Buttons
Button |
Description |
|
Buy Now button, for single item purchases |
Add to Cart button, for purchasing multiple items (adds the specified item to items already in the shopping cart) |
|
|
Subscribe button, for subscriptions |
|
Automatic Billing button, for recurring payments, such as monthly bills |
|
Donate button, for charitable contributions |
|
Buy Gift Certificate button, for ordering gift cards and certificates |
|
Installment Plan button, enables the customer to purchase an item and pay via multiple payments |