Managing recurring billing on eCommerce websites is more complicated and technically challenging and regular shopping cart eCommerce. Not on payment gateways support are properly manage the regular schedule payments. In our experience we have seen that though several payment gateways claimed to have smooth monthly payment management APIs, technically only very few are able to cater to the complex requirements of such a payment system.
Based on the product that is integrated for the recurring billing, the amount of control on these Billings can be managed. The accounts can be temporarily suspended, cancelled, re activated remotely with the high end product. But in all cases the customer billing information like credit card details are stored at PayPal and not at the vendor website. Also the payment reports are generated and viewable in the PayPal reports section. The PayPal API enables programmers to fetch only limited information to be displayed on the eCommerce site admin.
We have worked extensively with PayPal products for managing regular and recurring billing for websites that build their customers at regular intervals.
We have used our products like PayPal website payments pro, website payflow pro, website payments standard and express checkout to manage these payments.
- Website payments pro provides high-end capabilities like ability to suspend billing for a limited time and then resume again. User accounts can also be suspended through application interface is provided in the eCommerce admin.
- Express checkout product is less flexible in terms of the options that are provided to the customer. There is less that can be managed on websites that use PayPal express checkout. Accounts cannot be suspended remotely and cancellation requires logging into the PayPal account and of the vendor.
While both of the products serve with even in managing recurring payments, the level of sophistication achieved in each is different. While a website payments pro is the superior product, it is extremely limited as it is available only in the United States, Canada and UK. Express checkout option is available in all countries. We have implemented both these options in various service oriented websites and have found desirable results for our customers.
Related Links
Managing Recurrent Billing using PayPal Payment services with shopping cart
Custom eCommerce Website Shopping Cart Development
Difference in PayPal Website Payments Standard and Website Payments Pro
Custom Shopping Cart Development Services