PayPal for All

Today there is hardly any person who does not know about PayPal.  Owing to eBay and some other factors this payment system is always on the top. There is no a single day when we do not get any news about it. But what is PayPal? What are the opportunities it grants?  PayPal lets consumers pay for their purchases using PayPal with a credit card, bank transfer or with funds from their own PayPal account balance. Let's see all of them with ecommerce-guide.com.

When checking out, the customer is directed to a page designed to match your own site that's located on PayPal's secure servers. After choosing a payment method (i.e. credit card or PayPal cash payment), and checking out, the customer is returned to your site and the payment, once cleared, is deposited to your own PayPal account. PayPal also supports international payments.

In terms of pricing, PayPal does not charge a monthly subscription fee but instead charges a per transaction fee. For those setting up shop using PayPal, or who want to take advantage of the many features the service has to offer, here are five free tools that help you get PayPal services integrated into your storefront.

PayPal Merchant Services: Free Individual Purchase Buttons
One of the first steps to integrating PayPal is to visit the merchants section on the PayPal Web site. Here you can generate the HTML code needed to create buttons that you can add to your product pages for the following: Buy Now, Add to Cart, Donate, Subscribe, and Buy Gift Certificate. If you are selling a single item, for example, you would use the PayPal "Buy Now" button.

Once logged into PayPal, you simply go into the Merchant Services section of the site and then choose the Buy Now buttons page. On this page, you provide your product information including the price, currency, shipping methods and applicable tax options. Here you also choose a Buy Now button style or provide your own image. Next, you simply click the "create button" link and the form generates the HTML code you need to copy and paste onto your own Web page, blog or e-mail. To create a different  type of PayPal button you follow the same simple steps in the PayPal Merchant Services section on the site.

PayPal Merchant Services: Free Shopping Cart Buttons
Using the free PayPal shopping cart, you can sell multiple items on your site with customized buttons and messages. Rather than placing a button link on individual product pages, the PayPal cart is designed to let your customers browse all your merchandise and view a consolidated list of all their items before purchasing. You can use this to sell multiple items on your site with customized buttons and messages.

The creation form is similar to PayPal's button creation form. You can go in to edit additional options and add shipping preferences, customer notes and any special instructions. Once you click the link to create the code, on the next page you will see two sections of code to copy. One is for the "Add to cart" function and the other is for the "View Cart" function. Once you create the Add and View buttons, you can alter the name, price, shipping, and other options by editing the HTML code , or, you can repeat the process to create additional payment buttons.

PayPal Widgets:  Free Storefronts
The PayPal Storefront Widget lets you create an online graphically-pleasing Web Storefront. You can upload products, set descriptions, prices and shipping parameters and then display the widget on your own Web site, blog or other personal Web space. After logging into your PayPal account, you start customizing your widget with a theme, title, logo, and information such as store and shipping policies. Then, you choose which products to display, and select selling options, for instance, you can have merchandise removed once it is sold.

After adding your products and customizing the widget to your satisfaction, you then publish it for auto-insertion into TypePad or you can get the HTML code to copy and paste onto your own Web space. For buyers browsing your PayPal storefront, the widget offers an index page that shows thumbnail images of all of the items for sale, individual product pages that show buyers a larger image view, the item price and the option to buy.

PayPal Flash Button Creator: Free Trial or  $29.99 to Buy
The PayPAl Flash Button Creator V2.1 from Beaver Valley Software Company is free for 30 days. This tool lets you create SWF (ShockWave Flash)files for any PayPal buttons including Buy Now, Donation, Cart, View Cart or Subscription. These can be embedded on HTML, ASO.NET, or Flash Web sites. Not only does this make adding PayPal buttons to Flash sites easier, but because the buttons are in SWF format, it also hides the information embedded in the links, such as your e-mail address, from online spam bots.

To start creating your button, you choose One Item, Cart, or Subscription and fill in the required fields - price, item number, ID, tax, currency, your business and Web site information, as well as your policies. You can also choose between several different PayPal buttons to use for display.  Once you provide all the details and create your button, a SWF file is saved to your computer.  The file will need to be uploaded to your Web site, which can be done directly from within the program. If you are using an HTML site, PayPal Flash Button Creator will also generate the HTML code you will need to display the movie.

PayPal Flash Button Creator V2.1 is available as a 30-day free trial however this will embed an unregistered program message in the Flash button so the buttons will need to be regenerated after purchase to remove the message.  The registered version is available online from Beaver Valley Software for $29.99.

PayPal Button Machine: Free Trial or  $19.99 to Buy
A second offering from From Beaver Valley Software Company is the PayPal Button Machine. This button generating tool is an excellent option for those who do not use a broadband Internet connect, as you can make any of the buttons - Buy It Now, Cart, or Subscription - offline. The interface for PayPal Button Machine is similar to that of the company's  PayPal Flash Button Creator. First you fill in the information to create the button, such as the product, product ID, shipping, tax, payment, cancel and other key fields. Then you provide your site details, policies, and set the color for the PayPal order page. This is all done from within the PayPal Button Machine program.

Once you created the button, you go into the Button Code tab to get your code and here you can also choose to encrypt or update the code.

You can build your pages and upload without needing to log into PayPal during the creation phase. In the latest version, the 4.0 release of PayPal Button Machine, you can also create custom page styles for every button you make plus edit the text on the continue button and save the buttons to your computer for further editing. The limited trial version of the the PayPal Button Machine is free for 30 days. You can buy it for $19.99.

Level Four Flash Button
Lastly, Level Four Storefront, a company offering a fully-featured flash e-commerce solution, also has a free, PayPal Buy It Now flash button you can use. Merchants can visit the Level Four Web site and download a Flash 8 or Flash CS3 version of this attractive button for use on their own site.