Express Checkout is PayPal’s premier checkout solution. It allows a customer to check out on your site, log into a PayPal account, and purchase your goods or services. Express Checkout puts PayPal in charge of data security with regard to the customer’s billing and credit card information and removes that non-trivial PCI compliance burden and liability from you as the merchant, allowing you to focus on the aspects of your application that differentiate you in the marketplace. In this chapter, we will look at what distinguishes Express Checkout from other generic workflows and take an in-depth look at its integration points. Then, we’ll put theory into practice by building a non-trivial (and hopefully, fun) GAE project that hacks on Twitter data and implements Express Checkout for payment processing.
Note
PayPal’s official documentation for Express Checkout is available online.
Let’s start by looking at the process flow of a typical checkout and juxtapose it with an Express Checkout to better understand the underlying value proposition.
Figure 2-1 shows the typical checkout flow a user experiences when buying goods or services online. It includes the following steps:
Customer clicks the checkout button on your shopping cart page.
Customer enters all shipping information.
Customer chooses her payment method and provides all the relevant billing and payment information.
Customer reviews order and pays.
Customer receives her order confirmation.
As you can see, this typical checkout method requires the customer to provide a lot of information at the time of purchase. Numerous studies have shown that a cumbersome checkout process is a sure way to lose customers. As you’re about to see, Express Checkout can be a real time saver for your customers and translate into higher conversions.
Figure 2-2 shows an Express Checkout. Take special note that the process is considerably more streamlined. There’s no need to enter shipping information or specifics for payment information. For the typical case, there’s literally just a few clicks and the order is processed.
Customer chooses Express Checkout by clicking the “Check out with PayPal” button on your site.
Customer logs into PayPal.
Customer reviews the transaction on PayPal.
Customer confirms the order and pays from your site.
Customer receives an order confirmation.
With Express Checkout, the customer does not need to enter his billing and shipping information each time. Consequently, customers can make purchases and move on to other tasks much more quickly. Table 2-1 outlines the steps required to complete a payment during a generic checkout and Express Checkout. As you can see, Express Checkout saves both time and processing steps.