A Note on Using Paypal and PHP For E-Commerce Transactions

One of the best ways by which you can receive or send payment over the internet is by using Paypal, and is considered to be an inexpensive way by which e-commerce transactions can be conducted. And if you are interested in this method, all you have to do is visit the Paypal website and set up a business account with them.
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However, in using Paypal as a third party shopping cart you only have two options when a customer wants to make a payment, and they are:

Option #1: You can pass the entire list of shopping cart items and show detailed payment information.

Option #2: You can only pass a total.

The problem with Option #1 is that the customer will have to re-enter the details once more when using Paypal, which can cause the customer to bail out on the sale due to annoyance of this repetition. Moreover, it makes more sense that the customer’s detailed information remains with the merchant rather than with Paypal.

And even though the approach with Option #2 means that the customer will not obtain the order details along with the Paypal invoice but this can resolved by sending them an email with the details of their purchase.

And this is done by creating a PHP page that will provide the customer with a ‘Confirmation” screen just as soon as he or she is viewing order details and is ready to complete his or her purchase. The advantage of using PHP in this case is that it collects the information required for Paypal, and submits it automatically without the customer having to do so.