Taher
Taher

Reputation: 12040

Paypal for a buy/sell website

So I'm working on this website where users post their items, other users add some items to their cart and purchase them online.

The flow i was thinking about goes like this:

  1. A merchant posts an item along with their credit cart/ paypal information.
  2. A buyer adds items (from different merchants) to his/her shopping cart and purchases.
  3. The buyer pays by filling a form that includes the payment method fields within the website's layout (no redirection to paypal).
  4. The website will work as a gateway, it will capture the payments from the buyers and pays the merchants accordingly and automatically.

Is this possible using PayPal? if so, what API should I use? Any input/idea is appreciated...

Thanks, /t

Upvotes: 1

Views: 360

Answers (2)

mcanterb
mcanterb

Reputation: 519

I have also investigated using PayPal in this way for a site with a similar concept. Unfortunately, PayPal does not allow this. This makes you something known as a Third Party Payment Aggregator which drastically increases the risk associated with providing you a Merchant Account (which is what PayPal is doing). You can read more here.

Though, you could probably do it for a while before PayPal caught on, they could cancel at anytime leaving you high and dry. I recommend investigating Third Party Payment Aggregator solutions (Braintree has something that helps with this).

Upvotes: 2

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