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You should be very careful if you're selling something you don't have, you almost certainly violate the terms of your payment provider and depending on where yo
by ig1 15y ago
You should be very careful if you're selling something you don't have, you almost certainly violate the terms of your payment provider and depending on where you live you might be committing fraud.
- nikcub 15y agoIt is against most merchant rules (and PayPal) to process a complete transaction without the product or service being immediately available. For pre-orders, you can collect card information and authorizations, but you can only charge when the product or service is delivered. PayPal doesn't support that at all (it is messy) Even with pre-orders the condition usually is that you need to deliver within 30 or 60 days (depends on the merchant). It is definitely not a good idea to collect money with the promise of a product in the future. This is why Kickstarter, GroupOn etc. only charge cards later on, and make it clear to users with disclaimers.
- swombat 15y agoYou don't have to actually sell. If you don't have a product yet, just build a mock payment page and check how many people get to the end - and never charge them.
- ig1 15y agoThe article suggests actually taking money from people.
- swombat 15y agoThe article presents a context where there is a product there to sell already (a discounted imgur membership).
- thenomad 15y agoAn idea I just thought of on that front - instead of the usual bland "we cannot fulfil the order at this time" end to a dry-test, send people to a 404-alike page with a contact email. You can track conversions by watching the clickthroughs, but as an added bonus, if people subsequently email going "your site's broken! Where can I buy?" you know they really want your product