Using Authorize.net with eStore

[jonnys]

Hi – I’m currently using Paypal for my payment gateway, which works very well, but I would like to offer my customers

Authorize.net so am thinking of signing up with them.

1. When using Authorize.net as a gateway will my customers get a link to digital downloads on the ‘thank you ‘ page as they do with Paypal?

2. I have my store setup to have Paypal add VAT tax depending on country. Can Authorize.net do this too?

3. Is it possible to force the order of options, and the default selection for the payment method drop-down box in the cart?

As much as i think Paypal is excellent and very fast, especially if you have an account with them, I have been asking around here in the UK, and there are people who just say – if the only option is Paypal, then I wouldn’t checkout. I think that is partly because some customers still don’t realise you can use your credit card if you want to or don’t have an account, and partly because some people still don’t like or maybe trust Paypal.

Many thanks

Jonathan

[www.yopo.co.uk]

[Peter]

“1. When using Authorize.net as a gateway will my customers get a link to digital downloads on the ‘thank you ‘ page as they do with Paypal?”

A: Yes.

“2. I have my store setup to have Paypal add VAT tax depending on country. Can Authorize.net do this too?”

A: No. Authorize.net does not have the regional tax feature like PayPal does.

“3. Is it possible to force the order of options, and the default selection for the payment method drop-down box in the cart?”

Yes you can change the default gateway option by doing the following:

Open the “eStore_advanced_configs.php” file and look for the following line of code:

//$_COOKIE = “authorize”;

Once you find that line uncomment it by removing the “//” at the beginning.

Then leave it as it is if you wanted to use authorize.net as the default gateway but if you wanted to change this something else, simply change the value to whatever gateway you want to use as the default.

For example if you wanted to use “manual” gateway as the default value you would have the following:

$_COOKIE = “manual”;

[jonnys]

Thanks for that – that’s helpful.

VAT is the problem for us – there seems to be two options I think:

1. eStore adds 20% uk VAT – but then it adds it on for customers say from the USA who don’t need to pay UK VAT tax.

2. Leaving tax alone on eStore and allowing Paypal to add it subject to region works great but then means you can’t use Authorize.net as a payment option. As much as I wish everyone was happy to use Paypal (and I think it’s excellent – and I love the speedy checkout that Paypal gives you) there are a lot of people who simply won’t use it – which means we’re losing business.

Is there anything else you can think of as a way of dealing with VAT and have Authroize.net and Paypal as payment options?

Thanks for your help.

Jonathan

[admin]

Hi Jonathan, Yes, there is another way. You can apply tax to the cart for users from a particular country or area. In your case it will be UK users. Have a look at this post which explains how to enable it in eStore:

https://support.tipsandtricks-hq.com/forums/topic/setting-up-sales-tax-tabels

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FYI – Most of your customers won’t even know who “Authorize.net” is. When it comes to payment gateway selection, You (the merchant) makes the decision based on your preference. In most cases your customers will just click checkout and pay with their credit card. If they don’t have to choose, its better for your conversion. In our shopping cart, we focus on making the checkout process as simple as possible.

The reason I told you the above is because I don’t think you even need to enable authorize.net gateway if you don’t have a special preference to use them (merchants who have issues with PayPal usually go with authorize.net).

[jonnys]

Hi – thanks for the info.

I tried the method you linked to – but when I tick the box it adds the tax but also flashes a message saying “coupon not recognised’.

Also if you subsequently add another product to the cart, the tax is not updated.

The box seems to stay unticked even if you tick it.

I like Paypal – but I know some people just won’t use it. That’s the issue. But as you say, having Authorize.net may not improve the situation because perhaps they are not well known here in the UK.

With the tax thing – it’s probably best for us to stay with Paypal for now.

I’m wondering if I can add some text in the cart somewhere to remind people that you dont need a Paypal account to pay with credit card on the Paypal gateway?

Thanks J

[admin]

“can I add some text in the cart somewhere to remind people” – Yeah, simply add the text/message above or below the shopping cart shortcode. You can see an example of how we have put some checkout related message here:

http://www.tipsandtricks-hq.com/checkout

[jonnys]

Hi – I have the cart as a widget – so what I have done is put a text widget above the eStore widget.

[www.yopo.co.uk] – do you think that works?

Thanks J

[admin]

That works fine. You could also do the following:

1) Add a standard text widget to your sidebar

2) Use eStore’s cart shortcode in this widget

3) Add any other message/instruction in this widget

[jonnys]

Ah I see – thank you.

J

[Author]

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