The three biggest issues affecting how PayPal behaves for your customers are cookies, privacy settings in their web browsers, and (if you use your own domain name) using frames. Let's deal with these things one at a time.

Cookies

For the uninitiated cookies are simple text files that are dropped onto a PC to authenticate or identify a user, for personalisation (e.g. Welcome back John!), to track behaviours, or to record your selections for a shopping cart. These are used in online banking, online shopping and for email services, so they are a common and essential part of using the web.

When customers say they have visited your site for the first time, but they already see items in the shopping basket there are a few key things to ask:

  1. Are they using a computer in a public location, like an Internet Cafe or library, where a previous user may have looked at your site?
  2. Do they use a shared computer either at work or at home where someone else could have logged on to your site?

If either is remotely possible then that computer may have saved a cookie which has stored previous shopping selections from your site. They only need remove the items from the shopping basket and then continue shopping.

PayPal requires that all users permit a cookie to be dropped on their computer for their service to be used. The cookie is used by PayPal to identify the user and record their shopping choices. No personal or financial details are recorded or saved. So if their web browser is set with 'High' privacy then cookies can be blocked and your customers are more likely to see the error message: 'The recipient of this shopping basket is not an approved shopping basket user. ' The simplest solution is to ask your customers to reset their web browser's 'Privacy' setting to 'Default' which will then permit them to make purchases from your site. Once complete they can always reset the browser Privacy.

Domain Names

So, you've made your customers aware of cookies. Then you take the next step of buying your first domain name. It all sounds good till your customers complain they can't complete a purchase. PayPal strikes again?

To ensure transactions details remain in a secure environment PayPal do not permit frames to be used. Frames are automatically created by your domain providers when you use 'masked forwarding' with your domain name. The simplest solution is to contact your domain name provider and ask them to 'point' your 'DNS A record' to the IP address 146.101.249.107 where your website sits on the Moonfruit servers.

If you want more information on Domain Names please checkout an earlier blog I wrote which details why 'pointing' is better than 'forwarding' and why it's also better for search engines.

Hopefully the pointers above will help sort out most of your PayPal problems...although once you're on the PayPal site, you're on your own!

Good luck and happy sales!

Walt