PayPal Adds Support for eBay Coupons to Express Checkout

Update (10 Nov, 2008): The release of eBay coupon support has been slightly delayed. They hope to have it live tonight.

Also, here are two coupon codes you can use in the PayPal Sandbox. Note that they only apply to the PayPal Sandbox, and expire 31 Dec, 2009.

• CECTEST2008: 10% (Maximum discount $100) off Entire Transaction
• CECSINGLE2008: $10 off Single Item

For developers who provide Express Checkout to their customers, starting November 5 you can  add support for eBay coupons to the Express Checkout flow. Here is an example of how this might look to your buyer:

At launch, this feature will also be available in the PayPal Sandbox. PayPal is looking at providing a list of coupon codes that you can use for testing coupon support in your application. Those codes would only be valid in the PayPal Sandbox.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the Express Checkout API User Guide. For more details, you can see the full guide.

Integrating eBay Incentives into the Express Checkout Flow

  To integrate eBay incentives into the checkout flow:

1. Pass the following parameters and settings in the call to SetExpressCheckout.
   • PAYMENTACTION must be Sale
   • CHANNELTYPE must be eBayItem
     Note: For eBay auctions, you cannot set PAYMENTACTION to Authorization or
     Order. You must set PAYMENTACTION to Sale.
2. For each eBay line item, do one of the following (mutually exclusive choices):
   • For each individual eBay entry, pass the values returned by eBay when setting up the
     auction item descriptions in the parameters below:
     L_EBAYITEMNUMBERn and L_EBAYITEMAUCTIONTXNIDn
   • For multiple eBay items offered as a single order, pass the value returned by eBay when
     setting up the auction order description in the parameter below:
     L_EBAYITEMORDERIDn
3. The value of useraction must be commit so the Express Checkout flow displays a Pay
   button and the merchant can bypass any order review page.
4. It is recommended to pass the phrase "eBay item" in L_DESCn and the eBay Item Number
   in L_NUMBERn.

  Note: eBay maintains detailed information about each item sold in eBay auctions. If you set
the value for SHIPPINGAMT in the call to SetExpressCheckout, for example, you
do not need to be concerned about the shipping cost for individual items. eBay
calculates incentives based on its database, not from the values you pass in the
SetExpressCheckout call.

The following example passes order details and eBay incentives for two eBay auction items:

Sample 1.3 Setting the Express Checkout Order Details Parameters

Request [requiredSecurityParameters]&METHOD=SetExpressCheckout
&RETURNURL=http://coffee2go.com&CANCELURL=http://cancel.com
&PAYMENTACTION=Sale&EMAIL=jsmith01@example.com
&NAME=J Smith&SHIPTOSTREET=1 Main St&SHIPTOCITY=San Jose
&SHIPTOSTATE=CA&SHIPTOCOUNTRYCODE=US&SHIPTOZIP=95131
&L_NAME0=Photo&L_NUMBER0=32768923&L_DESC0=Plastic Frame-An EBay item
&L_AMT0=25.00&L_QTY0=1&L_EBAYITEMNUMBER0=32768923&L_EBAYITEMAUCTIONTXNID0=0
&L_NAME1=Nokia ND&L_NUMBER1=32768924&L_DESC1=Nokia Mobile-an EBay item
&L_AMT1=25.00&L_QTY1=1&L_EBAYITEMNUMBER1=32768924
&L_EBAYITEMAUCTIONTXNID1=7225687004&CHANNELTYPE=eBayItem
&ITEMAMT=50.00&SHIPPINGAMT=3.00&HANDLINGAMT= 3.00
&AMT=56.00&CURRENCYCODE=USD&ALLOWNOTE=1

Response [successResponseFields]&TOKEN=EC-2HX34015EC629990M