Introducing the "Pay Now" Widget

The new "Pay Now" widget builds on top of the base-level payment functionality offered by the Amazon Flexible Payments Service (FPS) to make things very easy for web developers who would like to accept Amazon Payments on their site. Customers can pay by clicking on a Pay Now button or by selecting Amazon Payments as their payment method.

The widgets are really easy to set up and to use.

First, you need to set up an Amazon Payments Business Account. Business accounts are similar to Personal Accounts with the added ability to accept credit card payments. There are also Ultra accounts for businesses which consistently bill over $20,000 per month.

Next, you log in to your Amazon Payments account and choose the type of widget that you would like to create. There are three basic types:

Use the Static Button when you have just a few items and attributes (names and prices) with stable prices. Once you have generated a static button using our web form, you can simply paste the HTML directly into your site.

With this button type, the customer simply clicks on the button and is directed to the Amazon Payments page to pay.

 

Use the Dynamic Button when your needs are slightly more complex. Perhaps your prices or item descriptions change regularly, or perhaps you have lots of different items. In this case, you will generate custom buttons using a bit of server-side scripting, driven by your product database.

Like the Static Button, the customer simply clicks on the button and is directed to the Amazon Payments page to pay for their purchase.

 

Finally, use the Alternate Payment Method button when you would like to offer your users a choice of payment methods. Once again,a modicum of server-side scripting will be needed, this time to specify the available payment methods and the payment amount.

If the customer selects Amazon Payments, they will be directed to the Amazon Payments page to pay.

 

You will receive an email each time a user has made a payment and you can also see the payments by logging in to your Amazon Payments account. you can also use the FPS API directly; the GetAccountActivity function is a good place to start.

You can learn more about the widgets by reading the FAQ. The widgets use the Amazon Payments fee structure.

We are looking forward to seeing these new widgets used in all sorts of creative ways.  Feel free to link to your applications in a comment to this post, or send us an email.

-- Jeff;

Comments

[Colin Percival]

Sounds great -- now, when can we have this available in Canada? :-)

[Demond Jackson]

The technology of Amazon never seems to Amaze me.