For a sneak peek, read all about it on our homepage blog.

Originally posted April 1, 2008

UPDATE FEB. 14:

All current applicants have been accepted and should have received an email with instructions. Please let us know if you have not yet received your invitation or have any questions about this beta.

We’re still looking for more beta testers, so please let us know if you’re interested in participating.

1. Click “Buy Now” button on supplier’s site.
2. Complete purchase form on 2CO’s site.
3. Return to supplier’s site.

Here’s what you need to know about this single page purchase routine beta:

• It can currently only be used with intangible products.
• It may be used with any parameter set (PNP or third party cart).
• It uses a custom purchase routine, so you must edit your purchase links to use it.
• There are no account-level settings, so it does not appear in your 2CO admin panel.
• It may be used for all products or only those you select.
• You may use it on your entire site, or only a subsection.

If you would like to participate in this beta test, please provide the following information in an email to singlepagepurchase@2co.com:

• Your Supplier/Vendor ID Number
• Your Name
• Your Website URL

We will begin responding to approved beta testers with the necessary information later this week.

Because this is a beta test, features will change without notice and providing feedback is highly encouraged.

2Checkout is not liable for any losses that you may incur from use of this feature during the testing phase.

• Vendor Purchase Logos have returned. If you have already uploaded your logo, your customers will now see it throughout the purchase process.
• A new parameter, skip_landing, has been added. If set to 1 it will skip the initial landing page of the purchase routine. If there are options on the products it will cause an error and redirect to the landing page.
• The Auth.net cart product description has been changed to match that of the 2CO cart descriptions. This is the text that is listed below the cart/product details. It used to read “Vendor site Auth.net purchase…”. It now reads “Vendor site cart purchase…”
• The “Continue Shopping Button” now works as desired when there are no items in the cart. Order of Precedence:
  1. return_url parameter. – This is used first, if not present go to 2.
  2. Referrer – the referrer is used 2nd, if this is not available go to 3.
  3. URL – The main URL on the account.

There was also quite a bit that could have been better at release time and we are working to bring the pieces that fell short up to the level that you expect them to be at. The first week we were all firefighting and getting what was most noticeable cleaned up first. Now we are settling down into a period of maintenance. I am going to be doing my part by patrolling these comments, purchase comments posted elsewhere and most importantly scrounging around in our bug tracking system. I want to keep lines of communication open and for my part I will be here posting at a minimum once a week to keep anyone interested up to date on things that we are doing for purchase.

Please post your feedback directly in this thread.

Things to know before you start
================================

1 ) At this time our available data set is limited to a single vendor in this area. Therefore, if you attempt to use your own links you will get a parameter error displayed. This is because it cannot actually find your vendor ccount. YOU MUST USE THE VENDOR# PROVIDED BELOW. You may make your own links if you’d like, but the vendor number must be the same.

2 ) This beta site points to our test networks for authorizations, therefore, charges will NOT BE REAL, you will NOT BE CHARGED, NOR WILL YOU GET PAID FOR THESE ORDERS.

3 ) Along the lines of #2, because of the test network, not all payment methods will be able to actually authorize a sale. BillMeLater and Amex for example have specific test data that is used on their test network to produce specific results. We cannot release this test data for your use, so expect authorizations to fail with these payment methods.

4 ) In addition, there will be times when a payment method is simply not suitable for a long-term beta setup. ATM Direct, for instance, does not have a permanent beta location and cannot be “spoofed” due to the client server nature of the application. When this situation occurs, these payment methods will be disabled.

5 ) Cookies MUST be active for this page to function correctly.

Example Links:
===========================

Use these links as the basis of your tests. You may make your own if you like but keep the same vendor number.

** Base
https://beta.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase
https://beta.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase?sid=208364

** Third Party Carts.
https://beta.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase?sid=208364&cart_order_id=504&total=1.00&c_prod=1,4&id_type=2
https://beta.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase?sid=208364&cart_order_id=504&total=1.00&c_prod=1&id_type=2
https://beta.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase?sid=208364&cart_order_id=504&total=1.00&c_prod=1mall1,5&id_type=1

** Product Based.

https://beta.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase?sid=208364&product_id=1&quantity=1
https://beta.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase?sid=208364&product_id=1&quantity=1&product_id1=3&quantity1=2

** Recurring Product.

https://beta.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase?sid=208364&product_id=23&quantity=1

Points Of Interest:
===========================

– The checkout pages have a new look to them. Give us your feedback on them.

– The format of the emails have changed slightly, you will not get the vendor confirmation emails in this specific trial, but you will see the customer confirmation email.

– A lot of content has been removed from the pages in order to make it leaner. In some cases that we’ve tested, helper content was removed. If you believe that certain content should be added back in to assist buyers, please let us know.

– We would also like some feedback on the email format. We have been tossing around the idea of making HTML/Text/Multi-part/etc. email messages. In order to preserve the functionality that was there, we stuck with text only essages at this time. Please give us your feelings on changing this format for both the vendor & customer confirmation emails. (Also, of note, if you want them to be different, say so; i.e. Vendor emails are text, Customer emails are multi-part.)

– Third Party Cart Parameters have had a lot of functionality added with respect to the c_prod parameters and their display. Test them out, let us know what you think about the way they display and show in the emails.
– Take a look at the new flow and information collection, look at both products with shipping and products w/o offer any advice on improving the flow that you’d like to see.

Things that are currently being added to the page
=================================================

– There is a payment method already available for use, but it cannot be used in beta or demo mode.
* ATM Pin-Debit is available in this checkout page.

– There will be 2 more payment methods added during this beta.
* A paypal solution for international buyers.
* A new payment method available to certain geographic locations, FXSource.

– Breadcrumb navigation links, to step backwards.

– Navigation links in the summary section, to step backwards.

We have redesigned our purchase routine. It has had a significant facelift and
considerable “under the hood” work done to it. Everyone that has worked on this
project is proud of the way it has turned out; it’s sleek, professional, robust
and fast. We want to share it with all of you. We do understand that the
purchase routine is an important component of your business and we want to
release our changes in a way that is best for you. This is where these forums
and our new beta sandbox come into play.

You are probably asking yourself “what is the beta sandbox?” I am glad you
asked. The beta sandbox is our purchase routine made available to you before we
release our changes. The beta sandbox will have a full working version of the
new purchase routine for you to use however you want. Look it over, make some
test sales and even take a shot at trying to break it.

From now into the foreseeable future whenever we have changes for our purchase
routine we will post the changes to the sandbox three weeks in advance, these
changes will be accompanied by a forum thread in which in which you can post
your comments about it. After a two-week trial period, we will be closing the
specific forum thread. At this time, Angelo and I will gather up and review the
feedback we received. We will typically review this feedback within a day or two
of closing the post.

This will give everyone that is interested a chance to evaluate our work and
comment on it. We encourage you to check it out then return here to tell us what
you think. In exchange for your efforts, Angelo and I will read over all the
comments you post here and make a list of them. We will try our best to satisfy
every request and listen to every suggestion. During this time, we will be
taking action on the feedback provided. In the cases that we can’t, we think
it’s only fair that we post a response explaining our reasons to the community.
I believe that having this open dialog will yield positive results that will
benefit our company and yours.

We look forward to hearing from you.

~Angelo & Brandon