Instant payment notification (IPN) is a method for online retailers to automatically track purchases and other server-to-server communication in real time. This allows
E-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...
systems the opportunity to store payment transactions, order information and other sales internally. IPN messages can represent payment success or failures, order transaction status changes, accounting ledger information and many others depending on the
payment gateway
A payment gateway is a merchant service provided by an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes credit card or direct payment processing for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. The ...
.
The payments industry is an evolving market, technology like IPN and
instant payment
Instant payment (sometimes referred to as real-time payment or faster payment) is a method of electronic funds transfer, allowing for almost immediate transfer of money between bank accounts. This was in contrast to the previous transfer times o ...
are now used in the retail market and in the domestic sphere, but they are expected to evolve into the corporate,
business-to-business
Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) refers to trade and commercial activity where a business sees other businesses as its customer base. This typically occurs when:
* A business sources materials for its production process for ...
(B2B) segment and cross-border space.
How it works
IPN is used by merchant to automate backend functions related to: the end user account creation, order tracking, customer and merchant notifications related to acquired services.
When an E-commerce system requests a resource from a payment gateway, like a new
invoice
An invoice, bill, tab, or bill of costs is a commercial document that includes an itemized list of goods or services furnished by a seller to a buyer relating to a sale transaction, that usually specifies the price and terms of sale, quanti ...
or bill for goods, the request must contain a
URL
A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...
endpoint representing a script or program to handle returning notifications. IPN messages are then sent to the retailer's E-commerce system by HTTP
POST
Post, POST, or posting may refer to:
Postal services
* Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries
**An Post, the Irish national postal service
**Canada Post, Canadian postal service
**Deutsche Post, German postal s ...
as the resource is updated by the gateway.
The IPN handler usually performs standard actions like validating the message, updating inventory levels in the E-commerce system, notifying customers of successful or failed payments, etc. Depending on the retailer's business requirements and the level of sophistication of the E-commerce software, some or all of the IPN messages can be handled or ignored.
Server-side scripting languages such as
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...
and
ASP that power most E-commerce systems are
event driven and make no distinction between a user-generated event or a machine-generated event. Utilizing this fact, IPN messages facilitate the coordination of the order state changes between the ecommerce system and the payment gateway handling the order.
See also
*
Mobile commerce
The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless techno ...
*
Comparison of shopping cart software
The following is a comparison of the features of notable shopping cart software packages available. Some such shopping cart software is extensible through third-party software components and applications. As such, the features listed below may n ...
*
Digital economy
The digital economy is a portmanteau of digital computing and economy, and is an umbrella term that describes how traditional Brick and mortar, brick-and-mortar economic activities (production, distribution, trade) are being transformed by the ...
*
Electronic bill payment
Electronic bill payment is a feature of online, mobile and telephone banking, similar in its effect to a giro, allowing a customer of a financial institution to transfer money from their transaction or credit card account to a creditor or ve ...
*
Electronic money
Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...
*
E-commerce credit card payment system
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, or e-business consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electr ...
*
*
Non-store retailing
Non-store retailing is the selling of goods and services outside the confines of a retail facility. It is a generic term describing retailing taking place outside of shops and stores (that is, off the premises of fixed retail locations and of mark ...
*
Online marketplace
An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a wa ...
*
Paid content
Paid content is content on the Internet – such as text, graphics, video and downloads – which is paid for. Paid content is usually copyrighted.
Some internet content has always historically been paid for — until recently there ...
*
Payments as a service
*
Instant payment
Instant payment (sometimes referred to as real-time payment or faster payment) is a method of electronic funds transfer, allowing for almost immediate transfer of money between bank accounts. This was in contrast to the previous transfer times o ...
References
Banking technology
Payment networks
Payment systems
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