Hi,
I'm confused. I don't see how using PayPal Express over PayPal Checkout will save money.
I think PayPal charges the same fees regardless of whether the transaction goes through PayPal standard, PayPal Pro, PayPal Express or PayPal Checkout.
Each API PayPal offers is just a different concept:
- PayPal Standard -> redirects to PayPal for the payment at the end of the checkout
- PayPal Pro -> credit card form during the checkout on the merchant website
- PayPal Express -> bypasses the HikaShop checkout so that it's PayPal handling the checkout
- PayPal Checkout -> latest API which displays the payment form at the end of the checkout. It offers more payment methods, including pay later, has a nicer interface for the user, etc
Using PayPal Express, it means that the shipping methods entered in HikaShop won't be selectable by the user on PayPal's checkout. PayPal has some interface to create shipping fees for their checkout. Similarly, if you want the user to select a delivery date for example with a custom field, this won't be possible since the plugin will bypass the HikaShop Checkout. Also, if the taxes you charge depends on the address of the user, you can't use it unless you can configure the tax rates in your PayPal merchant account (not sure ?). The goal of PayPal Express is to provide a shopping cart where the customer can directly go from the cart module to PayPal in order to make it as simple as possible for them when the shop doesn't need much.
So you need to be aware of this. Because in most cases, it's not PayPal Express you want to use but PayPal Checkout.
Sandbox is how PayPal calls "test mode":
developer.paypal.com/tools/sandbox/