Overview

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Setting Up
Your Accoun
t
Accepting
Payment
s
Managing
Your Accoun
t
Handling
Payments,
Withdrawals,
& Refund
s
Using Advanced
Merchant Tool
s
Getting Hel
p
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Instant Payment Notification (IPN)
PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification (IPN) service immediately notifies your
backend server with an HTTPS post whenever you receive a payment. You can
use IPN to integrate PayPal payments with your website’s back-end operations,
helping you save time, keep your inventory updated, and automate fulfillment.
With IPN, you can:
• Customize your website’s response to customer purchases in real time
• Track customers through the notification’s pass-through variables
• Automate your fulfillment operations
• Store transaction information in your own database
GOOD TO KNOW: Using IPN requires custom programming by your web development team to
interface with a back-end database. Alternately, some third-party vendors offer products to help
you manage your PayPal payments. To learn more about IPN and the many other developer tools
offered by PayPal, go to the PayPal Developer Network (PDN) by clicking on the “Developers” link in
the footer of any PayPal page.
Here’s how you get started with IPN:
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click on the Instant Payment Notificatio
n link on the Merchant Tools tab.
3. You’ll be taken to the IPN Center where you can view a demo,
read the manual, and sign up for IPN.