New FPS Marketplace Widget and More FPS Features

The new Amazon FPS (Flexible Payments Service) Marketplace Widget gives developers the ability to create a widget which can move money between two other parties, with complete control of fees paid to the developer. Money moves from buyer to seller, and the seller pays a fee to the developer. The fee can be a fixed amount and/or a percentage of the transaction.

This new widget is ideal for creating shopping carts, e-commerce platforms, and marketplaces. Prior to the introduction of this widget, developers would need to make multiple calls to FPS and to juggle several tokens to implement the same functionality.

Once you are signed up for FPS, you can use our interactive builder tool to create the HTML for a Marketplace Widget in minutes.You’ll need to write a bit of server-side code to insert the proper request signature into the HTML, but that’s about it.

We’ve also added some new features to FPS itself and to the existing Pay Now Widget:

• API-level support for the fee mechanism used by the Marketplace Widget.
• The Pay Now Widget now supports “reserve and settle,” allowing funds to be reserved on a credit card without making an actual charge.
• Both widgets now support an Instant Payment Notification (IPN) feature. An HTTP POST call is made to a third-party URL each time that a payment or refund is processed.
• A new Refund call automates the process of generating refunds.
• Additional transaction details, including the buyer’s email address, are now available to sellers.

— Jeff;