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- Really rethink/redo/dump the anonymous address data for MC api and provide the actual address. You can keep the personal information private at this point if you must, however the street address (to complete a full address) is critical for real/true shipping calculations :
- service availability
- residential vs commercial surcharges
- addressing accuracy (inaccurate addresses incur correction charges from carriers)
- at this point, the address doesn't tie into a personally identifiable piece of information anyway
Otherwise, MC api for shipping calcs is moot/wasted effort. It's a much better experience for buyers and merchants to simply ask for a zip code upfront (prior to submitting cart), perform all shipping calcs at merchant site (negating possible default calc issues), and come up with the same result and then POST the cart to GC (essentially flat rate shipping).
Carrier calculated shipping is only an option to sellers that meet it's critical assumption of one package per shipment/order.
- Notification API - > GC fees...was really surprised this data isn't currently in it....
- Ability to add guid (aka some merchant-private-data) to financial order commands (charge, auth, refund) which must be subsequently passed back in their respective Notifications. This is essential in uniquely identifying each financial order request.
Update: Maybe extending the use of merchant-private-data to Order Processing API is actually the answer...sounds least complicated, already in use......
A previous post touched on this, but it should ideally be expanded to cover all financial order requests (not just the charge request as discussed in the post).
UK Api Related
- Implement Coupon/Voucher Code API for UK merchants, as this is a major feature missing from the Google Checkout implementation in the UK.
Gaining Critical Mass
I'd suggest Google Checkout gains more critical mass by supporting the Euro. Even for UK and US sellers this can be useful.
Launching in more European countries should also be a priority.
The more ecommerces begin using GC this the more feedback and the more great suggestions will start pouring from everywhere!
Security
"Currently it's easy to edit the price (editing the source code with Firebug for example) and to send the modified price to the Google Checkout service. I did not find a way to solve this although I am new to GC. But this should not even be a possible weakness!"
- The above is addressed by:
- using Server to Server POST, available for both HTML and XML APIs; or
- digitally signing your cart, available for XML API only
It would be good if a setting to "only POST with authentication" (in addition to the existing "only signed carts") is made available......
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