I’m developing a Marketplace App of the courses for the Learning Purposes and we don’t have any kind of control over uploading of Physical content( CDs, DVDs, Hard Copy of the book, etc. ) or the Digital Content (Videos, Audios, Ebooks, etc.) on the courses uploaded by the seller for the consumers to purchase.
So could you please suggest what kind of payment method should we use apart from In-App purchases?
If we are bound to use In-App purchase then how should we implement it in our App and also we have following queries to clear our doubts for the monetization of the app.
Could we add n number of courses dynamically having digital and physical content with In-App Purchases implemented? In our app the courses limit is not fixed, it can be 5000, 10000 or 100000.
Will it be possible for the sellers to provide any kind of discounts for the existing courses?
How could we manage(addition or deletion) the courses dynamically with In-App purchases?
I researched on google but no solution was found. Some solutions were found on StackOverflow but we can't find proper guidelines for our queries. Thanks :)
This seems to be partly an opinion-based question, but with regards to IAPs there are a couple of important rules:
1) For all digital goods, you have to use in-app purchases, otherwise Apple will not approve your app. There are different approaches to your problem. You could either let people buy credits with IAPs and then dynamically create the store on your own. Then you have 100% control over discounts etc.) Or each product will be its own IAP, but this will create lots of "overhead" as you have to get approval for each IAP.
2) For physical goods you are not allowed to use in-app purchases. There you have to find a 3rd party payment provider.
Related
I know that IAPs can be used only to sell "digital" products.
But I want to offer a subscription in the app, that will both have new features available in the app (more photos that can be uploaded) and a discount on a physical book in my bookstore.
Is it considered as a digital and physical product combination, or just a digital product?
Is that possible to do through Apple IAPs?
And if not, can you plz suggest a way to bypass the restriction?
If I switch to credit card subscription (using Stripe to handle it), wouldn't Apple ban my app for trying to sell both digital and physical product?
Thanks.
Also, in the most expensive plan, I want to offer free shipping of books for those who have the top subscription.
Among the questions that I've checked, this one seems close, but does not give an answer.
You cannot sell physical items through Apple's IAP. If your app provides services outside of the app itself, you can use your own payment processing within the app.
For instance, the Fandango app allows the user to purchase movie tickets through their app. Because of this, they are allowed to handle payment processing for buying movie tickets using their own mechanism instead of Apple's IAP.
I would suggest using Apple's IAP for digital purchases and a third party for physical sales.
I have developed an iOS app were user can buy Audiobooks which enables stream and download within the app. I have integrated Authorize.net payment gateway. It got rejected by Apple saying
11.2: Apps utilising a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected
So now I want to integrate Apple's IAP. I am very new for IAP. My question is I am having hundreds of books with different price ranges (eg, $1.00, $2.99, $0.99, $5.00 etc..,) the price is coming from server it is dynamic. It is not possible for me to create price tier for all this.
Question 1: How to implement IAP for dynamic pricing?
Question 2: If I am having 4 books with same price tier, Purchasing one will unlock others also (with same price)? If so how to avoid this?
Firstly you have to use the price tiers although you can change the price tier for any given product it must be changed using the iTunes Connect website or the API for the same. It is possible to bulk load product and change prices through the API but new in-app purchases require approval.
Secondly you can have different products available at the same price. Each book should be a separate in-app purchase approved by Apple. That way each one you buy will only give them that one.
An alternative approach might be to sell consumable tokens that can be converted into a book for the appropriate value if you have a mechanism for handling that and managing what they own in accounts that you manage. You might be able to use IAP to purchase the consumable voucher which is instantly and transparently converted to an actual book in your system. I don't know if this approach would meet with Apple's approval though. With this approach you may be able to switch price tiers quicker and more dynamically than you could with Apple's separate products.
We sell minutes to call other countries, and we want to allow users to make payments within the app. These minutes have a cost to us from wholesalers. Using in-app purchase will dramatically increase the cost to the user if Apple takes a 30% cut.
1 - "You must deliver a digital good or service within your application. Do not use In-App Purchase to sell real-world goods and services." (Source)
I'm not sure if this applies to me or not. Can anyone shine some light on this?
Only Apple can give you a definitive answer, but the way I would interpret the paragraph quoted below, you have to use IAP for purchasing credits, and you also have to be able to use those credits directly within the app (i.e. make phone calls):
Apps that use IAP to purchase credits or other currencies must consume those credits within the application
Section 11.2 of the App Store Review Guidelines says this:
Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected
If the minutes you are selling are consumed by an iOS app (any app, not just the app in which the user buys the minutes), then this rule applies to you.
If you are selling minutes that are added to a calling card that the user physically possesses, then you might be able to bypass Apple's IAP, but you'll have to either submit your app or talk to someone on the review team to be sure.
What you're selling is a digital service - connectivity. Your IAP product is similar to credits in most games in available on the store.
The real-world goods and services they prohibit are things like you'd carry out of a store in a shopping bag, or having somebody carry that shopping bag. They don't allow the sale of tangible things, only electronic. Goods for sale should be transferrable between two different devices.
I don't think you can avoid in-app-purchase for what you're trying to deliver from inside the app.
I think your case is much like Skype iOS app. You will need to go through in-app purchase for your app as the credit will be used to make calls via app to other countries.
While aware of the appstore guidelines, specifically IAP usage.
Our company is developing an app that would offer downloadable content [music, video, etc]
There are several challenges but one of the first is IAP on iOS.
After reading all the docs and questions [on stackoverflow], I am 100% sure we need to implement Apple's APIs to process payments and we cannot use our own.
But there exist several apps currently available on the appstore that offer products without using IAP.
one of the examples is goDaddy application where you can use the iOS app and buy a domain using a CC without IAP.
I would like suggestions if possible on how the above can be accomplished?
Put very briefly:
If the purchased item is to be 'consumed' on the device, such as music, extra levels for a game or whatever then iAP must be used. If the purchased item is not consumed on the device then iAP does not have to used. For example paying a gas bill, buying something on eBay, buying dvds or physical books from amazon; or to use your example a domain name from Go Daddy.
I'm building kind of a mobile marketplace on which users can offer and buy services that are only valid for a short time (for example, 5 hours).
Is there a possibility to implement a in-app payment method (in iOS/Android) for that? The problem is that in "normal" in-app purchases you have specific, pre-defined goods or services that are bought in the app. In my marketplace, user can offer lots of different services themselves (various products, prices, etc.) so specific products wouldn't help.
Thanks in advance and kind regards,
Clemens
I can only speak for the iPhone
And as you have figured out already, it is not possible. You have to create all your in-app-purchase products in iTunes Connect, and they all have to be reviewed by apple.
And if you mean physical goods when you say "various products" then it isn't allowed anyway.
IAP is only allowed for stuff that is used inside your app.
This answer is about the iOS app store, from what I understand the Android marker is basically the wild west.
The obvious solution is to sell people "tokens" of some sort in the app, then let them trade those tokens to other users for their products/goods/services. Then you need a way to redeem people's tokens for cash, presumably keeping a modest cut "for the house". I don't see anything in the App Store TOS that would outlaw that.