Purchase physical product from iPhone app without Apple in app purchase

Question

Can an iPhone app allow a user to purchase a physical product (say a pen or a mouse) from inside an app, without using Apple in app purchase?

Is it allowed by Apple?

If yes, do you know any API that supports this?

Thanks AJ

There are apps like Ebay etc. so I don't think that would be a problem. Don't think there are any specific APIs for it though... — Jakob Borg, Jul 28 '10 at 17:02

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 28 '10 at 17:26

11

You are not permitted to sell physical goods or services using 'In-App Purchasing' since the goods purchased via this method must relate directly to the app using them.

You are free to implement your own payment handling system for selling physical goods though - for instace the PayPal API

If you already have a website for this purpose you could even forward them to that to take the payment - though this may reduce the quality of the user experience greatly.

answered Jul 28 '10 at 17:26

davbryn

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Many thanks for your response. For the second option you suggested, if required, is it okay to redirect the user to the website in UIWebView – AJ. Jul 29 '10 at 11:07
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Is there a link to apple.com that outlines this? – dalore Mar 20 '12 at 13:57
Can we implement our own API for transactions? – Saqib Saud Aug 24 '12 at 12:38

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 30 '12 at 11:11

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Yes,

It is allowed to sell physical goods related to the app in-app on iOS and Android. Here is one interesting startup that handle logistics - http://www.sellinapp.com (for physical items). They use http://www.ZooZ.com as a payment gateway.

Hope this helps.

edited Apr 30 '12 at 11:11

Perception

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answered Apr 30 '12 at 06:49

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

Yes, but you can't use Apple payments to do it. All of the apps use their own payment processor to do it (Paypal, Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, etc).

They each have API's -- there is some code for PayPal in this question

Has anyone implemented the PayPal API through a native iPhone app?

You cannot use these mechanisms to deliver a digital good to the app (features or content), but you can use it for physical goods (as you wanted to).

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

From Apple In App Purchase we can't able to purchase physical items or services, allowed only Digital Goods and services. Ref: https://developer.apple.com/in-app-purchase/In-App-Purchase-Guidelines.pdf
See 5th page.

Other than Apple , many third party gateway are there to do.

Purchase physical product from iPhone app without Apple in app purchase

4 Answers4

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