Here we're gathering some of the frequently asked questions that can come up during the publisher implementation of Tipser.

General

Q: Can we sell digital products with Tipser?
A: We do not support it directly. You must create a Woocommerce account and integrate with us, i.e. becoming a merchant as well. This will require extra tech work on your side. It will also enable the possibility to customize the delivery email as the end customer will receive an email from both Woocommerce and the standard from Tipser.

Q: Can we sell subscriptions with Tipser?
A: Tipser does NOT support recurring payments, which means that it can only be a pre-paid subscription, i.e. where the “product” is a x month subscription priced at $y, which is paid immediately in full, at point of sale.
Once the subscription period has ended, Tipser cannot handle subscription renewal unless the subscriber goes and purchases the product again at point of sale. In other words, Tipser cannot continually bill the consumer and only conducts a one time transaction.

Q: Would you add further payment methods upon request if supported by your payment processors?
A: This is evaluated on a case by case based on client and demand. Please reach out to our service team if this is of interest to you.

Q: How do the order emails to end customers look? Is there any customization possible for adding different fonts, colors etc (making it more personal)?
A: Receipts and order confirmation are sent from Tipser. There are limited options for customization in the Tipser standard product.

Q: In what kind of architecture do you have your product database?
A: The product database is on MongoDB which is a document database (noSQL).

CMS

Q: How can I use Tipser with my CMS?
A: If you’re working with just CMS we would recommend you to use the Tipser Script solution. It requires no specific technology to be used and requires only the insertion of simple HTML and Javascript to get going.

Q: Which CMS do you support?
A: The product is very flexible and our goal is to support any CMS that accepts HTML-tags and Javascript on any page. If this will be a problem for you, please let us know.

Implementation

Q: How long does it take to implement Tipser?
A: This depends on what you want to achieve and what kind of technical resources you have. Our E-commerce elements can be used straight out-of-the-box, however if you want to make the most of the possibilities we recommend you to take your time. The Tipser solution is very flexible and versatile, which enables your tech team to build a variety of solutions fully blended with your current look and feel.

Q: Which implementation to use (Script / Elements / API)?
A: The answer is depending on a number of factors. If you use React as your front-end technology then Tipser Elements is the selection as it gives more control over components and behaviour than Tipser Script.
Tipser Script is a simplified and more approachable version of Tipser Elements and is recommended for our least technically advanced clients e.g. if you’re only working with a CMS. If you prefer to build your own components you’ll consume our REST-API to populate them. An API-integration is also suitable if you’re building a native application. You only need to use our elements for the checkout.

Q: What do I need to set up to get started with the testing?
A: See our checklist.

Q: How can I integrate Tipser into native applications?
A: You can embed our elements in a native app by using WebViews. For the best experience we recommend you to build your own components (shopping cart, product tiles, buttons etc) and then use Tipser REST-API to populate your components. For this integration you would only need to use WebView for the checkout part. Thus creating a better end-user experience.

Q: Do you provide a Search API for implementing within our CMS or marketplace?
A: The short answer is no. Not at this moment. We have a Search API designed for internal use only. We’re discussing developing an external API in the future which could be consumed for above use. For now we would recommend the Product Feed API for this kind of use case.

Q: How does checkout happen using Tipser API integration?
A: As of today we do not offer a checkout implementation via API. For this part of the integration you’ll use our checkout element.

Q: What are the advantages of migrating from old versions of Tipser to the latest version of Elements or Script?
A:

  • Faster UX for Publishers.
  • Powerful ability to customize styling of shopping experience (using widgets).
  • Fully embeddable shopping experience (non-popup UX).
  • New features, most notably new payment options (Apple Pay & Google Pay) (US)
  • Web-hooks to measure clicks on products & articles, CTR , CV > prerequisite for Web Analytics
  • V3 has a slightly smaller bundle size and we plan to make it even slimmer!
  • V3 is fully US-market ready, unlike V2
  • We've taken effort to make V3 easier to use than V2 (more intuitive props/configs, removed unused or unnecessary components)

Q. Does Tipser Script affect our website performance?

A. Loading a JavaScript file on a website can affect the browser performance mainly in the following cases:
If the script is loaded in a blocking/synchronous way. Asynchronous loading is preferred at the bottom of the page to prevent any experience degradation. It could also be beneficial to do conditional loading only on page(s) templates where the script is meant to be executed.
If the script is executing rendering blocking actions, the performance can be degraded as rendering actions below the script execution will be delayed, and hence the user will experience a poor browser performance. Having a good script execution order based on UI rendering order is crucial, and can only be controlled by the site owner.
The bundle size in the case of the Tipser script should not affect the user experience if it’s loaded asynchronously at the end of the page, as it will execute asynchronously as well as at the end of the execution cycle. The browser will then be cache this and it won't be downloaded again. As the bundle is required to execute any Tipser related components, the bundle will be needed one way or the other, so at this stage in order to have all the e-commerce functionality we can’t expect the bundle size to be greatly reduced any time soon. Also, we should keep in mind that images downloaded on a page are normally bigger than the bundle size and need to be downloaded for every browser render as new images come into view.

High-caliber website owners typically have performance requirements on loading times. There are some ways to limit the impact of Tipser script on your website. One of them is: to lazy load elements/script in the background, and display product cards etc by API calls. This will make general loading of pages quick, but add some delay when interacting with e-commerce elements of their website, which is generally considered acceptable.

Updating product descriptors

Q: Can I update the data/metadata for the products that I use?
A: Yes, product information can be adjusted either within the the portal or via the API. In order to update the metadata for products, you will need to contact us to provide access to this feature.

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Legal changes when updating product information

When adjusting the product information and displaying it on your surface for purchase, you have a legal responsibility to ensure that the product description and information of the product matches. In products that contain potential allergens and this information is removed, the publisher of that product will be liable for any adverse effects/claims.

Compatibility

Q: Does Tipser support SPA (Single Page Application)?
A: Yes, both Tipser Script and Tipser Elements support SPA. The solution is fully dynamic.

Q: Does Tipser support AMP?
A: Tipser is fully compatible with AMP. However since AMP lacks JS support the publisher is required to redirect the user from the article to a product page, which won’t be AMP compatible. The redirect could be a simple link or a publisher built product tile invoking our REST-API. The new page will open the modal window (based on a Tipser product id passed in the URL) and allow the user to complete the checkout.

The embedded product page could also be used if that is preferred. It will however require some more work. The embedded product page requires its own space on the page which is not the case for the modal window as it opens as an overlay.

The above flow is just a recommendation to describe how AMP can cooperate with Tipser.

Q: Which payment processors do you use?
A: Stripe (UK, US) and Klarna (EU).

Q: Which payment methods do you support?
A: We support major credit cards and Klarna. We’ll also implement support for Apple & Google Pay shortly.

Data Sharing

Q: How does data sharing happen? Customer generated data, can they make use of it in the form of analytics etc.?
A: Referring to the point above, data collected under a JCA can be used for any purpose in compliance with the GDPR.

Q: Can we send newsletters via Tipser? Do you have an API that supports that?
A: We do not operate a newsletter service but almost all our publishing partners send newsletters with calls to action referring to Tipser products in their own pages. The user data collected under JCA can be used for this purpose as long as the use of the data (and email marketing) is compliant with GDPR.

Q: How can I extract data for analytical purposes?
A: There are currently three ways that you can extract data collected by Tipser:

  • Purchase Data API
  • Using the Tipser Portal
  • Connect to Tipser Analytics to track certain events on your page

Q. I am now ready after using Tipser’s testing environment to now Go-Live on Production. What should I do?
A.
Replace the dev POS ID with the production POS ID and also change configuration from ‘dev’ to ‘prod’.
Replace Product ID and Collection ID from dev to production