Will apple take commission from an app which sells goods from within the app ?

Superman · September 2010

Will apple take commission from an app which sells goods from within the app ?

For eg : A flower shop created an app which is a platform for selling flowers to the public. Will apple take a 30% commission from that ?

Mr Jack · September 2010

Apple will not let you put such an app on the App Store, as I understand it.

Justinmichael · September 2010

Yeah, they're not keen on you selling things out with their store because yes, they do want your 30%. I think newspapers and magazines are currently battling with them over some sort of subscription that works similar to this but for now you're unlikely to get this through the net.

JasonR · September 2010

Amazon and a few others get around this by having a buy button that launches their website in Mobile Safari, where you can sell items without any Apple involvement.

zulfishah · September 2010

You can use PayPal's payment library to do payments for real-world goods from within your app ... no need to go through Safari. Seen a few apps that use this already.

inwhatworld · September 2010

There's a ton of apps that do this already, Tommy Hilfiger, eBay etc. and they're free. Apple sux

frenchriviera · September 2010

Can someone please provide more info here? I am not a developer, but have just started working with a developer (costy) and what we want to develop sells from within. Since the beginning I have said its too obvious, why has no one else done it???
Take an ap such as boat trader (sells boats), the user finds the boat he/she wants to buy and then by a call or email is connected directly to the seller. This is sales? but apple doesnt mind???

barrettj · September 2010

frenchriviera;249580 said:
Can someone please provide more info here? I am not a developer, but have just started working with a developer (costy) and what we want to develop sells from within. Since the beginning I have said its too obvious, why has no one else done it???
Take an ap such as boat trader (sells boats), the user finds the boat he/she wants to buy and then by a call or email is connected directly to the seller. This is sales? but apple doesnt mind???

With the boat trader and ebay example, it is not the app that is doing the selling, it's a service that already exists to help others sell and buy things. The app itself is not selling anything, it is merely helping others sell things.

frenchriviera · September 2010

Thanks Barett,

So if I develop an ap where the business will function via an application, but aids already existing businesses sell thats okay?? What if I charge others for being present on the ap?? i act as an intermediary. Cheers for your help, is there somewhere on the apple store I can read exactly what is NOT allowed?

bignoggins · September 2010

frenchriviera;249616 said:
Thanks Barett,

So if I develop an ap where the business will function via an application, but aids already existing businesses sell thats okay?? What if I charge others for being present on the ap?? i act as an intermediary. Cheers for your help, is there somewhere on the apple store I can read exactly what is NOT allowed?

Yes Apple has posted pretty precise guidelines on the developer site. I suggest reading through those.

Your app is definitely a grey area and pretty risky imo. The only ones I've seen get through are from major merchants (ebay, amazon, etc). So keep that in mind.

wuf810 · September 2010

inwhatworld;248614 said:
There's a ton of apps that do this already, Tommy Hilfiger, eBay etc. and they're free. Apple sux

what a helpful comment

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Will apple take commission from an app which sells goods from within the app ?

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