Is Apple checking the purchase of physical goods during the application approval process?

Question

If I create an application that:

• Facilitates the purchase of physical items
• Does not use IAP to pay for these items.
• Uses a webview pointing to the app’s website to complete the purchase.

Is Apple expected to be able to complete the purchase using our web view, or will they be satisfied to make sure that they can put physical items from the application into the cart and see that they have been transferred to the web view?

Answer 1

An update for those who are watching and who may be faced with this in the future. Our application was primarily approved by Apple and may have taken no more than an hour.

Detailed

Preventing any future changes to Apple's policies or how they affect the moon phase; Starting from the date of this answer, I’m sure that Apple will start purchasing in-app:

• If you sell digital content, you must use IAP
• If you sell physical goods, you cannot use IAP

TL; DR

Apple’s requirements, restrictions and testing of applications with physical purchases are no more stringent than without.

Answer 2

From the recommendations of the review: https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html#purchasing-currencies

Hmm, this may be a little gray area, there is

11.3 Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the App will be rejected 

If they translate IAP as “in app purchase,” that is, buy something “inside the app.” You might be better off redirecting the user to "Safari" to complete the transaction, rather than "in the application."

Also:

 11.13 Apps that link to external mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the App, such as a "buy" button that goes to a web site to purchase a digital book, will be rejected 

Again, not exactly how you say you sell physical goods.

I would say that this is not an outright rejection based on those, but it is risky ... Try and let us know?

Answer 3

The key point here is that you are facilitating the purchase of a physical product, not something intended for use in the application.

Based on the fact that Fandango allows you to buy movie tickets in the app without using the Apple IAP mechanism, I think you're in a fairly safe place. Again, as noted, the Apple approval process can sometimes be quite volatile, so ymmv.

I would suspect that at first you can refuse, but if you protest and indicate this, you are likely to succeed. This can save you in a discussion around the world if you note this very noticeably in the comments section of the reviewers when submitting the application.

Answer 4

The question is not about the desire or will not be approved by the application, since it includes the integration of payments, but rather

Apple analysts awaiting end-to-end payment process testing will work as intended?

Although I can not give a definitive answer as to whether they will be or not. I would suggest that if this is the functionality of your application, then expect it to be tested. Therefore, it may be worth adding some dummy elements at the lowest prices (which you can tell them) in case they want to test. This is their money.

If you turn it around - if they have not tested the functionality, then applications that may not work as expected, or be buggy, will be approved, and this will be tantamount to unhappy players.

As long as you inform them of the dummy elements and that they are present only to verify the approval (and will be deleted at the end of the approval process), then you will be protected if they decide to test or not.