In-app purchase for physical goods - forbidden or not recommended?

Question

Is selling of physical goods via Android in-app purchase forbidden or just not recommended?

I know that there is a problem with shipping, but one can easily make final price increased by shipping costs. What if there is not shipping cost?

Please share your experiences with me.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Here's a quote from In-App Billing Overview from developer.android.com:

You can use in-app billing to sell only digital content. You cannot use in-app billing to sell physical goods, personal services, or anything that requires physical delivery.

Answer 2

I believe that in case of virtual goods there is no need to confirm that the good was received. Payment processed immedeatly and there is only little time to rollback it. In case of phisical goods, sell could be rolled back if good was nor delivered or it is of improper quality and so on.

So in principle you could agree to sell somethind using in-app payment, but google doesn't want to deal with it.

Answer 3

Another similar question was asked a couple of months later. It says that a physical good can be sold using alternative payments method than Google's.