I posted this to my ebay blog earlier today. Is anyone using Google to accept merchant payments? How does it compare to Paypal? I am currently using the PayPal shopping cart code on my business website Thanks - Joe --------------------------------------------------- It looks like Paypal has some serious competion in the online payment arena, in comes Google. Souce: USA Today - Jefferson Graham Google is offering merchants free use of its online payment service as it squares off against eBay's market-leading PayPal. The Internet search giant introduced Google Checkout in June, with sweeteners such as free ad credits for merchants. In November, it began offering rebates to consumers, $10 off $30 purchases. PayPal quickly matched the offer. On Wednesday, Google ratchets up the pressure by dropping merchant fees through 2007. "I'm thrilled," says Lanny Morton, whose Sportscloseouts.com uses both Google Checkout and PayPal. "The online business is really competitive, and every little percentage helps." Merchants pay a variety of fees to use the services. PayPal charges 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction on sales up to $3,000 a month. Google's fee is 2 percent of the sale plus 20 cents, less if the merchant is a Google advertiser. "Google has the potential to own this market," says Fred Lerner, president of photo print and accessory site Ritz Interactive, which uses Checkout. "PayPal is essentially laying down and letting Google buy market share." Google's consumer rebate can be used many times. The PayPal rebate expired in November, but the company is offering a one-time-use discount to selected customers via e-mail. Some stores may offer extra incentives through either service. EBay had no comment on Google's plans. Benjamin Ling, the Google executive who runs Checkout, says it was not designed as Google's answer to PayPal but as a way to cut down on the steps (registering, typing in credit card and shipping information) needed for consumers to complete a purchase. Once consumers sign up for Google Checkout, they can make purchases with one or two clicks. The company decided to drop its merchant fees for now as a way to induce more businesses to try Checkout. "Once people use our service, they love it," Ling says. Ling says "thousands" of merchants use Checkout, including Toys 'R' Us, Buy.com and Ritz. Google won't say how many consumers have signed up for Checkout accounts. PayPal says it has 123 million consumer account holders. It doesn't disclose merchant account figures. "In a retail sense, using Checkout as a loss leader to get market share works for Google, because they will make it up with more advertising, which is highly profitable," says Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at equity firm Global Crown Capital. EBay, however, has reason to be concerned, he says. "Twenty-five percent of eBay's profits come from PayPal, so any pricing pressure isn't a positive."
I'm looking forward to seeing the two go head to head even more than they are now. This is exactly what PayPal needs right now. I've been a PayPal fan for many years now, but there is certainly nothing wrong with healthy competition. If anything this will mean lower fees for both sites. PayPal fees are very reasonable, but I won't complain if they lower them to stay up with the competition. Google is not a company that PayPal can afford to ignore.
I’ve been using paypal for a few years now and am really happy with their service. I guess a little competition is only good and the important part is that fees have started to drop. In my opinion Paypal charges too much anyway.
Can anyone using google please let me know how they make payments and the timeframe on this? Thanks..
I been using paypal as well for around 4 years, at first you gotta admit they had a bumpy road with fraud tho. but now its a pretty reliable way of recieving funds safely as long as you deal with verified & confirmed address's. I seen google checkouts on buy.com today as well.
oh, just think about the good customer service you receive when your site is banned from Adsense... or when you receive a PR0 penalty... or any other issue you might have with the big G. Anyway I stick to Paypal. Not even considerate G.
Great! At least there will be a fall in the service charges of paypal and probably google as well to keep up with the market leaders... Although I still think that google needs to concentrate on providing both "sending" and "receiving" ability to all those countries they have listed. Currently I think that one can send funds from like 133 countries, but "withdraw" them in USA only. Also if google allows withdrawal by check like they do in adsense, then I think many non-US users will make a switch... Bye
i've had a lot of positive experiences but some really bad ones w/ paypal... had some fraudulent charges filed against me that were false and took FOREVER to clear up that.. lots of documents and validation... my biggest arguement against paypal is that they freeze accounts without warning and without giving you the power to fight it sometimes... They aren't a bank, they aren't a FDIC institution, they are a money sending/payment service.. They settled a big case this year and i'm sure are under lawsuits from other individuals and companies with this type of closures of accounts... I use paypal and will be starting to use google checkout and see how it goes... like the free payment processing so will give it a shot.
I like Google Checkout but it takes longer to get money out. GC makes payments to your bank account 2 business days after a purchase is made. A customer made a purchase on Thursday so Google will not initiate transfer for 2 business days (Monday night or Tuesday?) and it won't get processed into my bank account for approx. another 3 days. So maybe I'll get the cash in my bank account on Thursday-Friday.
Noo, not PayPal! Can we ever forgive Mr G for doing this? I hope Microsoft crush Google, its about time Bill teaches them a lesson.. ^^
I have not used Google checkout yet, but I did sign up for it to see what it was about. I am pretty comfortable using PayPal for the moment, though...