I am pretty new to ecommerce and am having a rough go of it. After a lot of research and reading, I decided to start with paypal IPN. It sounded good, after all, as they say, users don't need a paypal account to checkout. But in real life, paypal does so much to discourage paypal users from credit cards that the whole thing frankly seems like a joke. To wit: ... if you have a paypal account, you are forced to log in and use it rather than simply checking out with a credit card, as doubtless many people would prefer. ... once you are forced to log in to your paypal account, it is difficult to use a credit card. At best, you click the tiny "other funding options" link at the bottom of the page, assuming you have 20/20 vision. At worst, if you have a balance in your paypal account large enough to cover the current transaction, you are simply not allowed to use a credit card. At all. Most people, including myself, are not reassured by "paypal protection" (especially considering they aren't a bank) and would much rather rely on credit card protection when making a large purchase. I am pretty unwilling to go without credit card protection for any purchase over $100 and the items I sell usually cost more than that. In short, I think that paypal merchant services border on unusable right now, they do so much to discourage the use of credit cards. I can only imagine what my shopping cart abandonment rate is from forcing users to jump through all those hoops. I don't mind paying higher fees from a more user-friendly processor; my problem is that people have created relatively inuitive php classses and scripts to interact with paypal IPN without having to adopt a huge shopping cart like OSCommerce which I definitely do not need. Can anyone recommend a good payment processor for small business that has a large enough user base so that a php-based "API" is available for sending and confirming transactions without having to go the whole hog with a piece of shopping cart software. ETA: it seems that a lot of the paypal alternatives mentioned here require customers to register and set up an account with them instead of checking out (moneybookers, right?). I really think this is a bad idea from the user POV.
I don't think it's that big a deal that you have to login to do payments. In fact, there is a reaso why Paypal is used way more than any other Online Payment processor.
Well it depends how many of your customers are willing to pay only through paypal. If not, then I have a credit card script that can help you.
Well, you don't need to fund your paypal account if you do not want to. I have my paypal account with zero balance for some time and I still use it to make purchases with my registered credit card. Paypal with the registration just provides an additional layer of security because the account holder has to be verified. Well, you could always use a credit card payment provider as your primary payment solution and paypal as an alternative for those who want to use it. It works well that way.
You don't have to login to your Paypal account to make a purchase. Just click on the "I don't have a Paypal account" (even if you do) and it will go to the credit card entry screen. You could put a notice on your site that indicates that if the customer wishes to use their credit card, to not login to their account first. I had a customer that didn't want to use her Paypal account because she wanted to use her credit card for airfare miles. I told her about this and she was happy. She had no idea you could bypass the login.
simple - give the customer an alternative... i'd have both paypal and something like 2checkout on the site then... easy enough?
Actually, no. If they recognize your credit card because it's associated with a paypal account, you must log in and pay through paypal in order to check out. And once you do, they'll try to keep you from using your credit card as described above. Anyone who does business or gets some income via paypal is going to have money in their account -- like me. And when you do, paypal stops you from paying with a credit card. I'm moving to 2checkout ... but why would someone even want to offer paypal, then?
Because as soon as I see 2checkout instead of PayPal - I move on (aka - lost sale)... Unless I REALLY REALLY need something - otherwise, PayPal is great for getting those "Heck, I don't need this, but $15 via PayPal - why not!" sales.
Well, I would say provide as much options as possible, you have nothing to lose. Once in a while I do have some balances in Paypal which I want to 'get rid off'. Being a non-American, I am subjected to 1 to 2% conversion charges by my Credit Card linked bank for making purchases in US dollars so if I can save, I don't see why I shouldn't.
I offer 2 payment methods - Paypal & Authorize.net. I have made purchases with my credit cards and bypassed the login and have had no problems.
Stormpay if I read correctly can only be used for payment for items in their auction. I don't believe you can use it for any other purposes.
Accept online payments with StormPay.com! August 5, 2006 Accept online payments: StormPay.com allows it's members to instantly accept online payments. Your customers do not need to register a FREE StormPay.com account to make a payment at your website! StormPay.com offers the tools you need to be successful. Simply log into your StormPay account and click the "Merchant Tools" tab found on the top header bar. There you'll find easy forms to create "Buy Now" buttons for your website. Did you know that StormPay.com offers a variety of services for both webmasters and consumers? They are as follows: 1. Put "Buy Now" buttons on your website to accept electronic payments; 2. Set up recurring subscription payments; 3. Free Email service; 4. Free Online Auction listings; 5. Free Webmaster Tools; 6. Safe and easy deposit and withdrawal options; 7. StormClix - Earn money for clicking ads, or place your own ad for high traffic; 8. StormPixel Ads - Upload your image and link for only 10 cents per pixel - displays for 1 year; 9. Mass payments - Allows you to quickly and easily pay commissions to thousands of your affiliates with a quick click of a button; 10. StormPayges - Free hosted webpages. Sell your product or service on StormPayges. Easy editor does all the work; 11. NEW - StormPay Directory- If your website accepts StormPay as a payment method, you may list your site or service for free in the all new StormPay Directory. 12. NEW - Coming Next week! StormHits Get crazy hits and visits to your website with the new StormHits Traffic Exchange! StormPay.com is proud to announce that once again, we've been able to lower our fees structure. Effective midnight on October 12th, 2006, (U.S. CST) you'll be able to send money for free, and receive money for a maximum transaction fee of only $1.00 per transaction - regardless of the amount of payment received. That's right, receive a payment of $100 and your fee is only $1.00. Receive a payment of $5,000 and your fee is STILL only $1.00! The fee charged is the lesser of 2.9% plus 39 cents or $1.00. The MAXIMUM fee you’ll pay is only $1.00 Sample Fee Structure Payment Amount Received Fee Charged $5.00 2.9% plus 39 cents = $0.54 $10.00 2.9% plus 39 cents = $0.68 $20.00 $1.00 Flat Fee $100.00 $1.00 Flat Fee $1,000.00 $1.00 Flat Fee $2,500.00 $1.00 Flat Fee $5,000.00 $1.00 Flat Fee StormPay.com is home to FREE online auction listings. Online auctioneers can list their goods for free! No listing fees, and no final value fees! StormPay Debit cards available for only $14.95. Withdraw funds from your StormPay account directly to your StormPay debit card. Use your debit card at your local ATM to withdraw cash from your card disbursed in your local currency. This option is great for U.S. and International members alike!
Think you are worrying abt the minority and minor stuff.. Most users don't mind paying from funds in their paypal account (when their credit card is linked to paypal) and then top up later with their credit card if necessary. If you can run Paypal on your site, why wouldn't you use it when Paypal is still the top epayment system. Many merchants in many less developed countries cannot use Paypal and would be damn happy if they can. To remove Paypal would eliminate large number of potential customers (100 million Paypal account at last count) which is not a clever move from a business standpoint. Further 2checkout needs merchant to pay a fee ($40+) and only covers Credit card users and not Paypal users. Paypal is to online payment what Google is to search. You just cannot ignore Paypal.