ive been selling alot on ebay stores lately and i want to increase sales. Im willing to try out anything that can increase sales. For the last year i have only been accepting paypal payments only. Im wondering if i allow checks/money orders will my sales increase dramatically? dont most people have a paypal account these days? whats your opinion? thank you
I am an eBay Powerseller and accept Paypal, all major credit cards, U.S. money orders, and U.S. checks. Very few of my customers pay by money order and none by check. For those that do pay by personal check, I do not ship the item until the check clears. In addition, there is the delay and cost of putting a check in the mail to me. I suspect that this is the major reason why so few orders are paid this way. So, to answer your question, accepting these forms of payment may give you a slight lift in sales, but it will not open the floodgates.
PayPal is by far the safest and most efficient way to sell on eBay. Money and check orders can work, but a lot of the time they take a really long time to clear and then there's just a whole bunch of stuff with shipping issues and all that. I would definitely recommend just sticking with PayPal.
i figured that it wouldnt, i also feel its a pain for me (more email communication, going to the bank, watching it clear). thanks for the reply
I'm guessing your talking about upgrading your paypal account so you can accept money orders/checks. I've been selling some stuff on eBay, and I've been accepting checks. All though I don't think anybody has ever paid me a check, most people just pay me through their paypal account. So my advice to you would probably be, yes. You should upgrade, all though your sales will not increase dramatically, it makes it easier for the buyers to pay you just in case they do not have paypal. That's just my advice.
another thing i should mention is that all my auctions are buy it now. so another thing is, i never have to worry about someone not paying for the item. if i accept money order/checks then i always have to be aware if that person paid me through the mail. it just seems like more of a hassle and more to watch out for. i am hardly ever messaged if i will accept a money order so i guess it wont make to much difference for me. then again i run a www site with all the same products and i accept money orders through there. so i will just direct them to the www store.
Telling your customers that you can't accept the mode of payment that's convenient for them is a minus for customer satisfaction, that affects your sales. Try to consider accepting major credit cards.
If you accept Paypal payments, you can actually accept credit cards, as well, because Paypal will accept credit cards on your behalf, if you set it up that way.
In my opinion is a bad idea.You see most people who choose to sent a checks, or money order are a like to be scammer, put it that way why would someone would want to sent a check..one thing, take more time to get the products. second pay to send the check, realized if someone can write a check they definitely have a checking account mean have debit card why someone want to go to all that hustle.I used to sell on Ebay,...Believed sometimes you can't make the different between a real or fake one..and the scammer would leave a negative feedback for for taking long time to shipped out the item.
Set21 has a good point about people that want to pay by check. But there is another one, too. eBay is filled with CLUELESS buyers. Some of the most clueless either do not even know how to set up a simple Paypal account or are so afraid to buy anything over the Internet because they are so intimidated by it that they want to send paper checks. These same clueless customers are the ones who have trouble putting in their correct shipping address, break items when opening the packaging, and generally find themselves walking up hill both to and from a destination. I am pretty tired of selling to these idiots and that is one reason why I have cut way back on my eBay operations. As an aside, I am also an Amazon Storefront Merchant and find their buyers to be a level above the average eBay buyer (though you can still find idiots anywhere, of course.)
I agree with on that jrbiz..but most of time with those "CLUELESS buyers". you thinking sometimes you wasting your time
The idiot buyers are only a real problem due to the crazy feedback system that both ebay and amazon rely on. Giving idiot buyers the ultimate word on how a transaction went is like giving a machine gun to a monkey; there is always a lot of crazy damage done. I have killed myself to have an impeccable feedback record (over 10,000 positive feedbacks on ebay with not a single neutral or negative feedback), but it has been a brutal process when you are dealing with a buyer who is illiterate and just plain incapable of understanding simple logic. Again, that is why I have cut back dramatically on my efforts on both sites.
It couldn't hurt to ad money order as an option. Some people only pay that way, but most have paypal.