Pay Pal as my Merchant Account

How will cutomers respond if they are redirected to PayPal

[fhaws]

I'm developing a shopping cart with x-cart.

I'm think of using PayPal to accept credit card payments.

Will customers back out of the purchase when they are redirected to PayPal?

[henry0]

Well, the PayPal effect is less heavy than it used to be.
if I am correct you may setup an account in such a way that a new user is no longer forced to go through a zillion yards of red tape and forced fed registration

regards

Henry

[bekyed]

Hmm,

Anyone using Paypal is an amateur in my eyes, get yourself a merchant account and you will look professional, at least the person placing the order will see that you have obviously set up procedures for taking credit/debit cards etc.

If you are serious about your business you need to put this over to your customers who will have hard earned money to spend, yes you will lose lots of customers with a redirect to paypal or anywhere as they are leaving the shop potentially and this is not good procedure.

Ask a few more people to get their opinions, but we run several successful e commerce sites and get very little from paypal transactions.

Bek :)

[Leosghost]

tend to agree with bekyed ..but if you are getting customers from many countries paypal is one of the few ways that they can go through the entire payment proceedure in their own language ...i know from our customers that nothing makes a French customer back out faster than to hit an English language page that wants their credit card details ( even if its on a secure server ) ..the option is world pay ..which is very expensive and recently picky as all hell ...depends on the cash you have and what you are selling ...for example I have had only good experiences with 2CO ..but I have 2 sites which are not "acceptable" in their eyes ..

[henry0]

bekyed I know for a fact that Leosghost is right
also the original question was about PayPal
and many non pro "programmers" will use PP as an user friendly alternative
further PP offers now a sandbox to play with it without using a real CC
Regards
Henry

PS)
LG about that broken wrist?

[phantombookman]

A merchant account does indeed give real credibility.
PP, whilst expanding, is still mainly used by people associated with Ebay.
I sell on many platforms but have never once taken PP outside of Ebay. People may use it if they have no choice but.......

It is also more expensive (in my case) and a great deal riskier to take PP.

People can now get their money back by claiming "not as described" even after 31 days! for example

Regards
Rod

[fhaws]

Thanks everyone for the comments.

I guess I can view my orders . . . and if I see a lot of 'incomplete' orders I can assume that one reason would be the PayPal issue. This would show that people are backing out of the order after they click 'checkout'

PayPal will allow me to test the shopping cart and the business plan with PPC without jumping completely in (i.e., purchasing a SSL, Merchant Account, etc.)

[fhaws]

Phantom, I didn't know that peolpe can ask for their money back a month after the transaction was completed.

[Lovejoy]

I've been using PayPal exclusively since they went online and found very few people object to its use. The ones that do complain will use it(PayPal)when they are informed that PayPal is now owned owned by the largest internet outfit there is (Ebay), the buyer protection policies, and the fact we've processed over 10,000 transactions without a hitch.

[fhaws]

LoveJoy, is your store an ebay store or a regular ecommerce site?

Can you send me a link to your store so I can view the paypal interaction? I might even purchase something. :)

[ichthyous]

In the end Paypal is MUCH cheaper than paying merchant account fees, monthly charges from the gateways and per transaction fees. I was using 2Checkout before Paypal and it was a total nightmare. Since I don't do high volume sales, PayPal woks fine. Yes, it's not as professional looking as an immediate CC payment system, but its extremely secure, no downtime whatsoever, no merchant account needed, and the money is in your acount in minutes. Most of my customers don't object to Paypal...the only complaints I have heard are from some secretaries who are ordering on behalf of their companies. And they weren't complaints as much as whimpering. The comment about French customers and English forms is silly. If I go to a French language web site and want to pay for something I expect a French form, not an english one. English is also the universal language, and any reasonable person shouldn't mind. Also, in my opinion, Americans are the only ones with real money to burn. I get a ton of visitors from Europe to my site and not ONE sale. Europeans do not have the disposable income that Americans have and are FAR behind in using the internet to actually buy things. My company is based in NYC, and I DO get sales from all over the USA. Frankly, at this point I would prefer that the Europeans just stop eating up my bandwidth because they never buy anything.

[elguapo]

Using PayPal is a good alternative for those who cannot get a merchant account. It is not easy to get one, specially if you have a not so good credit record. However, having your own Merchant Account gives you a class for yourself. Using both is great advantage.

[Algebrator]

Here is some actual data (ordered chronologically)

Set up #1
accept CC via merchant account, accept paypal
result : 20% paypal, 80% payment via merchant acc.

Set up #2
accept CC via paysystems, accept paypal
result : no change

Set up #3
paysystems dies (long story), accept paypal
result : paypal doubles (40% or original 100%);
this tells me with paypal only I am losing 60% of
customers

Set up #4
accept CC via 2checkout, accept paypal
result : same as #1,#2

PS 99% of customers US based

[ichthyous]

I can see why shoppers for widgets wouldn't want to go through the hassle of using paypal, since widgets are widely available. What I am selling (my own art) is not available elsewhere, so the choice for the customer is "Do I like this guys stuff enough to sign up for Paypal, or should I keep looking?"...so I'm not sure my situation is at all applicable to most sites. Paypal is simple, reliable and convenient for my needs though.

[phantombookman]

Something I find people talking about now is the problem of the scam PP emails, I know several people who no longer use PP to buy because they have lost confidence, worried etc.

We know that sounds silly but we have to think as customers who can barely operate a computer.

One anecdote to demonstrate the PP effect. I host all my sites in the US, somebody wanted a UK host despite the extra cost, went looking found someone that looked likely, professional site and set up etc.
Decided to go with the only to find they could only be paid via PP or worldpay - rightly or wrongly cancelled. I just had no confidence in a business that did not have merchant facilities.

Also given PP buyer protection and the ease of charging back etc .......

[fhaws]

Thanks everyone for the comments!