Forum Moderators: buckworks
Does adding Paypal really increase more sales?
If yes, what sort of percentage are we looking at?
Anybody has a pre and post paypal experience to see the percentage difference?
I will have to make big changes to my company setup to include Paypal.
I am not sure I understand what you mean here?
I added Paypal this holiday season and would say about 5% of my sales were through the paypal option...question is if I would have gotten them without Paypal...
Hard to measure sales since it could have been merely a convenience factor however its a safe bet that if they use PayPal Checkout vs Payments Pro (the credit card side) then you probably earned business you wouldn't have had otherwise.
HOWEVER paypal does offer "throw away" debit/visa numbers for paypal accounts so using the paypal process isn't always a sureway to gage paypal success since some people do that.
Its a good way to leverage a new market of people familiar with the service and as long as it doesn't confuse your existing customers it opens up a new realm of possibilities.
If you sell industrial supplies, there may not be as much demand for PayPal as if you sold children's clothing.
For some people, PayPal is their "mad money" account. They feel free to spend whatever is in their account, whereas they might hesitate to spend on credit or checking account debit.
About 9% of our customers choose to pay via PayPal. Hard to say what percentage of them would pay via another means if available.
PayPal and Google Checkout are really easy: No need to fish out a wallet, no need to type in a long credit card number.
So, if it's something a customer has been thinking about and decided he needs they probably would not be put off by a lack of PayPal, and will be willing to go get that CC#.
On the other hand,if it's more of an impulse purchase, they may decide to buy it "later" (maybe elsewhere, maybe never).
For some people, PayPal is their "mad money" account. They feel free to spend whatever is in their account, whereas they might hesitate to spend on credit or checking account debit.
This is a good point.
When I thought about this it's exactly how think of my own Paypal account. I usually have a couple of hundred pounds in there that I just forget about. If I see something that I want and I can pay for it with Paypal it almost feels that I am getting it for nothing.
This is silly I know but that's the way I think about it and I am sure there are many others the same as me.
As our next e-commerce system has both built in we're going to see how well they work.
Amazon's rumored to be developing one too, and I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook goes for it too - they're rumored to be developing their own payment processing for the network and this could potentially extend off their network.
Anyway, the reason cited for sales increases are:
1 - quicker, simpler checkout process, you save time checking out and can purchase when you don't have your credit card on-hand
2 - privacy. Especially with smaller, lesser known sites, when you pay with pay pal you protect your credit card information as it's only shared with paypal, not several different merchants.
A third incentive could be the special promos and discounts PayPal and Google checkout offer, especially over the holidays (free shipping or $10 off etc)
- From Internet Retailer news item.
I dont like it, to me PP on a site says 'This site is run by a 12 year old'
Isn't that a bit short sighted? There are millions of sites using Paypal, none of them are run by 12 year olds and many of them are industry leaders (Think Webmasterworld as a good example.)
I think you may be underestimating the part that Paypal plays in today's ecommerce systems.
I'm in no hurry to get rid of it either. Anybody with a Paypal account is already geared towards buying stuff online. You don't set up a Paypal account unless you're an online consumer...
Anybody with a Paypal account is already geared towards buying stuff online.
Another good point.
I don't like it, to me PP on a site says 'This site is run by a 12 year old', I tend to steer clear of sites using it
You gotta love the irony of posting that on WW.
Paypal still says to me that the vendor isn't reliable enough to get a "proper" merchant account.
You mean like Brett? ;)
It may be a peculiarly English view but I tend to agree with Essex Boy. Paypal still says to me that the vendor isn't reliable enough to get a "proper" merchant account.
Hmm.
We take PP, VISA, MC, AMEX, Discover, wire transfers, online checks, Optima, and a couple of others.
So tell me, how do we go about getting a "proper" account?
It may be a peculiarly English view but I tend to agree with Essex Boy. Paypal still says to me that the vendor isn't reliable enough to get a "proper" merchant account.
It simply is not regarded the same way in the UK - it's essentially wedded far more to ebay and the like, and so that should be taken into account.
