PayPal or an Alternative -

[bradical]

Hi,

I own and operate a website that sells downloadable software. It is shareware (trialware) that requires the delivery of a registration key upon payment to unlock the software.

We've been using Paypal as our sole payment collector. We do alot of sales (several thousand dollars worth per day) and sell hundreds user licenses per day. Because of our growing business demands, I'm thinking of moving to a different, non Paypal digital delivery/ payment system. I've been considering Digital River.

So, a couple of questions:
1)Has anyone noticed a spike or decline in sales as a result of moving away from Paypal?

2) Do you think that a certain percentage of buyers are turned off by seeing Paypal as our payment collector and therefore do not buy?

3)Any thoughts on Digital River?

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

[new_shoes]

bradical,

We used to offer both "normal" credit card options and paypal, side-by-side. But when our credit card processor started being unreliable, we removed that option and only offered paypal.

The result was hardly noticable. It seemed that every client which would have used the normal cc option, just used paypal in stead.

As a customer I have used Digital River recently and there was just one thing I didn't like: it might not be clear to the customer who they are having a business relationship with - you or DR. If I were you I would try to buy some software from a company which uses DR, just to see what the experience is like.

[Corey Bryant]

Welcome to the forums bradical!

If you are in the United States - you might consider getting a merchant account to help you save more money in the long run

-Corey

[bradical]

Thank you for the welcoming! I appreciate the advice.

My needs are such that I need an integrated payment/digital delivery model, so a straight merchant account wouldn't work unless I developed an in-house delivery system.... But I'd much rather outsource that part of the business. Currently, we use Payloadz, which has done a great job for us but I fear that we're outgrowing their capabilities.

I've always wondered wether or not people are actually turned off by being directed to paypal to make a payment instead of actually paying on our website. Thoughts?

[surfin2u]

I have clients that think that paypal is "strictly for eBay junkies and not for serious business" - to quote one. I continue to use them and also signed up with payquake as an alternative option - they offer a nice arrangement for low volume users, who might later get busier.

[EstoreSeeker]

there are other options available for. all you have to do is going through all of them one by one with your specification in mind...and then decide in the end which one to choose.there are obviously 2co and then ikobo,greenZap,stormpay etc.hope u find something useful soon.

[Corey Bryant]

Actually Ikobo has stopped their merchant account processing (again)

-Corey