Google Checkout is now live

and merchants don't get customer email addresses or cc info

[robsnell]

Google Checkout is now live and I just signed up. Hey! I wonder if Google Checkout will work with all my Yahoo! Stores?

[checkout.google.com...]

A few things I noticed while signing up:

At first blush, it looks a whole lot more like the back end of Yahoo! Store than like PayPal (to me), but I don't use PayPal as a merchant bank.

Last month's AdWords spend defrays your credit card percentage on GC orders, so it's like getting a 20% rebate on your advertising.

The Google Checkout ICON will appear by your Google AdWords ad, not your organic search, which separates editorial from advertising.

Your customers' credit card statements will show the charge from Google + {Your Business Name}.

Merchants have to post shipping and returns policies as well as URLS to your FAQ and policy pages on your own Google Checkout pages.

Google doesn't share customer info (email / credit card numbers) with the merchant so shoppers may feel more comfortable shopping online.

There are all kinds of links to things like the HELP section and a GOOGLE GROUPS that don't work quite yet, but I'll poke around a bit more and see what I can see.

More in a bit. Things just got a whole bunch more interesting in E-commerce-ville, folks!

Rob Snell
(Somewhere in rural Mississippi)

[Mr Bo Jangles]

and, unfortunately, for sellers it is ONLY available for US residents & companies based in the US.

This might take a long time to expand to the rest of us.

[robsnell]

Wow. I've already gotten 2 orders! A few random things I've noticed so far:

• The Google Checkout cart is pretty smart. As soon as you start typing in those digits, GC knows what type of card you're using and grays out the other card types...

• Google Checkout won't let you (a shopper) order from yourself (a merchant). If you're like me, you probably have more Google Accounts and Yahoo! IDs than you have fingers and toes.

• The more I think about the Shopper Privacy protection angle, the more I like it. I mean, how many merchants have my email address and credit card info by this point? I've been shopping online for 10 years or more now.

• I don't think Google isn't trying to wipe out those thousands of shopping cart companies. I think Google is thinking bigger than that. If GC can integrate with EVERY shopping cart, it's just one more way to pay (like PayPal).

  As long as sales processed through our Yahoo! Store and Yahoo! Small Business got their REV-SHARE (ouch!), Y! didn't care WHO we used for payment processing (PayPal) whether or not the Merchant Bank had a competing cart/checkout.
  

There's a good article in today's ]New York Times [nytimes.com]

[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 11:13 am (utc) on June 29, 2006]
[edit reason] fixed long url [/edit]

[larryhatch]

Big question:

Would I have to be an Adsense or Adwords google client to use G-Checkout?
Eventually I plan to sell some software (no time soon).
I don't want or need AS or AW. -Larry

[robsnell]

Hey. If you want to see what the ICON by your AdWords ad is going to look like, check out this 1.5 minute clip (or I have a screenshot on my blog).

[video.google.com...]

The shopping cart icon is MUCH SMALLER than I thought it would be, and it's the same color as the URL (green) so it doesn't stick out that much, but I bet those ads get higher click throughs (and hopefully) conversions...

Rob

[robsnell]

Larry,

I think all you need to use GC is a Google Account (like Gmail) and either a Federal ID number or a Social Security number.

Rob

[ideavirus]

Sad to see that International sellers cannot yet use it as someone else already pointed out. I just signed up for an account to notice only purchase history as my option. Hmm.

Google... when r u planning to open it up for international sellers?

Thanks

[davezan]

Google... when r u planning to open it up for international sellers?

They'll likely do that after a couple of months of "testing the waters". It shouldn't be surprising if that's the case.

[larryhatch]

"I think all you need to use GC is a Google Account"

Thanks Robsnell! I hope you are right. The alternatives seem highly unattractive. -Larry

[nondual]

looks great, but I agree with the other posters. Let's see support for international sellers too

[Brett_Tabke]

> "I think all you need to use GC is a Google Account"

which one. I have atleast 4 that won't sync. Now we need G-Password to fix the G-Account nightmare.

Looks like it is %2 + 20cents a transaction. That amounts to a significant increase over PayPal for us. (currently at 1.7 for world sellers and that is kicked back via debit card and money market participation...eg: costs us zero to use payapl)

[Mr Bo Jangles]

%2 + 20cents a transaction

But it's significantly less than 2CO - and that's all that matters!

[running scared]

From NY Times article mentioned above.

Google's decision to give free transaction processing to advertisers has the potential to disrupt its carefully cultivated electronic auction for ad placement.

Is this likely to cause a major issue?

Is the AdWords discount expected to remain in place or will it simply be used for a period to get merchants using it?

[dreamache]

I'm assuming there will be no support for recurring billing?

[eWhisper]

which one. I have atleast 4 that won't sync. Now we need G-Password to fix the G-Account nightmare.

That's been on my wishlist for months and months now (I won't go on another rant - but effectively, it's pretty much impossible for me to use any of Google's services/mail/calendar/etc).

Any idea how this works with MCCs? With the spend for the entire account count towards the spend for reducing checkout fees?

[blaze]

Wow -

"Google AdWords will be able to process, free of charge, transactions that add up to 10 times the dollar amount of their AdWords spending, "

From cnet.

That's really gotta hurt PayPal. They can't compete.

"Google Checkout will handle only payments of one cent or more--not micropayments for things costing a fraction of a cent, Kamangar said"

Heh... interesting. Use this as a micropayment system as well... I wonder how long that min transaction will be just one cent.

Certainly would be very cool if they can keep that up .. finally get micropayments (sort of).

"Though analysts were dubbing the product a "PayPal killer" before launch, Google executives have dismissed that notion. "We think this is a very different type of product," Kamangar said. "

Hah! Are you telling me that they won't add person to person payments if this catches on? Please!

[blaze]

Actually, it's interesting, I wonder if they'll add Google Checkout as an option for international merchants to pay off their google bill.

Given that only a certain percentage of my users will use google checkout, I'm pretty sure it'll just barely cover my adwords spending.

This way, they can get around all the problems with issuing cheques internationally, etc.

[pageoneresults]

For every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free through Google Checkout. For example, if you spent $1,000 on AdWords last month, this month you can process $10,000 in sales at no cost. The more you spend to promote your business through AdWords, the more you save on transaction processing fees with Google Checkout.

If you exceed your free transaction processing for the month, or you don't advertise with AdWords at all, you'll only be charged 2% plus $.20 per transaction.

We're surely going to give it a try. The above makes it very enticing for my portfolio of clients.

Don't worry PayPal, we're not going to be changing anytime soon. But, PayPal has this "Setup PayPal Account Stigma" that many still believe today. It's been an issue for all of my clients using PayPal. Your past still haunts you in some instances. ;)

[willmullis]

Maybe I am missing the obvious but I cannot figure out how as I merchant I can accept Google payments. I signed up but everything I see is for purchasing and not selling. Any help?

[Brett_Tabke]

Will Google have an easier time of controlling fraud that other ecommerce titans do? I just finished reading the PayPal wars, and it is a fascianting to read about the runs that various organized crime took at the majors.

> I won't go on another rant - but

Why not - if we can't signup and/or use their service, then don't they deserve some barbs?

[ShinyShoes]

I was so excited about Google Checkout, thinking their lower transaction fees compared to Paypal..

Paypal: 1.9% + $0.30
Google: 2% + $0.20 (plus if you use Adwords, for every $1 you spend on it, they process $10 free of charge).

However, Google Checkout won't allow subscription sites of any kind like newspapers, and so on. It also won't support the adult industry.

I guess this is how they managed to negotiate with the credit industry such low ammounts (porn industry and subscription services generally have higher chargebacks).

However, this is a real shame, as they leave out a very large industry: news/subscription sites. I understand them leaving the porn industry out.. but newspapers?!

I hope this is just the "initial phase" and they are pressured to accept subscription sites like Paypal.

What do you guys think?

[pageoneresults]

What do you guys think?

I think they need some time to test the core product first. Once they do that and build their userbase, I think the other features will come in due time. Since this is one of their most notable products, they need to do some real world testing first and make sure the foundation is solid. ;)

[farmboy]

Wow. I've already gotten 2 orders! A few random things I've noticed so far:

Since you have some experience, I hope you won't mind responding to a question or two.

After a customer pays, is the customer automatically directed to a specific page on your site to complete the transaction, get further information, etc. or does the customer end up on a Google page and have to click to get to your site?

If the customer has to click, is it obvious to the customer? I've always had a problem with PayPal payments of customers not clicking through because they don't make it obvious. (I know PayPal claims to have a solution for this, but it doesn't work so well)

Also, suppose I sell apple-flavored widgets on one site and cherry-flavored widgets on another site - can I set up different "landing" pages for post-payment even though I have only one Google Checkout account?

Thanks,
FarmBoy

[farmboy]

I wonder if there is the possibility Google would add an affiliate component - I send someone to your site who purchases via Google Checkout and I earn a small fixed amount or a %?

FarmBoy

[MonsterCEO]

For Sellers go here:
[checkout.google.com...]
and here
[checkout.google.com...]

[LifeinAsia]

Potential sellers should first visit [checkout.google.com...] to make sure they can even use it.

The list is pretty restrictive and will prevent a lot of people from using it. Okay, I can understand some restrictions:
- body parts
- adult goods & services
- child porno
- drugs & drug paraphernalia
- fake IDs
- weapons

But they also prohibit the same high chargeback items that most CC processors also refuse:
- gambling
- prepaid goods
- prescription drugs
- travel

[Brett_Tabke]

I was so excited about Google Checkout, thinking their lower transaction fees compared to Paypal..

Paypal: 1.9% + $0.30
Google: 2% + $0.20 (plus if you use Adwords, for every $1 you spend on it, they process $10 free of charge).

You forgot:

1.7% for paypal world sellers, and bonus money of 4.7% on working capital. Not to mention the 1.5% cash back on debit card purchases. Trust me - unless you spend a hundred k on adwords, it would be tough to beat paypal in the real world.

Or is Google going to give a dividend on cash setting in your payments account?

However, like Rob said, this has little to do with Ebay and everything to do with Yahoo.

How long will the AdWords bounty last? 2-3 months? I bet it is under 4.

[pontifex]

The IPN integration is not very simple... i need at least 3 days to come up with a PHP class, which can handle that...

I too was very excited about the service, but right now I pay 5 cents + 5% with paypal for sales below 1$ ... that is the micropayment option paypal has!

I expected Google to provide a PHP or Perl example script (which I have not found yet) and a nice micropayment feature, which is very important for downloadable goods <$5 (e.g. MP3).

All in all, not the bang I expected!

2 cents,
P!

[poster_boy]

I'm querying keywords related to the participating merchants, but the logo has rarely (so far) shown on their ads... are there specific criteria driving which keywords get the logo?

[john_k]

My first impression is "okay, the level 2 integration looks comparable to a PayPal integration."

My second impression is "holy crap - Google is REALLY amassing a huge amount of data about buyers AND sellers." I always thought the AdWords conversion tracking was too much information to share. (so I never used it) This blows that away. Now they can get a very detailed picture of sales volume down to individual line items and companion purchases. And they can match that with buyer demographics, and combine it with your competitors' data. Throw in browsing and search behavior tied to each sale. The temptation (or sound business sense) to leverage this information and push into whole new markets and/or squeeze whomever they wish out of business will be huge.

I plan to take a look at the APIs and utilize the sandbox to build a working connection. However I will wait before going live with it. Part of me hopes the whole endeavor fails. Call me paranoid, but it is just too much information for any one company to possess.