Paypal vs. Google Checkout

Which payment method do you prefer?

  • Paypal

    Votes: 33 67.3%

  • Google Checkout

    Votes: 10 20.4%

  • I'll use whichever is available, makes no difference to me

    Votes: 6 12.2%
  • Total voters
    49
JMan1234 said:
explain?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure I've talked about it on WF before, but it basically comes down to these few things.

1. Have you ever tried to contact Google for support? Now try to contact them when you have hundreds of dollars on the line. Good luck. Not gonna happen. At least PayPal has people you can call on the phone.

2. Want to have customers pay you from other countries? Not in the U.S. - too bad.

3. Like money? Too bad. Say a customer decides to file a chargeback at, oh, whenever the hell they want. Guess what? Google automatically issues the refund no matter what. Nothing you do will get your money back. Basically, if you use Google Checkout, enjoy giving away free shit and getting charged a fee for it.

And that's just for starters.
 


Both if possible. The more options you can give a user for payment, typically the better...provided you present it in a clear, easy to understand manner.

If you have to pick one, Paypal - broader customer adoption, which translates into better conversion rates (at least that used to be the case). I haven't tested it at scale in awhile (about a year) but on a site that was doing roughly $500K in gross sales a month, 12-13% went through PayPal, less than 2% came from Google Checkout and the rest being Visa / MC / AMEX. That's roughly a 600% difference.
 
I would *not* offer both and just offer Paypal, honestly - offering both opens you up to having to deal with subigo's problems, and just gives two potential ways to get screwed... and PayPal processes credit cards without accounts anyways?

If you want to process credit cards independently, get a merch. account and manage it yourself.
 
CHOICES = BAD​

Seriously. Read any marketing book. In fact this very issue is addressed in 4 hour work week. Kill the phone orders for one thing because those will only cause you trouble, especially when anybody ON THEIR COMPUTER ALREADY will order online if that is the only choice you give them. Choose either PayPal or Checkout and stick with it. I would go with PayPal since you already have a merchant account, so really the only reason to offer PayPal is for the people who do NOT want to pay with a credit card (i.e. they want to use the funds in their paypal account). Let's be honest, nobody actually uses google checkout to keep money in. If they do, chances are they also have a paypal account.

So...

  • No phone orders
  • Just PayPal, no google checkout

EDIT: Sorry, misread your first post. I didn't realize you do not have a merchant account. I still go with PayPal though. If both PayPal and Google Checkout can support credit cards, why offer both? Just go with PayPal since that's the one the majority of people actually use and keep funds in.
 
For me a Paypal-only business is a deal breaker.

I'm fine if they use Paypal services only to process my credit card directly. But I will not sign up for a Paypal account ever again. There's always someone else out there who has a similar product and doesn't force Paypal onto me.

I got majorly screwed by Paypal, basically similar to what subigo said about Google. Still out over 500 bucks. And no, I could not get a sensible human to help.

Have used G Checkout without any of subigo's problems for a while, but I realize it has limitations when you sell internationally (I actually sold to Europe and ppl got charged in USD). It's great though if you also advertise on G Adwords as you get lots of Checkout fee credit.

Besides all that, a business that only offers Paypal always comes across amateurish in my eyes. Your own CC processing via merchant accounts isn't that expensive (can even be cheaper than Paypal) and makes you look much more professional.
 
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