Thread

If you were building an e-commerce website for a client, how would you feel (or, more to the point, how do you think the website’s users/customers would feel) about using PayPal as the (only) online payment service on the website?

(a) In terms perception/brand/image?

(b) In terms of actual user experience?

[Background: it’s a retail website (business-to-consumer), UK based, mostly UK customers.]

If implemented correctly, paypal is fast and secure. I use it very often on ebay and other sites.

But to only rely on paypal… What about other methods? How often do UK customers use a CreditCard? Are there directpay methods available in the UK? (Like dutch IDEAL, pay with a bank account)

hello aidehua,
paypal may be fine and good but, it also has a really high chargeback rate sometimes.
especially if you sell goods or services marked as highrisk merchant, then this could backfire on you.

i would go with authorize.net. we recently changed out development plans at work to use authorize instead of paypal and though i wasnt the developer who implemented it i heard from him that it is a lot nicer to work with than paypal.

I think it depends on the product you are selling. Unless you are on ebay, where paypal is the payment gateway of choice.
I switched to authorize.net myself and am very happy I did. My sales are up.
That being said I know of ecommerce sites that only accept Paypal and do very well, however the items are in the range of $30 and below.
Paypal fees are pretty high, in my opinion.

ps. I still uses paypal if a client requests it thought, its good to keep your options open.
Good luck!

For all of the sites I’ve developed, I used paypal coz it’s easy to integrate to my static sites..

PayPal has been just an ass to me sometimes with a lot of people charging back when goods/services were done or sent, that’s why I moved to Western Union.

paypal has zero customer service, but it is very easy to set up and is widely accepted.

For a small website with a low amount of transactions it is ideal, but for anything bigger I would go for a merchant account

Sometimes PayPal can turn off potential buyers… If you are going wholesale (versus retail) I would force your decision and push you into a Merchant Account (w/ Authorize.net or LinkPoint) as a solution.

PayPal and Google Checkout are decent, but as noted above they can be painful when dealing w/ Customer Service.  And chargebacks - forget about it with PayPal/Google Checkout. You’re much more likely to lose when either of those services are employed. We’ve had great chargeback response on our referred merchant accounts.

Also, lose AmEx. They charge exorbitant rates (fees) to accept the card, and 99% of the time will side with cardholder in any dispute. Stick w/ Visa/MasterCard and add the Verified by Visa and MasterCard Secure Code programs - makes an unbelievable merchant friendly setup (and lowers your rates too!)

If you are doing larger transactions use something like Authorize.net or Braintree.com. Paypal is great for donations or smaller ecommerce stores but not great for larger projects.

Paypal is easy to integrate and of course it’s free to maintain.  On the end-user side, however, paypal is a PITA.  Having your account verified/deactivated, being sent to a 3rd party site that forces you to leave your site.  It’s pretty stinky on the whole.

I haven’t played with Google Checkout yet, but for any decent e-commerce site you should be using something like authorize.net and save your customers headaches.

Maybe I"m clueless, but I got no complaints re PayPal