eCommerce Tycoon

**witnesstheday** · 04:08 PM

I am about to start a mailorder business, selling a few products from a website. As I am ordinarily in the business of selling advert space not products, to networks, not private buyers, I am afraid I have no credit/debit card taking facility other than my verified Paypal account.

Is this going to be enough? I am aware that Paypal does allow nonmembers to just pay me via their debit/credit cards, and that they will give me professional buttons and other facilities, so I believe I should be okay, but I'm just wondering - do people trust paypal? When they see something online to buy and then go to the buy page and find themselves soon transported to a paypal page, does that lose me sales-closures?

Anybody got experience of this?

**Moxxnixx** · 02-03-2009, 11:12 AM

As an ex-Ebay seller, I've used Paypal for hundreds of payment transactions without issues.
However, IMO, Paypal tends to be more sympathetic towards the buyer...NOT the seller.
You might want to head over to PaypalSucks.com and read some of the horror stories posted.
Overall, I've never had problems with Paypal. But I was a small-time seller. Nothing expensive.

**magicvw** · 11:19 AM

I've never had problems with Paypal either, although I'm also small fry. I have looked around for a better alternative because I find their website counter-intuitive and their commissions are big for someone like me who charges really small amounts, but I haven't found a good alternative.

People do trust Paypal, and it is relatively easy to set up your website with the relevant buttons. Personally, if I want to buy from a website I don't really know and I get taken to a Paypal page, I find it reassuring rather than anything else.

It's free to set yourself up with paypal, so really you don't have much to lose. If it doesn't work out for you and you want to find another solution, I don't think it would be difficult to adapt your pages as it's just a simple case of copy/paste code where you want the button.

**witnesstheday** · 11:43 AM

Cheers. I've heard both good and bad sides from you... that's a good objective picture. I guess I'll start out on paypal and migrate it as soon as it's making good money. I can't use very much investment for it because it's someone else's career and future I'm playing with, and their cash, mostly!

Don't worry Vicky, I'm not really very big - whatever large sums I speak of didn't happen overnight... I think I need to be churning 100s of 1000s per month for those guys to think me big... I'm still in the same boat as the majority! I'm just in habitual P.R. mode... in our society you have to put out an image of strength in order to be taken seriously!

Using paypal ought to be okay for me since I'm only going to start out by moving a very small number of items in my test run. I don't intend to invest more than £50 to begin with and then I'll see if I can make a good profit on it. Still not sure what actual product. Was thinking about DVDs, but then realised that dvds are selling very badly in the present climate, what with the explosion of online vid.

**stevepmd** · 02-03-2009, 12:38 PM

Hello,
Well put it this way the largest retailer in the world Wall Mart now takes paypal.

**joerandom** · 02-03-2009, 01:33 PM

Looks like you've already gotten some excellent advice. The first thing that comes to mind is that folks trust Paypal...but that's also because the site almost always sides with the buyer. There are also tons of paypal-related phishing scams, I just think due to the site's ubiquitous use in the world of ecommerce. I will say that in light of this they've taken steps to safeguard the consumer, for example implementing extended validation ssl -- so paypal is a good way for a new shop to get acquainted with encryption and the technical side of buying and selling without making that large of a temporal or financial investment. It's mostly due to the lessons learned with paypal that I've been able to navigate through the waters of things like EV...and magically disappearing refunds!

**magicvw** · 02-03-2009, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moxxnixx

You might want to head over to PaypalSucks.com and read some of the horror stories posted.

Ouch that stuff is scary

- I never heard of this going on before. I am off now to empty my paypal account just in case.... should have done it ages ago but this is good motivation!

**Moxxnixx** · 02-03-2009, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magicvw

Ouch that stuff is scary

- I never heard of this going on before. I am off now to empty my paypal account just in case.... should have done it ages ago but this is good motivation!

That's a good idea.
I've always emptied my account when it reaches a certain amount...just in case.
I never let it get higher than 100 dollars.

**blue-dreamer** · 02-03-2009, 03:51 PM

Paypal is a perfect optional payment method for clients sites. I usually advise my clients to offer at least two methods of payment, one via a payment gateway such as Worldpay, Protx etc, and the second via Paypal.

Not only does this offer the customer a choice but it can have a dramatic effect on sales. I've seen sites gain a 25% increase in sales when they added Paypal as a second option.

Some folks hate Paypal, others won't use anything else - it pays to cater for both!

**witnesstheday** · 02-03-2009, 04:11 PM

Smart plan blue-dreamer. Since I know the name Worldpay very well, and a really 10000% credible source recommended it to me way back, that's my second option, for now.

The thing is I personally am someone who is put off by paypal, as a buyer. Give a choice of traders, one with paypal, the other with a more brick-and-mortar-looking payment system, eg worldpay, I would always go for worldpay. Good thing for your suggestion... naturally it'll have associated costs, but everything does.

**chrishirst** · 02-03-2009, 04:40 PM

WorldPay are good and owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
By no means are they cheap to setup (£200 setup, £30 a month + transaction charges), So you need to doing a fair bit of business to offset that.

**witnesstheday** · 02-03-2009, 04:47 PM

Cheers for the warning. I'll have to factor it into my business plan because I definitely want to go with them. Maybe not during the test run, though.

**magicvw** · 02-03-2009, 04:49 PM

Anyone know anything about the paypal alternative touted on paypalsucks.com - Real Merchant account:
http://www.merchantinc.com/

**witnesstheday** · 02-03-2009, 05:01 PM

Dunno - using a competitor's name in the title seems too vindictive/needlessly-aggressive to be a reliable provider. Just my guess.

**chrishirst** · 02-03-2009, 05:30 PM

How about offering Nochex I have used these on a couple sites without any problems.

Also PayPoint (Mobile phone topup, Gas & Electricity card payment processors) offer a payment gateway (£10/month) if you can get a Merchant ID from your bank

**witnesstheday** · 02-03-2009, 06:06 PM

Nice. I'll do Nochex with Paypal for starters and add WorldPay once the business model has proved itself capable of covering the costs.

I'll leave other options for now because until the business proves worthy of a few 1000 pounds investment I'll just run it as part of my own business. Then when it's ready, my partner will set up a new business, with bank account, tax file, etc. And that'll be when we get the merchant ID.

cheers again

**Kasala** · 02-04-2009, 04:04 AM

whatever, paypal is very popular now.

**The-Pixel** · 02-04-2009, 04:30 AM

Hello,

Paypal is okay. I've had friends that lose claims that really should have been for them. It by far is the most popular way to exchange money online. If you are gong to get into buying and selling items online you must have a Paypal account.

When I work with clients I offer other alternatives to make payment such as: MoneyBooks, Google Checkout and even personal checks mailed to my place of business. Having one main payment option is not in your or your companies best interest.

**skootch.kagan** · 06:15 AM

In my opinion you should check out OneTouch. Compared to other e-transaction sites their commission is smaller and it is very easy to set up a page with them. Their website is www.onetouchpurchasing.com

**redspin17** · 02-09-2009, 05:48 PM

I've had good service with paypal, mostly as a buyer (a few ebay seller transactions). The only thing I need to be careful about it setting up the right account to pay for my transactions. It used to be set up to my savings, which can get a bit confusing.

Paypal seems to have the highest credibility for verified payment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moxxnixx

However, IMO, Paypal tends to be more sympathetic towards the buyer...NOT the seller.
You might want to head over to PaypalSucks.com and read some of the horror stories posted.

Very interesting, and I'll take that advice and check it out. It's always good to know what others have endured so you can avoid the possibility of making the same mistakes.