how to take online payments

[davey132]

I am looking to start a website but I am unsure whats the best thing to do to take payment.

The business is selling handmadesnookercuecases which I make myself and volumes are very small. I would expect for the first 6 months maybe 1 - 2 sold a month around 300 pounds takings.

So the question is what is the best option for payment for such small volume and takings?

Many thanks

[APC RoadLink]

PayPal as you can then accept most credit and debit cards, small fee on transactions great for a start.

Andy

[Green Jelly]

I would also say PayPal as there is no set up or monthly fee. Per transaction fees are a bit higher but PayPal is good when you don't know what sales you will make per month.

[WarringtonWebsiteDesign]

+1 for Paypal, you could also explore Google Checkout and Amazon Payments as well.

[zookx]

I agree, paypal is great for testing the water, just be sure to adjust your prices to include their fees.

[webhostuk]

you can also check 2CO,googlecheckout, moneybookers

[shopintegrator]

Hello,

I'd also recommend Pay Pal. It means you'll have no setup cost or no monthly fee with a 3.4% per transaction charge (reducing as your sales volumes increase) on each sale. It gives you the ability to take debit and credit card payments on your site from non-PayPal account holders and accept Pay Pal payments from those who do have a PayPal account.

To go for a full blow merchant account and payment processor will mean a set up cost of a few hundred pounds and a monthly fee around £20 to £30 as well as a 2% to 2.5% per transaction fee. (example figures are approximate as each merchant gateway solution costs vary)

If you are looking for a low cost shopping basket and ecommerce solution that will allow you to easily integrate Pay Pal in to your site with a richer set of store features (e.g. stock control, weight-based shipping calculators, shopper discount codes, in-page basket summary, in-page shopping basket etc.) than the basic Pay Pal 'launch new window' basket solution, please do take a look at our site for more information.

Also, on our road map for this year is the integration of our shopping basket solution with Sage Pay. This means that in the future if your sales volumes make it more cost effective to pay monthly charges an have lower transaction fees, you'll be able to sign up for Sage Pay then simply connect the Shop Integrator ecommerce basket you would already have running on your site to your Sage Pay payment processing account without having to change your shopping basket solution.

[webcreationuk]

For beginning I would also opt for PayPal, but be aware that a lot of users are using only credit/debit card payment option... More than that, you could allow them to opt for a "pay on delivery" scheme?

[rshosting]

Signup with Paypal and get your business started in minutes. Later as you grow you can sign up with several other payment gateways such as googlecheckout etc..

[slogold]

paypal and moneybookers would be good for you to start with

[davey132]

many thanks everyone. :D Paypal it is then. I will do some reasearch about the details.
Is it fairly safe option to go with I mean against fraud?

[ccp consultancy]

paypal is good to start with - be mindful that you will have to pay £20 per month if you wish to accept credit card payments.

I use paypal, googlecheckout and I also accept payment by cheques and postal orders - just means that on cheques we have to wait for the cheque to clear before dispatch - but I am of the opinion that the more payment methods available for the customer the more chance they will purchase from you

[shopintegrator]

paypal is good to start with - be mindful that you will have to pay £20 per month if you wish to accept credit card payments.

In case this is scaring you, let me clear this up as it may be easily misunderstood. If you use PayPal to take payments online through your website using PayPal Website Payments Standard, your customers may pay you with their debit or credit card without you having to pay any monthly fee to PayPal, just the per transaction charge of 3.4%.

What ccp consultancy is referring to is if you want a Virtual Terminal from PayPal which allows you to accept debit and credit card payments over the phone, or their PayPal Website Payments Pro which allows full integrated payment processing in your site. This is where you would need to pay a £20 a month charge for having this service.

[dots and spots Jeff]

Pleased to see that the anti-PayPal brigrade haven't pitched up on this thread.

PayPal is great as it lets you get started with no risk as you only pay if you make sale.

I know others may think differently, but as a consumer buying from a website, I will always use PayPal if its offered as an option as its easy for me, & I know its safe for me.

[imageonline]

Paypal is fine for what you need. Be aware that paypal will always side with the customer on any non delivery dispute. You must make sure that you post or use a delivery service with an online tracking system, goods must be signed for, then you may stand a chance in a dispute.

[davey132]

thanks all. So with paypal website payments standard, customers don't need a paypal account right? I read paypal email payments customers don't need to be paypal account holders but for standard it did not say.

one idea I would like to make for the site, say I had 10 different case designs to choose from but instead of just clicking add to cart on one of them the customer could choose different options from drop down lists, like color, size, color of hardware. Then the price and details of their customised case would come through to paypal checkout. Would that be difficult to do?
cheers

[shopintegrator]

So with paypal website payments standard, customers don't need a paypal account right? I read paypal email payments customers don't need to be paypal account holders

That is correct, with PayPal Website Payment Standard, customers do not need to be a PayPal account holder to pay you using the debit/credit cards.

say I had 10 different case designs to choose from but instead of just clicking add to cart on one of them the customer could choose different options from drop down lists, like color, size, color of hardware. Then the price and details of their customised case would come through to paypal checkout. Would that be difficult to do?

If you'll consider using the Shop Integrator ecommerce plugin toolkit (http://www.shopintegrator.com/demos/demos.html)to add the shop in to your web pages it will make it very easy for you to set up and maintain without having to know much about web page HTML.

The ecommerce plugin places the price, quantity drop down lists, the lists of product options in to your website in one go without you having to know HTML. You just follow a few simple steps to copy and paste the ecommerce plugin script from your Shop Integrator admin console in to your web page.

Once you have the ecommerce plugins in your web pages, you're able to change the product price, what options lists are assigned to each product and what are in those options lists through your online Shop Integrator admin console and it will take affect on your site without you changing the ecommerce plugins you've already placed in to your site.

Once your customers have finished shopping on your site, your Shop Integrator shopping basket connects to Pay Pal Website Payments Standard and transfers your shopper to pay you for their order.

As a UKBF member, I'll happily upgrade you to a 60 day free trial instead of the usual 30 day free trial, so you have a no-obligation period to see if you like it and if it is for you.

[dots and spots Jeff]

one idea I would like to make for the site, say I had 10 different case designs to choose from but instead of just clicking add to cart on one of them the customer could choose different options from drop down lists, like color, size, color of hardware. Then the price and details of their customised case would come through to paypal checkout. Would that be difficult to do?
cheers

Its easy to set up with PayPal.

Have a mooch around our site dots and spots (http://www.dotsandspots.biz/)- you'll see on different products we have different options: some you just click to add to cart, some have drop down menus. All done through PayPal.

[wanukb655]

I found these great self-calculating online web forms with a Paypal interface.
Here ae a couple of examples:

fospace.com//FOSformexample24.htm
elbowspace.com/FRHformexample19.htm

This way you can customize the form to look like your site.
It seems you can add products and prices to these forms
and when in use, they calculate totals, tax & shipping with
each stroke of the keyboard. The grand total can then
be passed to Paypal for payment.

[davey132]

thanks again you have made this hurdle much easier to attempt.

[kldguitar]

please try xoom ,but I cann't write home page now, you can try google xoom