Payment processors?

[Kerwin]

I'm trying to decide which payment processors to support, and I'm thinking of supporting:

PayPal
Apple Pay
Google Pay

I've looked into things like Stripe, but using those payment processors listed above would make paying easiest for customers. Is there any reason why going for those 3 is a bad idea? Is there something I am missing?

 

[fisicx]

What are you selling and to whom? What device is the predominantly used to make the purchase?

I tend to use my Mac to buy things and Firefox remembers my CC details so it’s dead easy. I actively avoid using Google pay because privacy. Not even that keen on Apple Pay. PayPal works well for me as a buyer because most of my clients pay me using PayPal.

 

[DontAsk]

Apple pay and Google pay seem to require you to buy in to one of those ecosystems. PayPal can be used by anyone, you don't need a PayPal account.

 

[Kerwin]

What are you selling and to whom? What device is the predominantly used to make the purchase?

It is a subscription service with one-off purchases available as well. Similar to something like Reddit where you can subscribe to Reddit Premium and buy Reddit coins.

 

[Simon.P]

I find Stripe the easiest. I believe they offer repeat payments recently.

 

[learnerg]

Those three are the basics that most people are used to using. But PayPal is the best because almost anyone in the world can use it easily.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

Those three are the basics that most people are used to using

Really? I don't think so.

As already mentioned, (that I am aware) you need a payment platform/merchant account to take Apple/Google payments or, at least, your ecommerce package must be compatible.

BTW, by not offering direct card payments, you are excluding a big chunk of clients.

 

[Marbman]

I always offer PayPal on my sales pages because like myself a lot of people prefer to pay through their PayPal account but I also offer Credit/debit card options using Stripe.

I think its important you give customers a choice.

 

[Elliott Coleman]

We've just removed Paypal and haven't seen a drop in sales at all.

If somebody wants to buy something from you, they will pay using whatever method you offer.

Personally, I've never abandoned a purchase because I can't pay with paypal. I just use a credit card where I know I have far more rights that what Paypal offer.

 

[Marbman]

We've just removed Paypal and haven't seen a drop in sales at all.

If somebody wants to buy something from you, they will pay using whatever method you offer.

Personally, I've never abandoned a purchase because I can't pay with paypal. I just use a credit card where I know I have far more rights that what Paypal offer.

why not just let people have the option, either PayPal or credit/debit card?

 

[Elliott Coleman]

why not just let people have the option, either PayPal or credit/debit card?

Because Paypal are a shit company and I don't want to deal with them.

They actively encourage customers to open disputes instead of dealing with us directly, if the customer does open a dispute they are allowed to escalate to a claim immediately without giving us any chance to respond. As soon as a customer does that, Paypal charge us £12.50.

We've had customers open a dispute and immediately escalate to a claim over a weekend because a delivery was a day late.

SOD THAT!

Paypal like to think that they are still relevant in the 21st century but really they aren't. People will just pull out a card.

 

[Marbman]

Because Paypal are a shit company and I don't want to deal with them.

They actively encourage customers to open disputes instead of dealing with us directly, if the customer does open a dispute they are allowed to escalate to a claim immediately without giving us any chance to respond. As soon as a customer does that, Paypal charge us £12.50.

We've had customers open a dispute and immediately escalate to a claim over a weekend because a delivery was a day late.

SOD THAT!

Paypal like to think that they are still relevant in the 21st century but really they aren't. People will just pull out a card.

I suppose it depends on what business you are in. I think I have only had one dispute in 14 years with PayPal and that was a mistake but admittedly it was a pain at the time but I dont class them as sh?t

 

[Elliott Coleman]

I suppose it depends on what business you are in. I think I have only had one dispute in 14 years with PayPal and that was a mistake but admittedly it was a pain at the time but I dont class them as sh?t

There isn't any reason for anybody to ever had raised a dispute against us. All of our contact details are available on the website, order confirmation emails etc. Telephone numbers are advertised and we are responsive in replying.

It was more a pain in the arse until they recently introduced a £12.50 charge. The main issue is them allowing customers to raise a dispute and then immediately escalate without giving the vendor a chance to respond and deal with any issues.

There's a reason they do that. To unfairly fleece the vendor.
Not this one.

 

[Kerwin]

Really? I don't think so.

As already mentioned, (that I am aware) you need a payment platform/merchant account to take Apple/Google payments or, at least, your ecommerce package must be compatible.

BTW, by not offering direct card payments, you are excluding a big chunk of clients.

Regarding needing a compatible e-commerce platform, that isn't a big problem as I am building the website from scratch.

I'll look into Stripe, but you can pay with PayPal without an account which means you can still directly accept credit and debit card payments without requiring people to have a PayPal account already.

It'll undoubtedly keep Apple Pay and Google Pay, though. I think for my target market, they are pretty popular.

 

[DontAsk]

Because Paypal are a shit company and I don't want to deal with them.

They actively encourage customers to open disputes instead of dealing with us directly, if the customer does open a dispute they are allowed to escalate to a claim immediately without giving us any chance to respond. As soon as a customer does that, Paypal charge us £12.50.

That's never been my experience with PayPal. The only problem i had was not receiving e-mails informing me a dispute had been opened. Always settled amicably in my experience.

 

[Deleted member 315707]

We've just removed Paypal and haven't seen a drop in sales at all.

If somebody wants to buy something from you, they will pay using whatever method you offer.

Personally, I've never abandoned a purchase because I can't pay with paypal. I just use a credit card where I know I have far more rights that what Paypal offer.

That’s simply not true. There isn’t a blanket “if somebody wants to buy something from you”. It varies by product, by sector, by B2C vs B2B, your overall checkout process. You’re stating something like it’s a fact when it’s just your personal opinion.

The overwhelming evidence is that friction causes checkout drop off. Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal all eliminate much of this.

 

[fisicx]

@Elliott Coleman - on the other hand I’ve had thousands of PayPal transactions without a single dispute. Just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it’s not good for everybody.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

I don't want to deal with them

But many of your customers probably are happy to deal with them!

 

[Matt-Breathe]

Many payment platforms out there, I'd suggest on a personal side keeping paypal as an additional way of taking payments along side another merchant service option.

 

[Glen Wheeler]

I'm not so sure it's about the products and services you offer when deciding on what payment gateway you're looking to offer as some have suggested but also it's often a case of ethics and culture, For example, something people have not mentioned which is huge right now is BNPL, could this be something you offer or is it against brand ethics and culture. If you're looking for a generic payment gateway/method I would always suggest Stripe and Paypal, extremely simple to integrate and 100% the most cost-effective options for small businesses and startups. However, if you're an enterprise company or are taking hundreds of thousands up to millions of pounds through the gateway it might be worth considering something different.

 

[ecommerce84]

I’m with @Elliott Coleman - we dropped PayPal when we revamped the website a couple of years ago and haven’t seen a drop off in sales because of it. Quite the opposite as the business grew rapidly over Covid so it’s impossible to really tell for sure.

We’ve only got Stripe enabled but it does allow you to set up Google and Apple Pay through it, which a lot of people use as it streamlines the checkout process. 20 (and probably even 10) years ago, I was a PayPal man through and through, but these days I use Apple Pay which is far superior to PayPal (IMO of course) and along with Google pay is the future of web payments, especially as more and more people are using their phones to browse and purchase.

 

[amityuk]

I'm a web developer so my opinion is based on website sales...

ApplePay and Google Pay are offered by Stripe in the system I use (WooCommerce, Magento). I've not seen it in other gateways.

So I recommend Stripe to people so they can offer ApplePay and Google Pay.

Stripe also has a low commission at 1.4%. I don't know of any reason to not use Stripe. It's my go to system.

PayPal has the highest commission at about 3.4% or something (fees are not as simple as this so this is an indication). So fees alone should be a reason to avoid PayPal.

The only reason to offer PayPal is people with PayPal accounts can pay with it so it could potentially make checkout easier. But they still have to login to PayPal which i find a pain. And if they want your product they'll enter their card details.

Never use PayPal to take credit card payments as their commission is higher than alternatives like Stripe.

So I would say you could consider dropping PayPal. But give it a go and see. You can turn it on and off and track sales and profits after commissions. Everyone is different, depending on what and how they sell, so there's no one right choice.

I avoid paying with PayPal as I know the seller gets less of my money so I pay by card so they get less commission than PayPal.

As a buyer my preference is:

- ApplePay
- Debit or Credit Card (Stripe)
- PayPal (last resort because I hate them due to their high commission)

 

[Deleted member 315707]

I'm not so sure it's about the products and services you offer when deciding on what payment gateway you're looking to offer as some have suggested but also it's often a case of ethics and culture, For example, something people have not mentioned which is huge right now is BNPL, could this be something you offer or is it against brand ethics and culture. If you're looking for a generic payment gateway/method I would always suggest Stripe and Paypal, extremely simple to integrate and 100% the most cost-effective options for small businesses and startups. However, if you're an enterprise company or are taking hundreds of thousands up to millions of pounds through the gateway it might be worth considering something different.

So you think someone interested in buying a high ticket item like a games console or laptop is not more likely to split their payment with a service like Klarna or PayPal vs buying a pair of socks?

 

[Kerwin]

Thank you all. I think I'll go with Stripe, from what people have said.

The website I am working on is a social network where people can pay to subscribe to individuals or organisations to get private access to the individuals or organisations they want to follow. That means I need a platform to take a monthly payment from the social network visitor and pay it (minus my commission) to the individual or organisation.

 

[Newchodge]

Those three are the basics that most people are used to using. But PayPal is the best because almost anyone in the world can use it easily.

I have never used any of them.

 

[Glen Wheeler]

So you think someone interested in buying a high ticket item like a games console or laptop is not more likely to split their payment with a service like Klarna or PayPal vs buying a pair of socks?

Absolutely not what I said. It's often the case it comes down to ethics and company culture. For example, believing that offering BNPL is wrong because you think people should not be buying your products if they cannot afford the item outright. Remember not all BNPL products are regulated by the FCA under consumer credit regulation.

I said absolutely nothing about what your comment implies where did you get that from?

 

[Deleted member 315707]

I'm a web developer so my opinion is based on website sales...

ApplePay and Google Pay are offered by Stripe in the system I use (WooCommerce, Magento). I've not seen it in other gateways.

So I recommend Stripe to people so they can offer ApplePay and Google Pay.

Stripe also has a low commission at 1.4%. I don't know of any reason to not use Stripe. It's my go to system.

PayPal has the highest commission at about 3.4% or something (fees are not as simple as this so this is an indication). So fees alone should be a reason to avoid PayPal.

The only reason to offer PayPal is people with PayPal accounts can pay with it so it could potentially make checkout easier. But they still have to login to PayPal which i find a pain. And if they want your product they'll enter their card details.

Never use PayPal to take credit card payments as their commission is higher than alternatives like Stripe.

So I would say you could consider dropping PayPal. But give it a go and see. You can turn it on and off and track sales and profits after commissions. Everyone is different, depending on what and how they sell, so there's no one right choice.

I avoid paying with PayPal as I know the seller gets less of my money so I pay by card so they get less commission than PayPal.

As a buyer my preference is:

- ApplePay
- Debit or Credit Card (Stripe)
- PayPal (last resort because I hate them due to their high commission)

As a consumer I subscribe to the “don’t make me think” mentality. PayPal auto populates key information required to checkout, gives

Absolutely not what I said. It's often the case it comes down to ethics and company culture. For example, believing that offering BNPL is wrong because you think people should not be buying your products if they cannot afford the item outright. Remember not all BNPL products are regulated by the FCA under consumer credit regulation.

I said absolutely nothing about what your comment implies where did you get that from?

“I'm not so sure it's about the products and services you offer when deciding on what payment gateway you're looking to offer as some have suggested”

I got it from where you said it.

 

[japancool]

If I want to buy something, I have never abandoned a cart because they didn't have one or another payment method.

 

[Deleted member 315707]

If I want to buy something, I have never abandoned a cart because they didn't have one or another payment method.

I definitely have which means from our straw poll of 2, 50% of people are affected by payment choice.

If you want something more scientific to back up the facts then a simple Google of “checkout friction” will tell you it does make a difference.

 

[Elliott Coleman]

I definitely have which means from our straw poll of 2, 50% of people are affected by payment choice.

If you want something more scientific to back up the facts then a simple Google of “checkout friction” will tell you it does make a difference.

Are you implying that Paypal reduces checkout friction?

To pay by Paypal, I have to login to Paypal, that's an email address, password and 2FA, confirm the details in Paypal, click pay. Sometimes you're done at this point but other times you are then returned to the checkout to select shipping and confirm the order on the sellers site.

To pay by credit/debit card, I type in a single password for my 1Password, my card details are auto populated and I click submit.

But really, As I have said earlier and also backed up by @japancool, I have never abandoned a checkout because somebody doesn't accept Paypal or any other payment method.

Why on gods earth would I abandon the checkout go and find another supplier who sells the same thing, add the item to the cart and start the checkout process again, when I can just (at the very worst) type in my card details.

 

[japancool]

Why on gods earth would I abandon the checkout go and find another supplier who sells the same thing, add the item to the cart and start the checkout process again, when I can just (at the very worst) type in my card details.

I never type in my card details. They're saved on Google Pay, and I just have to choose the card and Google fills the rest in for me. The only thing I have to usually type is the 3-digit security code.

 

[Elliott Coleman]

I never type in my card details. They're saved on Google Pay, and I just have to choose the card and Google fills the rest in for me. The only thing I have to usually type is the 3-digit security code.

Exactly, that's why I said (at the very worst)

All my cards details are stored in 1Password. I don't even have to type in the security code.

 

[Deleted member 315707]

You’re arguing with your opinion not backed up in research. It’s a simple thing to go and Google and find out what the experts who have done the research say.

To quote one article “PayPal was found to perform 60% better than all other digital wallets and 82% higher than all other payment methods. And, another recent study by Ipsos found that customers are 54% more willing to buy when a business accepts PayPal.”

Choice is almost always a good thing and with PayPal people don’t type in all their details, Google Pay the same, Apple Pay the same, all 3 shield your real credit card numbers from unscrupulous people.

Even without research surely common sense must help you realise that sounds like a good thing no? And do you really think people using 1pass has anywhere near the penetration of any of the above. Of course not. It’s pendency at its best.

 

[Elliott Coleman]

Choice is almost always a good thing and with PayPal people don’t type in all their details,

That's not always true. That depends on how Paypal was implemented. I'm also not worried about shielding my credit card numbers from unscrupulous people. I do due diligence before ordering online and have laws that protect me against fraud in the UK.

Anyway, you and your "experts" are welcome to your opinion, as am I.

I no longer accept Paypal and I've seen no decline in business. That's the only research I give a damn about. Thank you.

 

[Deleted member 315707]

The point I made, really clearly is that checkout friction does matter, payment method choice matters and a shoppers choice is partially based on what type of product being sold.

To imply that your own personal experience means everyone should follow you blindly is absurd. It’s not my “experts” but freely available research proven to improve checkout performance.

 

[Elliott Coleman]

The point I made, really clearly is that checkout friction does matter, payment method choice matters and it choice is partially based on what type of product you sell.

To imply that your own personal experience means everyone should follow you blindly is absurd. It’s not my “experts” but freely available research proven to improve checkout performance.

I've never implied that anybody should blindly follow me but you do seem quite adamant that we follow you.

 

[Deleted member 315707]

That's not always true. That depends on how Paypal was implemented.

Again pendency. You’re arguing for no reason.

 

[Elliott Coleman]

Again pendency. You’re arguing for no reason.

okay.

 

[Deleted member 315707]

I've never implied that anybody should blindly follow me but you do seem quite adamant that we follow you.

I’m not saying follow me, unlike your personal opinions, I’m saying people should research based on facts.

 

[Elliott Coleman]

I’m not saying follow me, unlike your personal opinions, I’m saying people should research based on facts.

I was going to reply. But honestly, I don't care what other people use.
This is a forum, I gave an opinion. Take it, leave it. I just don't care.

Have a good day.