E-commerce Payments

[momon121]

Hi Everyone

I'm back again needing your expert help.

For a year I have been trading on market stalls and in between I have been carrying out my own research that indicates there is a demand for my products to go online.

I am shopping around for the best online payment solution and there is a lot of information and services out there.

PayPal seems to be out of the question due to its high fees and holding payments. Payment-sense seems very appealing with its fixed monthly prices of £14.95

This would be my first transition online and the last thing I want is to loose money due to high fees. The products I sell makes 25% on each items and I need a payment solution that has the lowest rates and one that's pays promptly preferably weekly.

I thank you so much for reading and I would really appreciate your help and professional input.

Best Wishes

 

[kathymac73]

Sell on eBay . PayPal charge 20p plus 3.4% per transaction in a business PayPal account


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Cromulent]

That price that you quote for Payment Sense obviously does not include credit or debit card transaction fees so you need to factor that in on top. Give them a call to find out what their fees are.

Stripe is pretty cheap at 2.4% + 20p per transaction. It is pretty much impossible to get below that without taking thousands of pounds a month in sales.

I certainly haven't found one that is better. Plus the developer tools are excellent.

 

[momon121]

3.4 % + 20p on every transaction is quite high Kathymac73. I have never heard of Stripe I will look into that. Gosh I did not even think about credit and debit card fees, I wish their websites included all details.

 

[Cromulent]

3.4 % + 20p on every transaction is quite high Kathymac73. I have never heard of Stripe I will look into that. Gosh I did not even think about credit and debit card fees, I wish their websites included all details.

https://stripe.com/gb

 

[momon121]

Thanks Cromulent

 

[14Steve14]

Before picking payment sense please search and read other threads on this forum. You may be surprised by others remarks.

 

[Socio South West]

Before worrying about payments, I would look at your business model: If you are only making a 25% margin on a small turnover you are always going to struggle to build a sustainable business that incurs any level of fixed costs - and I include payment charges in that.

Besides payment charges, if you are going to have a decent online outlet you will doubtless incur costs to develop and maintain the online platform as well - and most of those will be annual and recurring.

 

[momon121]

Thanks for the input Socio South West. The ongoing costs of maintaining online platform is always going to be unavoidable. The 25% margin would be minimum as I would be selling in volume. Maybe I am just being naive and need to restructure my business plan based on this additional fixed charges. To be honest I did not even consider payment charges to be so high but a lower rate would definitely help any new small businesses

Has anyone heard of Eway, they only charge 5p per transaction. How anyone have knowledge or experience using them

 

[Cromulent]

Has anyone heard of Eway, they only charge 5p per transaction. How anyone have knowledge or experience using them

You've got to read pricing information on these sites more carefully.

Eway don't supply a merchant bank account so you would need to pay for one on top of the transaction fees and they can be quite expensive on a monthly fee.

Plus there is a £45 set up fee.

 

[momon121]

Thanks Cromulent. Would my normal bank account act as an merchant account and where would be a good place to look for merchant account if I decide to have separate services from payment processing

 

[perpixon]

Are you likely to sell lots of your items straight away? If not i would just try taking card payments via PayPal to start with, as long as you confirm your bank account details etc. with them you get the money instantly when you withdraw it from your PayPal account and that way you do not have to worry about the monthly processing and merchant bank fees. Personally i think the stigma PayPal used to have for being unsafe etc. has now gone, intact we offer a couple of payment options on our main site and people select PayPal about 60% of the time as a preference.

 

[emulsja]

What about direct payments. You can put your number account on your website, customer will copy that number and trasfer money. Great adventage is that you will not pay any fee.

Has anyone use that payment method. It seems to be the cheapest method for small business.

 

[Socio South West]

It is a payment option on a shop I set up for a client - Bank Transfer comes up as a payment option, and when selected, the customer gets an order confirmation email with the bank details on it - and yes... very cheap, but card or PayPal are used far more often.,

 

[momon121]

Problem with direct debit method is that it can potentially scare customers by making the whole paying experience less professional since majority businesses do not accept money in this way.

can the whole experience be made to look and feel secure and professional?

What about direct payments. You can put your number account on your website, customer will copy that number and trasfer money. Great adventage is that you will not pay any fee.

Has anyone use that payment method. It seems to be the cheapest method for small business.

 

[momon121]

Are you likely to sell lots of your items straight away? If not i would just try taking card payments via PayPal to start with, as long as you confirm your bank account details etc. .

I have considered using Paypal however 3.4% +20p per transaction its a high fee to factor in. The only positive about Paypal is the simplicity in implementing their services.

 

[momon121]

It is a payment option on a shop I set up for a client - Bank Transfer comes up as a payment option.,

How easy is it to set up bank transfers without having to leave you website?

 

[Socio South West]

How easy is it to set up bank transfers without having to leave you website?

The one I set up was an Open Cart based package... You could set up the payment options.... so Bank Transfer was set up.... In that was an instruction that once the order was confirmed, an email with the details for the Bank Transfer would be sent, and this email is send automatically on clicking to confirm the order, so buyers never leave the site.

Other shopping carts may not offer this facility

 

[momon121]

is it a smooth process?

 

[perpixon]

I don't think i would do a bank transfer to pay for an item form a website. At least with cards you have some protection. Giving a possibly unknown website access direct to you back doesn't sit easy with me.

 

[perpixon]

I don't want to sound like a big fan of PayPal but don't forget they have a decreasing percentage charge depending upon volume. Once you add the Merchant bank charges and payment processing charges of other options you might find there is no difference in real cost. Regardless of what you chose you should offer the ability to pay via PayPal, its far more popular than i thought it would be, most payment processing providers can provide a PayPal payment option within their payment page, but you have to have your own PayPal account for the founds to be paid into. I would really recommend not adding any ongoing cost to your business until you know you can sustain it. Changing and adding payment processing companies should be easy to do on your website, but if you are not getting enough orders in at the beginning then you are just chucking away £20-£50 per month on nothing.

 

[momon121]

okay that is interesting fact to consider buyers protection. Do you know which services that do provide buyers services except PayPal

 

[Socio South West]

I don't think i would do a bank transfer to pay for an item form a website. At least with cards you have some protection. Giving a possibly unknown website access direct to you back doesn't sit easy with me.

There is no direct access.... The payment is made by the purchaser through their online banking in their own time as a separate exercise to the online order. .

The email that the purchaser receives gives the buyer the bank details for the receiving account, and also a reference to quote so that the payment is easily identified in the receiving bank account

The order is processed in the usual way, and once the payment shows on the receiving account, the order can be despatched.
It's an easy cheap option for the vendor, and an extra payment option for anyone who doesnt have cards, or is maxed out.

In terms of percentage, probably less than 5% opt to use it (there are also card and Paypal options)

 

[momon121]

I am surprise that there is no online payment solutions that goes right into your own bank account without the aid of a merchant account

 

[StevensOnln1]

I am surprise that there is no online payment solutions that goes right into your own bank account without the aid of a merchant account

There are, Stripe is just one such service which doesn't require a separate merchant account.

 

[momon121]

So I can get paid straight into my account using Stripe and just pay the 2.4% + 20p per transaction to them

 

[StevensOnln1]

Yep, money takes 7 days to reach your bank account.

 

[ams_uk]

I use Stripe on my website and I must say that I am very happy. Although they have no telephone number (which is a pain I must admit), their email customer service was proficient and friendly when I was verifying my identity. It's integrated well with Bigcommerce which is why I chose it.

Also, you can take payments over the phone easily from your dashboard. Using it since July I haven't had one chargeback after processing hundreds of transactions so can't comment on how well they deal with that - thankfully I am in a low fraud industry.

 

[momon121]

Ive had a look at Stripe they look really awesome.

 

[lindacotal]

another option is to use inpage payza configuration for you shoping cart
this will also enable the costumer not to leave the web site

 

[Nochexman]

So I can get paid straight into my account using Stripe and just pay the 2.4% + 20p per transaction to them

No, it takes at least seven days to clear into your account.

 

[momon121]

another option is to use inpage payza configuration for you shoping cart
this will also enable the costumer not to leave the web site

is it easy configuration to do

 

[momon121]

Hi

I have just been in touch with Card Saver Ltd sales person offering me £10 a month with 1% on credit card and 12p on debit card indefinitely with no additional charges on chargebacks and refunds. Has anyone used or heard of Card Saver Ltd?

 

[MattCollins]

I haven't come across them before. It looks like the company was registered last August: http://www.endole.co.uk/company/09188754/card-saver-ltd

 

[momon121]

I spoke to them again and they have offered me a deal of now £20 a month that covers offline and online transactions at 1% credit card and 12p debit card. With extra charges for refunds or chargebacks. The fees seems to be the best out there

 

[Nochexman]

Might worth taking a look at their "terms of use" (bottom right hand corner on their home page) before committing yourself.

 

[momon121]

thanks Nochexman