Is PayPal enough for starters?

[RolandsJegorovs]

We have 2 options - either stay now with just PayPal services and later on add bank modules or start right away with PayPal and integrated bank payments.

I understand that it depends on various factors but maybe some of you sees the answer, well, statistically.

What would you recommend?

 

[cs73]

I would say that if you don't have an alternative payment method you will lose sales. Many people don't use PayPal, and don't know that they can still pay by card even if they don't have a PayPal account, so would just leave if they don't see an alternative.

 

[ServWise]

For credit card online payments im not sure I agree wth cs73, I think this depends on how your present it, we offer bank transfers but use paypal exclusively for all online payments but our site always indicates they can pay by credit card and it just happens to go via PayPal, you can even get a paypal pro account and not even need to have the client leave your site, it is all done in the back end. However bank payments is just a case of giving out your IBAN number so why not offer it.

 

[RolandsJegorovs]

I would say that if you don't have an alternative payment method you will lose sales. Many people don't use PayPal, and don't know that they can still pay by card even if they don't have a PayPal account, so would just leave if they don't see an alternative.

I had the same thought. Thank you! This gave me some clarity anyway.

 

[japancool]

Whether or not people will use Paypal, IMHO, depends largely on who they are. If you are targeting a younger audience, the chances are high that it's not going to be a significant problem. For an older, or business audience, that may be an issue.

 

[Payments Guy]

I've had exactly the same conversation with a guy who called me this morning. He's a start-up doing less than 500 a month through Paypal and wanted to explore card processing. I've left him with some details, and indeed a price, but my suggestion to him was to hang fire.

At those levels, Paypal is probably the best option for most merchants. I also agree with ServWise that you can easily offer BACS/FPS payments. GoCardless is another useful option.

Richard

 

[japancool]

For BACS/FPS/GoCardless, I'm not convinced about that. For B2B or account sales, it would work, but I'm not it would work very well in B2C. I've never seen any B2C e-commerce sites offering it. But I suppose it can't hurt to offer it as an option as long as it's not costing you anything.

 

[Payments Guy]

@japancool Absolutely agree. If transactional speed is needed as with most b2c sites then these would be used very little. In that case, for a small merchant, Paypal would probably be best. I have to say though that the turnover required to make a merchant account worthwhile is pretty low though.

 

[HFE Signs]

Depends how serious you are with developing the business, paypal is not for everyone and for you the paypal charges are higher than a merchant account. If you're serious about the business you need a merchant account, just be wary of Amex as they are very costly! Good luck

 

[exceedmedia]

HFE Signs, Thats inaccurate about Amex fees, they have reduced them substantially for small business and its now a fixed 1.9%. Its worth adding that in, as a lot of people have Amex cards that have generous loyalty schemes, so its a popular way to pay, and no dearer than a lot of standard merchants now.

 

[HFE Signs]

HFE Signs, Thats inaccurate about Amex fees, they have reduced them substantially for small business and its now a fixed 1.9%. Its worth adding that in, as a lot of people have Amex cards that have generous loyalty schemes, so its a popular way to pay, and no dearer than a lot of standard merchants now.

Ok, I stand corrected, I was unaware of that, thanks for informing me. It was some time ago when I looked into Amex - Thanks Exceedmedia

 

[Payments Guy]

@HFE Signs You should get back onto Amex as their rates have reduced dramatically - if you give them a nudge or tell them you'll stop accepting. I would tell you the rates I'm opening Amex at, but don't want my hands slapped again!

 

[Payments Guy]

Ooops looks like I was a bit late on that one, although rates can be even better than that quoted

 

[ronnie7272]

We have 2 options - either stay now with just PayPal services and later on add bank modules or start right away with PayPal and integrated bank payments.
What would you recommend?

You have a third option. Upgrade your Paypal Standard account to Paypal Payments Pro so you can take debit/credit transactions as well as Paypal transactions.

 

[japancool]

You have a third option. Upgrade your Paypal Standard account to Paypal Payments Pro so you can take debit/credit transactions as well as Paypal transactions.

You can already take credit and debit cards without requiring Payments Pro. The user can pay without a Paypal account.

 

[ronnie7272]

You can already take credit and debit cards without requiring Payments Pro. The user can pay without a Paypal account.

That's using the Paypal interface which might put off some end users. With Payments Pro you can create a more professional and credible design. It gives people the impression you have your own merchant account i.e. the end user is buying from a real business.

Using Paypal Standard on it's own may influence the end user to think your business has poor trading history/credit rating or you are a start up.

Obviously using Paypal Standard does successfully work on it's own in different industries and niches where the target clientele expect to pay using their Paypal accounts but in general a business with a standard ecommerce website should have a merchant account.

 

[japancool]

That's using the Paypal interface which might put off some end users. With Payments Pro you can create a more professional and credible design. It gives people the impression you have your own merchant account i.e. the end user is buying from a real business.

Using Paypal Standard on it's own may influence the end user to think your business has poor trading history/credit rating or you are a start up.

Obviously using Paypal Standard does successfully work on it's own in different industries and niches where the target clientele expect to pay using their Paypal accounts but in general a business with a standard ecommerce website should have a merchant account.

Precisely - without knowing what the OP's market sector is, it's premature to say that he/she "should" have a merchant account. Like I said, for a younger consumer audience, Paypal is unlikely to be much of an issue.

I don't see any huge advantages with Payments Pro. If you're going down the full integration route, you may as well go with a normal merchant account, they're not all that difficult to get, although that will depend on your business.

 

[RogerBa]

Much is dependent on industry and customer type, so it's hard to give specific advice.

In my experience PayPal standard works to a degree, however like it or not some customers will not recognise they can use a credit or debit card, despite what is said and written, so this may loose a few sales, again depends on customer profile and type.
Using PayPal Pro will get you a virtual terminal which is invaluable if you want to seal a sale over the phone and costs £20 a month from memory, you can then also build this into taking the payment on your site, how easy this is depends on your site design and ability.

Longer term I would recommend a merchant account, this will then be very clear to customers that credit and debit cards can be used, it will be what they are familiar with, and you can then just run standard PayPal alongside for those who prefer to use that, you will not need PayPal Pro as the merchant will give you a virtual terminal and your charges will be less.

Regarding bank transfers you can of course publish details online, but in my experience the customer is likely to contact you first via email or phone to let you know they would like to pay that way.

 

[ParcelBright]

I will suggest GoCardless if you want to take bank payment and PayPal for standard creidt card transaction. You can also consider Stripe as they are much simpler and you do not need much to integrate it.

 

[CharlineCaisse]

Whether or not people will use Paypal, IMHO, depends largely on who they are. If you are targeting a younger audience, the chances are high that it's not going to be a significant problem. For an older, or business audience, that may be an issue.

+ If you're thinking in the short term perspective paypal might do the trick, but for the long term you have to take care of none-paypal payments.

 

[japancool]

+ If you're thinking in the short term perspective paypal might do the trick, but for the long term you have to take care of none-paypal payments.

Why do you have to take care of non-Paypal payments, given that you can take non-Paypal payments with Paypal Express?

Yes, it is cheaper to do so and there are fewer potential problems, but why do you have to do it?

 

[CharlineCaisse]

My bad. You do have a point there.

 

[CoolHandCol]

Paypal Pro does everything you need without scaring off particular age groups or business types

 

[MageWorx]

The main argument "for" PayPal is its simplicity. It's super easy for customers to open a PayPal account, and even those without an account can still get started using PayPal Payments Standard by simply providing their email address.

The fee structure is also very simple. PayPal charges a flat 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, which is fine for any small and start up businesses.

However, with the growth of online payment processing in the last several years, there came lots of other worthy options to consider. So when choosing the best processing company to match your company’s online payment needs, we advise you to run a thorough examination of the payment terms, features and benefits they offer.

 

[Festoon Lighting]

It has been enough for my employer, we tried Payment sense but had a bad experience.

 

[Voicebooth]

I think something that hasn't been discussed too much in here is actually the cost of each provider, rather than the facilities they offer - most providers will happily take your average Visa/Maestro/Amex cards, but something at the forefront of your mind should be "how much is this going to cost me".

Paypal's 3.4% + 20p per transaction is quite a high cost, but does offer simplicity in its integration. Another solution mentioned in this thread is Stripe which offer a flat fee of 2.4% + 20p per transaction, which is cheaper. We have used Stripe as our card payment provider and it took us a total of around 6 hours to code something that looks good and works well. Again, it's still a fairly expensive payment system, and we do encourage our customers to use BACS/Direct Debits, but we are a B2B business, so it's a fairly accepted method of payment.

Another cheaper payment provider is SagePay, which has a more in-depth pricing scheme, but has higher requirements such as having an Internet Merchant Account - some up-front costs will be required. Their overall costs per transaction is lower.

There's been mention of various such as GoCardless to go BACS/Standing orders - if you're aiming at the consumer market, these will be fairly useless since it's not a common method to get money out Joe Bloggs. You should be looking at payment providers that do recurring payments on credit/debit cards.

 

[deniser]

When considering Paypal versus other similar setups eg. Stripe, do also take into account the Paypal Seller guarantee. This has saved us from several fraudulent transactions which would have fallen to us under other payment systems. I would say this is especially important if you are new to the Ecommerce world and can't yet spot a fraud with your nose!

 

[artisspades]

I would suggest to get Skrill account as well to avoid disappointment.