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Will No Paypal Kill Business?

Rob587

Rob587

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 4, 2004
801
1
Orlando, FL
I am building an ecommerce site that will sell web apps and information products. Will not having Paypal as a checkout option kill my business? Even if I allow checkout with credit cards and other payment options?

My Paypal account has been locked forever due to a dispute. They want $1500 to open it, even though I got scammed. Is it worth it? I know it probably is in the long run, but I don't know if I can overcome the principal of not giving into those Paypal Mother *********'s!:mad:
 
I'd say accepting credit/debit cards directly is far more important than taking PayPal.

We offer both to our clients but the vast majority pay us directly.

I have very little trust in PayPal. I'd prefer to not even offer it as an option, but it's good to give people a choice when possible.
 
Rob587 said:
I am building an ecommerce site that will sell web apps and information products. Will not having Paypal as a checkout option kill my business? Even if I allow checkout with credit cards and other payment options?

My Paypal account has been locked forever due to a dispute. They want $1500 to open it, even though I got scammed. Is it worth it? I know it probably is in the long run, but I don't know if I can overcome the principal of not giving into those Paypal Mother *********'s!:mad:
Click to expand...

NO it won't. However, make sure you accept Credit Cards through a trusted vendor. I have to tell you, paypal OWNS this market, but google checkout and other 3rd party vendors are not bad at all...
 
Make it as easy as possible for your customers to do business with you. Accept Paypal. While I hate them, I use them for any site I don't know and trust (which is pretty much all but the household names) so I don't have to give my credit card info out.
 
I try to avoid PayPal; read too many less positive thing which I don't want to experience myself. Only created one account for this site; never used for something else.
But I also buy mostly from big and known companies via internet; very carefully after once my cc got used in a different part of the world :mad:

(PS: maybe add a poll ?)
 
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It's quite a matter of opinion. The preference of your customers would most likely be a trusted name like Paypal or Google Checkout.

In my personal opinion, Paypal genuinely sucks when speaking of their customer service for both buyers and sellers. The main focus of their service might as well be just offering a bogus peace of mind for their customers. When issues arise, generally nothing is done. If they already have you on their bad side why not stick with Google Checkout or a similar third party checkout?

With Paypal being the most known, many people tend to use it. I believe the key to this is simply building your brand. If you have screened and chosen a third party check out that is dependable and trustworthy, and built a brand name that customers respect and trust, then you should have no issues conducting your checkouts without Paypal. Also, Google is a name most everyone knows and trusts!
 
It will probably hurt you a little, but not a lot. See if you can take Amazon Payments; a huge number of people have Amazon accounts.
 
I had my credit card hacked a couple of years ago, the bank said likely through an online purchase. Since then, I go out of my way to use PayPal when possible. While Google and Amazon payments are OK, I am not a big fan of either. I prefer PayPal in combination with the authenticator, and if I have a choice between 2 vendors, unless the price is radically different, I will choose the PayPal payment method.
 
moderniste said:
It will probably hurt you a little, but not a lot. See if you can take Amazon Payments; a huge number of people have Amazon accounts.
Click to expand...

I agree with this one. I use Google for a nonprofit website that I run, and it's pretty good. I personally like sites that accept Amazon payments too.
 
I doubt it'll scare anyone away, if it does they are few and far between. If the site looks legit enough and has good reviews, I'll buy from it.
 
I don't like using my cc info on new unknown internet sites. I prefer to use paypal on their site but would also settle for amazon.

If the site looks legitimate and sells specialty stuff that is less likely used by scammers I use american express gift card first and later my cc.

So yes I think it could hurt you not having paypal but not too much.
 
rdowns said:
Make it as easy as possible for your customers to do business with you. Accept Paypal. While I hate them, I use them for any site I don't know and trust (which is pretty much all but the household names) so I don't have to give my credit card info out.
Click to expand...

+1
Although I don't know anybody who likes Paypal you just have to use them, they are too powerful.

I don't like using my cc info on new unknown internet sites. I prefer to use paypal on their site but would also settle for amazon.
Click to expand...

There are eWallets like Neteller that will let you use a virtual credit card that generates new numbers every time you make a purchase. So no fear when spreading them. Another reason why Paypal should be replaced by one of these more innovative ewallets...
 
I used to work for PayPal (in particular with their Merchant Operations Department) and saw lots of metrics showing increased sales when using both PayPal and traditional processing versus just traditional processing. With all the cynicism for PayPal, they do have a huge loyal following and a large group of people prefer to use PayPal.
One of the biggest misnomers about PayPal are their policies for holding money, which 9 out of 10 times is a result of the Banks requiring the money be held while being investigated.
 
I built and run a client's website who offers Credit Card payments with Worldpay and also offers the consumer to pay via their Paypal account. They have now decided to disband with Paypal altogether. It only equates to under 10% of their sales.

They had one issue that Paypal in the UK that they will not allow their business customers to take the sender/billing address along with a different delivery address - which is paramount for this business. Why this should be so is beyond me - I know they allow it in the US and it has nothing to do with English Law. They put up with customer's complaints and confusion but now have condidered losing the Paypal revenue. I have spoken to Paypal UK regarding this for years now, but there seems no movement.

My client has been happy to allow with this for three years now, but recently, for no fault of their own, Paypal stopped them getting payments or allow them access to their money - all for an investigation that was quite baffling and they stated there had been some odd/fraudulent activity on the site. This was shown to be totally unfounded and unjustified - this was the last straw for my client. Incidently, at no time did Paypal contact the client before the account was stopped and I had to constantly chase them to sort it out.

I am sure that others find Paypal applicable for their site, but for this client they felt wronged but the treatment they received and the inflexibility of Paypal.

In answer to your question - it does really depend on what you are selling and whether it would be a product that would require a Paypal account - but in general I would feel saying no to Paypal will not harm your business and it certainly has not harmed this particular client.
 
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