Wholesale News & Articles

Some retailers and wholesalers are still using their websites as more of an online catalog than an ecommerce engine and it is a shame to see them leaving so much money on the table. After all, there are three proven checkout systems on the market that are easy to implement. The following is an overview of the major programs to be considered:

Google Checkout

This brand stormed the scene two years ago. Google Checkout is an online payment processing service provided by Google that is designed to simplify online purchases for both the merchandiser and buyer. The end users establish an account with Google and then store their credit or debit card and shipping information there. In short, the program lets them purchase at participating stores at the click of a button. It also offers fraud protection, as well as order tracking and status notification.

Google charges merchants two percent, plus 20¢ per transaction. Merchants advertising with Google AdWords will not be charged checkout fees if the monthly transactions total less than ten times their monthly AdWords expenditure. The scope of Google Checkout is focused on enabling one-time payments to be made from a purchaser to a merchant.

Does Google Checkout increase sales? It did for Ritz Interactive, which saw site traffic increase more than 40 percent and overall shopping cart conversion rates improve 35 percent after implementing Google Checkout.

It should be noted that merchants selling on eBay cannot use Google Checkout. The auction site wants sellers to only use their PayPal property.

PayPal Shopping Cart

PayPal takes what Google Checkout offers and pushes it a couple of steps further with its PayPal Shopping Cart. Its main identifier is that PayPal permits the use of stored funds and allows payments from person-to-person.

In addition, the system can be implemented in a pair of different fashions. Merchants can install the standard PayPal Shopping Cart, which facilitates ecommerce payments from start to finish from purchasers who have active PayPal accounts. Or, the payment processing system can be integrated into merchants' existing third party or in-house built shopping cart. In this case, it is possible the merchant could allow both direct sales to the buyer and person-to-person selling and trading.

Bill Me Later

With gas prices cutting into consumer checking accounts, the so-called "frictionless" payment system, Bill Me Later, will likely see more activity this holiday season than ever before. That is something when you consider that 22 percent of online buyers used Bill Me Later to make a purchase during the holiday shopping season last year, according to a Piper Jaffray eCommerce Survey.

The company has already proven that merchants and consumers alike enjoy alternatives, where in this case, the first payment is delayed 90 days without an interest charge. On a more basic level, Bill Me Later lets users provide limited information and be billed later for purchases they make online. The users are not required to give a credit card number at checkout.

Customers with high credit scores qualify right away for the service, and they system allows online businesses to capture more purchases from more shoppers. It should be noted that PayPal has released a similar product called Pay Later. The issues of implementing any of these three systems can be addressed by setting up a teleconference meeting, to be attended by the merchant's marketing executive, IT professional and the chosen service provider.

For more information, contact:

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Tel.: 650-253-0000
Fax: 650-253-0001
Websites: www.google.com
www.googlecheckout.com

PayPal
Tel.: 866-837-1863
Website: www.paypal.com

Bill Me Later
PO Box 2394
Omaha, NE 68103
Tel.: 866-528-3733
Website: www.billmelater.com