Anyone use Paypal for e-commerce?

[scott99999]

Sorry for posting this outside the e-commerce section...needed to get the attention of the broadest group asap and it's been a while since anyone's posted in there...

Does anyone use Paypal for a shopping cart/e-commerce?

I will have a very small store (I sell a handful of stock digital art CDs) and it seems like a good solution.

What's the drawback?

It seems like, for a small store, there's just no way to pay for MIVA, Verisign, Shopfactory, a secure server, e-commerce installations, etc.... which equals $100s to $1000s of dollars and heavy commissions on sales, when Paypal offers a one-stop solution for a smaller commission.

Am I missing something here? For a small business, why NOT use Paypal's shopping carts? Why pay all the extra money if you're not a big business?

Since I only make a few $100/month on sales, maybe $4000/year, I'm finding it really hard to locate an e-commerce solution that doesn't consume my whole profit after taxes, hosting, operating costs and supplies. http://www.Aota.net/forums/images/smilies/cry.gif

[Deb]

As shown by the FutureQuest payment page I do believe offering as many options of payment as possible is best....

PayPal has worked GREAT for FutureQuest and those site owners that enjoy using it but it has not been the favorite for the International Clients or those who would rather not spend the time setting up a PayPal account to submit payment.

To review the many options available similar to PayPal you may want to visit places such as:

http://www.OnlineOrders.net
and
http://www.aota.net/E-Commerce/nomerchantaccount.php3

One of the other drawbacks of PayPal is that they do not accept cards such as American Express (I believe it's Visa, Mastercard, Checks, and PayPal only). Services such as Kagi offer a wider range of credit card options.

It certainly cannot hurt to setup a PayPal account -- It's free. For those customers that like PayPal they'll appreciate it, at the same time it's also free (I believe it still is anyway) to setup a Kagi account.

FutureQuest has its own merchant account plus a PayPal and Kagi account...to be true I personally find it much simpler to not have to worry about the actual processing of the cards...

Review your options and choose what's best for you.

Deb
- Can't we just go back to cash?

[scott99999]

Thanks for the quick reply, Deb.

I'll definitely check those out.

One frustration I have experienced is that I consider myself fairly tech-saavy, yet I've had a tough time finding walkthrough-style information on how to inexpensively develop an e-commerce solution for a small business.

That "merchant account" page/FAQ is GREAT, though I really wish there was more of a central, all-encompassing location for this type of information. Right now I'm bumping around to the Miva site, the Verisign site, shopping cart vendors, the Futurequest explanations, etc..., checking their rates, making printouts and notes and trying to put it all together.

I noticed that you offer suggestions of third party processors, and have a Paypal ad, but don't list Paypal in that group. Might be an oversight...thought I'd mention it.

I'll read through all your info, thanks.

[Monty]

I have been quite happy with PayPal and their services. They are very prompt, quite professional, and easy to deal with. I have also used Miva, but found that their interface is quite difficult to deal with. PayPal would for sure get my vote for something doing this for the first time.

Mont

[dank]

A quick processing fee comparison betwen Kagi and PayPal:

For a transaction of $200, Kagi takes $10.50 and PayPal takes $6.10. For transactions of $30 or so, Kagi takes on the order of 3x as much out of the payment as does PayPal. As the transaction climbs toward $600, the processing fees come closer together.

There are no signup/setup fees for either, making that a wash.

So, I guess the question is whether Kagi's flexibility (payment options) and familiarity/professionality of name are enough to counter the rather significant percentage loss for the small e-tailer, who is not likely to be selling lots of $600 items or they'd probably have a merchant account...

The best option would seem to be to primarily offer PayPal and somehow slip in Kagi as a less visible option for those who cannot, or do not want to, use PayPal. After all, the buyer is unlikely to care who they purchase through if either is as convenient (i.e. they already have a PayPal account, which many online buyers seem to), and I think they would rather their money go to the seller rather than the middle man. Maybe a link to "additional payment options"?

Dan

[zmax]

Not sure if this addresses what youre looking for but someone I know has been using this:

http://www.phpshop.org/


David

[dank]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks to be just a shopping cart, not a payment processing option, no?

Dan

[Tibbits]

There is another called worldpay, I think they supported the UK before paypal.