What payment method is best for an eCommerce website?

[lkovnih226]

Hi,

I am reading a lot of success storied of people opening eCommerce websites

Some of them, however, had problems with the processor of the payments, experiencing delays or even shuts downs of their account,..etc.

Can I ask from your experience what method of payment is the best when setting up your eCommerce website?

Thank you!

 

[Rob Whisonant]

The best will always be getting a merchant account from your local bank. If that is not possible you can get a merchant account online from many different sources. PayPal is also an alternative if you are not in a high risk classification.

Are you selling your own products and shipping them or are you selling downloadable products?

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

I agree. Your bank and authorize.net are great choices.

Persobally, I have always had problems with PayPal. PayPal will take your money.

 

[Ron Killian]

Most people do NOT have a problem with Pay Pal. They are not as bad as some people like to make them out to be.

Not trying to start trouble, just get tired of hearing that pay pal is so bad.

I've been with them like 15 years and I've never had trouble with them. Over the years I've talked to them many times on the phone and they have been nothing but polite, respectful and as helpful as they can be. As long as you don't do anything shady and talk to them BEFORE big spikes, like launches, you won't have any trouble.

What ever you do, I would advise you to NOT take credit cards directly on your site. Big risk. If big sites like Home Depot and Target can get hacked, what chance do you stand?

If your just starting out, pay pal could be a great option. As you grow, you can always apply other payment options. I love pay pal because when you have the ATM card you can get paid pretty much instantly.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

EpicGlobalWeb

I don't think you're starting trouble by stating your opinion and experience with PayPal. It's probably me being paranoid more than anything, but when they put an ad in the Superbowl saying "PayPal is new money" and they freeze my account left and right whenever someone pays with a credit card instead of their "PayPal Balance" and the IMF is trying to instantiate a cashless society doesn't make me feel good about them. Lol!

Yes, tin foil hat time but whatever.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

No worries. We all have things we are paranoid about.

Funny most people that complain about pay pal, you find out they are not doing things on the up-and-up. Gee, then they whine because PP kept or returned the money. Big surprise.

Of course not saying that is the case with you, not at all. Just seen it happen so many times.

Some one posted here on this forum about having trouble with PP, come to find out they mistakenly were logging in with proxies. Just PP watching their back and their customers backs.

I do not know how many of my customers have used CC's over the years through pay pal, don't have stats, but I do know plenty have, never had a problem. So odd you did for that. Maybe just looked like an "odd" behavior pattern? Set off some red flags? Don't know.

Actually it's funny that pay pal is the new money, yet I don't see it at that many places, besides home depot. The local Wesco gas station (big chain here) got Googlepay. I was like, WTH? Really? No thank you.

I can use my PP ATM card anywhere, just don't see many places promoting it as a payment option. Or I missing it.

 

[TCoder]

I think you should offer multiple options. I personally used authorized.net and paypal together and people used both options, although most people choose to pay with authorize .net.

 

[SenseiSteve]

I've never had a problem either with PayPal and I've been with them for many years. I've only experienced one dispute and that was found in my favor. You know, I have a PP ATM card, but have never used it.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

According to PayPal, I DO have irregular habits. I get security checked like the TSA at least once a month. You gave me a good reason why just now though, I'll give you a thanks for that. It's probably my VPN which rotates 256 bit encrypted IPs at random times when it's on.

Rock and a hard place though. Everybody uses PayPal so I'm forced to be a "good boy" now. Ron, here's the commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dF9t_xQGks

Not gonna lie, it is a pretty good commercial.

 

[TCoder]

Another issue what "Paypal" is, that they force the customer to create a PayPal account. If you're willing to pay, I think $20 a month to Paypal, you can get their "Payments Pro" subscriptions. Then your customers won't have to create a Paypal account to pay.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

Not entirely true. Depends on the country the buyer lives in. For many people, such s US and similar countries, when they are sent to pay pal to pay, they get the pay pal log in screen. Below that login there is a link they can click to pay with a credit/debt card without a pay pal account. Again, depends on their country.

There is no month fee for the Payments Pro, you just have to provide a little more information to prove who you are, or show you are a real business. Pro is for taking payments or doing transactions right on your site, so your customers don't leave your site. I believe the same rules still apply.

I've always had the Business account, it's done all I've needed.

 

[TCoder]

TCoder

Thanks for making go back and research this, I was wrong with my general assumption.

The reason why I was wrong was because I mainly sell subscriptions. In order to do "Recurring Payments" you have to pay that $30 payments pro fee every month to avoid the customer creating an account. Or to avoid that fee, they create an account and it becomes a paypal subscription. Some customers are adverse to creating accounts.

For normal, one time payments I agree with you the customer does not need a paypal account. (In my head, I was confusing the two)

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

I have two membership sites that are subscription (recurring) and I don't pay an extra fee for that, but I don't use Pro.

I think people signing up for subscriptions should have a pay pal account, better chance your going to get that money every month. Not a guarantee, I've had subscriptions fail, but I think you get more committed subscribers.

 

[TCoder]

TCoder

Happens all the time, they just don't have the funds available. When I switched over to ClickBank, the issue with failing subscriptions dropped. Now the only time a subscription seems to fail is the customer doesn't update their credit card information.

The thing I don't like with ClickBank is that they don't offer yearly membership options. With Clickbank, they offer Paypal as an option, believe it or not, not many people choose to pay with Paypal. I think it's because a lot of my customers are corporations and I guess they have corporate credit cards and not corporate Paypal accounts.

 

[Ron Killian]

I've never been a big fan of Clickbank. Can't even tell you why. Only thing that bugs me is that they charge you to hold your money over if you don't make the minimum. I remember one time I had some sales in there, but it dwindled to pretty much nothing because I did not get over minimum. Never really pushed CB products. Don't know of any other platform that charges to hold you money over.

Odd they don't offer a year option, think many marketers could use that. Not many people use Pay pal huh?

I've thought about other payment options, but then you can spread you money out and take longer to get it in hand. Different minimums, ect.

 

[mantra]

Depends what you are selling.
I prefer Stripe for tangible products that I need to ship to customers. Stripe is great, payment within 2 days.
I haven't used paypal in years. They do tend to hold funds for various reasons. You never when it happens, but it happens.

 

[xen_em]

I as a buyer feel most safe when I can pay with PayPal account. It's some kind of guarantee that everything will be okay: the credit card info won't be stolen since I never enter it, that I can request a chargeback if the seller is not honest, etc. So if there are 2 websites with the same prices and shipping term, I will select the one with PayPal. Though their transaction fees may be not the lowest ones. But it's a burden the merchant carries, not me as a customer =)

 

[vishwa]

I am Using PayPal from past 6 years and there is no issues with them. I accept and withdraw funds from my PayPal account without any issue. For eCommerce transaction PayPal is no doubt a No.1 choice. The important thing is that if comply with there Guidelines and terms than there is no problem with your account. However if someone get their account screwed than it will be not factual to blame the both parties without knowing the reality.

 

[Salmonjames]

Guys, I have started my store. I don't have PayPal with me neither I want. However, the hosting platform is offering me 5 different things so what do you guys suggest. Which one should I opt from please suggest me other than PayPal

 

[yrmott]

yrmott

What do they offer you?. Please list them out so we could help you make your decision.

 

[Salmonjames]

They are offering

PayPal,
2Checkout,
Authorize.NET,
BPoint and
Elavon

So what do you say?

 

[FoxMetrics]

One thing to consider with your ecommerce site and accepting payments is your hosting. Some payment processing will not work without a proper SSL or the secured hosting plan. Depending on how you have thing set up it may not be an issue but if things are not working on your site or payments are not going through for some unknown reason, it may have something to do with it.

 

[Salmonjames]

Well definitely when it comes to this, then we need to focus. This is why choosing the right e-commerce platform is imperative and equally important for business growth.

 

[Hazel Styles]

In my experience from a customer perspective, credit card payment is best or PayPal for any eCommerce website.

You need to have a knowledge of your countries payment methods and currency differences where you are targeting for your product.

Its always best to use secure features for your eCommerce website so that consumers are not hesitant to share their information with you. Visa or Master card is good method as it works for most of the regions and Paypal also is a good choice.

 

[EnricTellez]

I always go for iDeal because it's just the savest option for me, but iDeal is not something everyone is familiar with. So in those cases I just use Paypal.

 

[Web Expert]

Hi!

Depends on how you are delivering the products.

Paypal is good in some aspects but as i said it all depends on how you are delivering.


Thanks

 

[daniel27lt]

On all my membership sites I only use PayPal and Stripe for direct credit card transactions. 90% of all purchases within my sites are paid via PayPal. I've never had any issues with PayPal or Stripe.

The thing I'm really liking lately is the use of Stripe. It seems they've thought of everything. It's really good when you have recurring payments too. I automatically set up withdrawals to be sent to my bank account every month without having to worry about anything.

 

[Ron Killian]

Ron Killian

I've thought about Stripe, but don't know that much about them. So payouts are monthly? Also, how are they better for users compared to pay pal?

 

[rozzski89]

rozzski89

I was also recommended to Stripe but I never used it before.

What about transfer fee in Stripe? Is it cheaper than Paypal?