Payments processing - PayPal or PayEnemy

[petad]

(sorry about the title...)

We currently use PayPal Standard to process payments from our site, which means that customers are taken to the PayPal site to complete their transaction.

We are concerned that people may be abandoning their purchases when they realise this is what will happen, either because they don't have a PayPal account and think they will need to sign up, or because they don't trust this method of payment.

We could upgrade to PayPal Payment Pro, which means the processing would be done on our site, but we are still not sure this would fix the issue.

Would be interested in hear views from others on the subject, and if they have found any better ways of processing payments.

[TeamTorquesteer]

I would say about 15% of our sales are now paid for by our customers using PayPal. Ive found it excellent and certainly havent had any issues with people abandoning their purchases etc.
The only downside is when someone pays via an Echeque which takes about a week to clear.

Martin

[entertaintoday]

I use the paypal pro and have had an SSL certificate installed. I've definately seen an improvement on sales conversions and would highly recommend it to all of you. Costs £20 a month to have the paypal pro account, but if you catch it at the right time, they often do a month or two for free, depending on promotions.

[Bumps & Beyond]

I use paypal too and had wondered if it put people off. I have just offered a facility for people to pay by cheque or postal order or Bankers Draft- and the day after I put it on I got a big order to be paid by cheque, the only down side is will the buyer follow through and send the payment?!

We have alos put a note on below the paypal icon to say that you don't need to register with paypal to use it.

If you use paypal payment pro do you get any reduction on the percentage they take from your sale?

[entertaintoday]

I don't think so - yesterday I took an order for £39.60 and they took £1.55 of it.

I don't know if you can do this with normal paypal, but I also like the bluepark feature that doesn't take the money until you are ready to, incase you cannot fulfill the order etc. Also does card security checks on the customer to lower the chances of fraudulent transactions.

[little-linguist]

the only down side is will the buyer follow through and send the payment?!
We used to offer cheque payment as an option and it was more hassle that it was worth. Although obviously we only sent orders out once payment was received, we were constantly having to chase customers up for payment. Probably only 75% of people actually sent a cheque after they'd ordered. Then there was the hassle of getting to the bank to pay the cheque in (and the charges for doing so!) and customers were very impatient waiting for the cheque to clear, calling everyday to find out when their "urgent" order could be dispatched. Plus, we once got charged £40 from our bank when a customer's cheque bounced. That was the last straw and we went to credit / debit card payment only.

Paypal haters - have you looked at Protx? The charges are very reasonable.

[petad]

If you use paypal payment pro do you get any reduction on the percentage they take from your sale?

Unfortunately the minimum percentage they take is actually higher (1.9% compared to 1.4%) if you take on PayPal Pro (though that is for monthly transactions value above £15,000 - we wish!). The maximum percentage, 3.4%, stays the same for transactions under £1,500 per month, whether you are a Standard or Pro user.

Pete

[Bumps & Beyond]

thanks for the advise, I think I will see how the cheque payments go and leave paypal as it is for the time being!

[petad]

I use the paypal pro and have had an SSL certificate installed. I've definately seen an improvement on sales conversions and would highly recommend it to all of you. Costs £20 a month to have the paypal pro account, but if you catch it at the right time, they often do a month or two for free, depending on promotions.
Hi David

We are currently applying for PayPal Pro, and feel an SSL certificate is needed to reassure customers, as they will now be inputting credit card details via our site.

Can you recommend an SSL certificate - did you do much research before you chose? And how easy/hard is it to install?

Pete

[Rich]

Can you recommend an SSL certificate - did you do much research before you chose? And how easy/hard is it to install?

We recommend the Thawte brand for our clients, which we supply:

http://www.bluepark.co.uk/products/thawte-ssl123.html

We will take care of the installation for you.

[petad]

We recommend the Thawte brand for our clients, which we supply:

http://www.bluepark.co.uk/products/thawte-ssl123.html

We will take care of the installation for you.
Thanks Rich. I think we will go with Thawte.

Just one question - do we have to have an SSL certificate if we use PayPal Pro, or is it more for added security/customer reassurance?

Pete

[Rich]

Yes, an SSL is required as you're capturing credit card details on your own site.

[Angella]

I used to use Paypal until one of my customers tried to return a wig that was three months old, I refused to accept the return under terms and conditions, so she reported her card as stolen and therefore fraudulently used. Paypal asked for an explanation of which I sent them the emails and they immediately took £109.00 out of my account in July, they say it is an ongoing enquiry, but have not returned my monies, so I have pulled them off my site and now work with Protx as my payment provider.

www.internetwigs.com (http://www.internetwigs.com)

[Adva Trading]

Hi all,

I have noticed there is a posting about problems with Protx:

http://www.bluepark.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=48

Anybody here at Bluepark uses other Credit Card service?

[Dave]

Hi Eran,

Welcome to the Forum!

We use Protx as our payment provider and are very happy with the interface between Bluepark and Protx. Sometimes problems do occur with Protx but this is not unique as HSBC, Worldpay etc all have problems at some stage. We also give the customer the option of using Google Checkout.

We can not recommend Bluepark highly enough and are sure you will not be disappointed if you take the plunge!

Regards,

Dave

[petad]

Hi all,

I have noticed there is a posting about problems with Protx:

http://www.bluepark.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=48

Anybody here at Bluepark uses other Credit Card service?
Hi Eran

We use PayPal Pro, which allows transparent processing of Credit Cards on our site. In the 3 months we have had it, we haven't had any problems, though our volumes are fairly low. We're happy with it so far, and it only costs £20 pm.

Pete