Sun Sept 8 2013 16:31:47 |
Online Payments in Flux as Google Exits, Amazon Expands
By: Ina Steiner
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It's starting to sink in with online sellers that Google Checkout will no longer be available come November, and while PayPal is popular with many online shoppers, merchants and marketplaces are looking for additional methods to offer customers.
Online marketplace Bonanza stopped offering Google Checkout on Friday in advance of the payment service closing. (Google will retain its mobile wallet offering.) While Bonanza said it wanted to make sure it could address any issues in advance rather than having to do so during the holiday shopping season, it gave no advance notice to sellers. It's working on offering shoppers the ability to use credit cards, but has nothing yet to announce.
Bonanza made an interesting revelation: the majority of transactions on its marketplace had been via PayPal - "by a large margin" (not surprising) - but PayPal was followed by Checkout by Amazon, not Google Checkout as some might have guessed.
That's right, you can buy an item on Bonanza's marketplace and pay using the credit card you have on file with Amazon. And it won't be surprising if more marketplaces begin adding Amazon Payments as a payment method for the convenience of their shoppers.
eCrater, another marketplace popular with small sellers, only integrates with PayPal and Google Checkout. But it allows sellers to accept checks and money orders from their customers.
So too does Etsy - shoppers can send a check or use PayPal on Etsy, and it also launched Direct Checkout in which Etsy itself process payments on merchants' behalf, allowing customers to keep a credit card on file with Etsy.
It's interesting to note that PayPal and Amazon Payments received the most ratings in the 2013 Sellers Choice Awards followed by ProPay and Square. The full results of this year's Sellers Choice Awards in Sunday's Update newsletter tell an interesting story of how merchants view these four payment services in a number of areas, including fees and customer service.
As Google sunsets its Checkout payment offering, competing services will be the winners. It behooves merchants and marketplaces to offer customers more choices and let them decide which payment method they prefer. |
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