EcommerceBytes-Update, Number 282 - March 06, 2011 - ISSN 1528-6703 
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Sellers Choice Awards: Rating the Online Payment Services
By Ina & David Steiner
In February 2011, AuctionBytes expanded the Sellers Choice awards by surveying nearly 1,000 readers about the online payment services they had experience using. We asked readers to rate the payment services on a 10-point scale in four areas: fee structure; dispute resolution process; account holds, rolling reserves and restrictions; and popularity among customers (buyers). We also asked them to indicate how likely they were to recommend the service to a friend or colleague.
This survey follows closely on the heels of AuctionBytes' second annual Sellers Choice awards for Marketplaces in January when nearly 2,800 sellers rated 16 online marketplaces - see a summary of those results here.
Google Checkout came out on top overall in the 2011 Sellers Choice Online Payment Services ratings. Skrill, previously named Moneybookers, came in a close second and was the top recommended online payment service. Although PayPal lagged in some of the categories, coming in fifth place, it was cited as most popular among buyers.
| AuctionBytes
2011 Sellers Choice Ratings Payment Services |
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| Marketplace | Fee Structure | Dispute Resolution Process | Account Holds, Rolling Reserves, Restrictions | Popularity with Buyers | Would you Recommend? | Overall |
| Amazon Payments | 6.77 | 6.12 | 6.36 | 6.68 | 6.59 | 6.504 |
| Google Checkout | 7.31 | 7.03 | 7.51 | 6.27 | 7.59 | 7.142 |
| Paymate | 3.76 | 3.68 | 4.14 | 3.71 | 3.55 | 3.768 |
| PayPal | 4.49 | 3.45 | 3.33 | 7.22 | 4.51 | 4.600 |
| ProPay | 5.26 | 4.94 | 5.00 | 4.74 | 5.00 | 4.988 |
| Skrill (MoneyBookers) |
7.38 | 7.06 | 7.13 | 5.78 | 7.66 | 7.002 |
Background
We asked respondents to indicate all of the places they sell online; eBay drew the largest percentage (77%), and a significant number also sell on their own ecommerce website or storefront (39%) or other venues, including Bonanza, Craigslist, eCrater, Amazon.com, Etsy, eBid, Half.com, ArtFire, Webstore, iOffer, Atomic Mall, Delcampe and others. (Many respondents are multi-channel sellers, so the answers are not mutually exclusive.)
Two of the six online payment services have a greater penetration overseas with lower adoption in North America: Moneybookers (recently renamed Skrill) and Paymate. While AuctionBytes includes international merchants among its readership, the majority are based in North America.
Checks and cash are not dead - while 98% of respondents accept an online payment service, respondents also accept other payment methods: 76% accept paper payments (checks, money order, and/or postal money order), and 59% accept cash. As the following chart also shows, 28% of respondents accept credit cards and almost 3% accept mobile payments.
How It Breaks Down - Fee Structure
We asked respondents, "As a seller, how would you rate (online payment service name)'s fee structure?" Skrill (Moneybookers) scored highest on fee structure, followed by Google Checkout and Amazon Payments.
How It Breaks Down - Dispute Resolution Process
We asked respondents, "As a seller, how would you rate (online payment service name)'s dispute resolution process?" Skrill (Moneybookers) scored highest on dispute resolution process, followed by Google Checkout and Amazon Payments.
How It Breaks Down - Account Holds, Rolling Reserves, Restrictions
We asked respondents, "As a seller, how would you rate (online payment service name)'s when it comes to account holds, rolling reserves and restrictions?" Google Checkout scored highest on account holds, rolling reserves, restrictions, followed by Skrill (Moneybookers) and Amazon Payments.
How It Breaks Down - Popularity with Buyers
We asked respondents, "As a seller, how would you rate (online payment service name)'s popularity among your customers (buyers)? PayPal scored highest on popularity with buyers, followed by Amazon Payments and Google Checkout.
How It Breaks Down - Would You Recommend
We asked respondents, "How likely are you to recommend (online payment service name)'s as an online payment service to a friend or colleague? Skrill (Moneybookers) scored highest on would you recommend this service, followed by Google Checkout and Amazon Payments.
Summary
No matter how dissatisfied online sellers may be with an online payment service's fees or policies, they may be forced to use it due to popularity among buyers or due to marketplace requirements - PayPal is clearly in that camp for many respondents.
We asked respondents to let us know why they rated the service as they did and to leave additional comments about each of the online payment services. You can find each marketplace with the results of the Sellers Choice survey on the following pages.
Page 1 Sellers Choice Marketplace Ratings: Amazon Payments
Page 2 Sellers Choice Marketplace Ratings: Google Checkout
Page 3 Sellers Choice Marketplace Ratings: Paymate
Page 4 Sellers Choice Marketplace Ratings: PayPal
Page 5 Sellers Choice Marketplace Ratings: ProPay
Page 6 Sellers Choice Marketplace Ratings: Skrill Moneybookers
We thank all readers who took the time to rate the marketplaces. If you have comments about the survey results or the survey itself, please feel free to post them in the AuctionBytes Blog.
About the author:
Ina and David Steiner are publishers of EcommerceBytes.com and have been writing about ecommerce since 1999.
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