eBay® PowerSeller Business Practices FOR DUMMIES®

Chapter 38. Payment Options for Your Web Site

In This Practice

• Discovering all the merchant options

• Integrating PayPal Web-site services

• Getting an additional merchant account

You already know that I'm a huge fan of PayPal. Allowing customers to pay with credit cards can boost the sales of any online business by as much as 30 percent. I suspect that percentage is actually higher because a definite trust issue takes over once buyers are comfortable paying for online purchases with credit cards. I won't buy from an eBay seller if I can't pay with a credit card — and I'm not alone.

According to what I've read on the Internet, businesses can lose up to 80 percent of impulse buys if they don't accept credit cards. Many eBay purchases are impulse buys. You know how it goes. You start to search on eBay, then look for something else; then find an item you want to buy so you check the seller's store . . . and that leads to an unplanned impulse buy.

Breaking down the ways people pay for Internet purchases clearly demonstrates that credit cards are the key to successful online sales:

• Credit card online: 85%

• Check mailed: 10%

• Credit card via phone: 2%

• Credit card via mail: 1%

• Other method: 2%

If you think that PayPal is only for your eBay sales, think again! Before eBay purchased PayPal, approximately 15 percent of PayPal's revenues came from online gaming (read: gambling!). Since eBay took over in late 2002, PayPal no longer draws revenue from this sketchy area. And there's good news for us; today ...