# Opinions about Google checkout



## chigirl (May 21, 2007)

I have registered my domains, put a starter page on my Brother-in-Laws
server and even got the buttons up and connected. Now, I think I need to
pick a shopping cart and merchant account before I can begin to add
my designs to the webpage.

I am looking at Google checkout. I believe it is free until Jan 1, 2008
then they charge 2% + .20 per transaction. They also will give you
$10 worth of free sales processing for every $1 you spend on google 
ad words. 

1. Has anyone been using Google checkout, and if so, how do you like it?

2. How do the 2008 fees conpare to paypal? Is there anyone cheaper?

3.Do you use the adwords? Does it work for you?

4.Do you think you loose any sales because your customer has to sign up
for a google account first? DO you offer an alternate payment method 
just in case?

5. What cart works best with google checkout?

6. Any merchant account or shopping cart advice you can offer?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Kimberlee


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> 1. Has anyone been using Google checkout, and if so, how do you like it?


I've used a couple of times, but I took it off my site because of the requirement to signup for a google account first.



> 2. How do the 2008 fees conpare to paypal? Is there anyone cheaper?


It's a bit cheaper than paypal. You can see paypal's fees here:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees-outside



> 3.Do you use the adwords? Does it work for you?


Yes and yes. It's not just pick some keywords and bid, though. You need to do a lot of research and reading or else you'll waste your money. More info here: http://www.t-shirtforums.com/tags/adwords/



> 4.Do you think you loose any sales because your customer has to sign up
> for a google account first? DO you offer an alternate payment method
> just in case?


Yes, I think you'll lose some sales. Not sure how many...that's hard to judge. Google is a big, well known, internet brand name, so they may be more likely to give Google their private information than you, a startup, unproven company.

I don't think Google checkout should be your only option. Paypal has more users who actively use PayPal as a buying tool (with money in their paypal accounts). If I was going to choose one over the other, I'd go with PayPal to start out with.

Ideally though, you want to be processing your own credit card transactions using a regular merchant account.



> 5. What cart works best with google checkout?


Read here: Google Checkout



> 6. Any merchant account or shopping cart advice you can offer?


I like cubecart (free) and e-onlinedata as a merchant account (has monthly fees)

More info can be found by searching the forums for shopping cart, merchant account, paypal, etc.


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## chigirl (May 21, 2007)

Rodney said:


> I've used a couple of times, but I took it off my site because of the requirement to signup for a google account first.


Can I / should I use both pay pal and google check out? I will get
a regular merchant account once business picks up.

Can I use Cubecart for the pay pal and google checkout?

I'll have someone helping me set them up tomorrow. How long does it take just to set up before I begin to add my designs? Any tips? I know I will have a ton of questions tomorrow once we get started.




Anyone else been using google checkout? Pros & Cons and what cart are you using with it?

Thanks Kimberlee


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> Can I / should I use both pay pal and google check out?


Yes, for the most part, offering more payment options is a good thing.



> Can I use Cubecart for the pay pal and google checkout?


Yes, Cubecart is the shopping cart that displays your products, allows customers to select sizes, add products to a shopping cart, and when they checkout, you can configure cubecart to show customers BOTH PayPal and Google Checkout payment options (and credit card options once you have your own merchant account).


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## fourducks (Aug 21, 2007)

Hi, I have used Google checkout for almost a year now and plan on keeping it as an option. The fees that will go into effect next year are still cheaper than PayPal's and not really much different than taking credit cards directly. I offer Google, PayPal and credit cards directly on my site. I think that the more payment choices you give your customers the more likely they will be to complete the checkout process. Plus atleast with Google and PayPal there's no monthly account fee like there is for a standard merchant account. I use Zen Cart and they have a mod that can be installed to give you level 2 access to Google's checkout system. It takes a little work to get it installed and working, but they have good support for getting it installed. Hope this helps!


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## Your Mantras (Aug 13, 2007)

I graduated from 'Starter Edition' Google Adwords, to 'Standard Edition', and I have found the 'analytics' section fantastic. It shows you all the stats on who is visiting your site (countries) how many pages they view, how long they look, what pages, browsers they use etc. So it is great to give you valuable research with no extra cost. I recommend it to everyone!


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