# Google Launches Google Checkout a PayPal Alternative



## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

Looks like Google has officially launched their *Google Checkout service*. This appears to be a direct competitor to PayPal, with some interesting features (especially for merchants like us).



Google Checkout said:


> *
> Process sales for free. *
> For every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free. For sales that exceed this amount or if you don't use AdWords, you can process them at a low 2% and $0.20 per transaction.


I just signed up for an account there to accept payments and it was pretty painless. Google does ask you for your Federal Tax ID or Social, but other than that, it's a pretty quick application.

You can add Google "Buy Now" buttons to your website:









They have also partnered with a few shopping carts to have automatic integration (none of the free ones unfortunately). 

They also have an API for those programmer geeks out there to integrate into just about any cart 

This could be a good way for people who want to accept credit cards, but don't have a merchant account (and want an alternative to PayPal) to get started selling. They even use "t-shirts" as their example buy now button 

One of the first things I purchased (on the consumer side of Google Checkout) was a t-shirt from t-shirts.com. The process was very similar to PayPal, except that there were more updates about the status of the order.

Definitely worth "checking out":
*https://checkout.google.com*


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## dub3325 (Jun 7, 2006)

wow, awesome rodney, thanks for posting. I'll have to look into it.


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## jdr8271 (Jun 16, 2005)

I think this is one area where google can't compete. Im sure if google made it, it will be aawesome, but paypals got ebay. 

Also, alot of people have money sitting in their paypal accounts that they want to spend. By using google checkout, you could loose those customers. 

I have personally never had a problem with paypal


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## Solmu (Aug 15, 2005)

jdr8271 said:


> I think this is one area where google can't compete. Im sure if google made it, it will be aawesome, but paypals got ebay.


On the other hand Google has Google 

I think they're in with a chance. They're cheaper, PayPal is evil, and Google isn't. It's not an easy market, but we're talking clash of titans stuff here.


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## monkeylantern (Oct 16, 2005)

jdr8271 said:


> Also, alot of people have money sitting in their paypal accounts that they want to spend. By using google checkout, you could loose those customers.


Never leave money in your Paypal account! They are not a bank! That money has zero legal protection (you have, in essence, given it to them to do with as they wish, which may not include giving it back to you).

Paypal is great in terms of a service (albeit evil ethically). But they are not under any watch dog.

re google, I was reading about this last week. It looks very interesting (I presume we all subscribe to www.auctionbytes.com newsletter?). Combining advertising and processing costs is ingenious. I have great hopes.

Does it work like Paypal in that a customer can just enter their details as with any merchant account website sale, as opposed to having to open a Google account?


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## ShirtHappens (Jun 26, 2006)

Couple days ago i read on another board something similar that paypal uses peoples unused money to pay people when they have bad transactiona or something like that, dont quite remember, dont know if its true but reading that they can do what they wish with your money then it could be true.


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## lawaughn (Jul 5, 2005)

Great link Rodney.


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## identityburn (Feb 24, 2006)

Yeah I read about this the other day. I'll probably stick to paypal for now unless this proves to be much better. I'll check it out.


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## teestyle (Jul 1, 2006)

It's a pretty staggering release for Google. The number of merchants and payment processors they've already lined up is quite impressive.

If they improve on the shipping and sales tax pieces in the back-end, it'll be bliss.

In the meantime, what I'd really love to see is Printmojo, CafePress and Spreadshirt all adopting this, so that I could consolidate all my products in a single simple storefront. I actually might create a Google Checkout shop for my Spreadshirt stuff in the meantime and just drop ship products to the buyers.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I don't think you have to do an either/or Google/PayPal.

But offering Google as a payment option in addition to PayPal can help you convert those shoppers that do not want to use PayPal for whatever reason.

Google is a much larger company with a stronger overall brand (how many times in tv/movies do you hear people "googling" something? How many times do you hear people in offline media talking about PayPaling something?).

It couldn't hurt to have a payment solution with such a strong internet brand.

I wouldn't give up PayPal though. I've used them since they were x.com and haven't had problems.


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## normsbrand (Jul 26, 2006)

I wonder if you use google, if it would help get your stuff ranked higher on their search engines.

just a thought.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

> I wonder if you use google, if it would help get your stuff ranked higher on their search engines.


I don't think you will rank higher, but if you use Google Adwords to advertise your ecommerce site through Google, you get a little shopping cart (Google Checkout) icon next to your listing which can help your ad stand out over others.

I was just about to do some testing today to use it on one of my shops, but it looks like I'll have to make changes to the way I handle sales tax to make it work with my shopping cart.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

normsbrand said:


> I wonder if you use google, if it would help get your stuff ranked higher on their search engines.


It absolutely should NOT affect how you actually rank with Google; that'd be really against what Google tries/claims to stand for.



monkeylantern said:


> Does it work like Paypal in that a customer can just enter their details as with any merchant account website sale, as opposed to having to open a Google account?


Unfortunately, it appears that they will NOT offer that. If they did, I'd likely switch to them full-force and drop Paypal completely. Here's a quote from the Checkout info strongly implying that users will have to have a Google account:



checkout.google.com said:


> Lengthy checkout processes frustrate online shoppers who then frequently abandon their shopping carts. When your store accepts Google Checkout, your customers needn't be among them. The purchasing information of every Checkout user is stored in a single account, so they can buy from you by simply providing their username and password.


So, I'll probably stick with Paypal for now, and possibly add Checkout as an alternative option when there is a free pugin for zencart to integrate it (full integration, so it works with the databases and such).


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## m4nti (Aug 24, 2006)

Of course there's also another problem I always encounter (and I mean *always*).

It's the fact that I live in _Malta_. PayPal like a million others doesn't send payment to this god-forsaken island, which means I can never do business with PayPal (unless of course I want to keep my money in a paypal account -- which I don't). So if google checkout will send cheques to people living in Malta and those that live in the 'banned' (kinda) list of PayPal cheque-sending it will definitely help it (google checkout) gain popularity!

=)


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

m4nti said:


> Of course there's also another problem I always encounter (and I mean *always*).
> 
> It's the fact that I live in _Malta_. PayPal like a million others doesn't send payment to this god-forsaken island, which means I can never do business with PayPal (unless of course I want to keep my money in a paypal account -- which I don't). So if google checkout will send cheques to people living in Malta and those that live in the 'banned' (kinda) list of PayPal cheque-sending it will definitely help it (google checkout) gain popularity!


Hehe. Well, Checkout is only for the US right now, but that's how Google usually does things - in stages, gradually improving them over time. They'll surely add support for Germany & the UK soon at least. Malta probably isn't on their 'high priority list', but they might add it eventually.

I don't believe most people usually have Paypal send them checks anyway though - they usually do direct transfer into a bank account.


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## m4nti (Aug 24, 2006)

twinge said:


> Malta probably isn't on their 'high priority list', but they might add it eventually.


But surely there's nothing wrong with hoping ^_^



twinge said:


> I don't believe most people usually have Paypal send them checks anyway though - they usually do direct transfer into a bank account.


How troublesome is that? I seem to remember you need BIC and some other number from the bank... right? Do you need to fill up a whole lotta paper work @ the bank for those numbers? Or are they something like public? (Maybe pm me so as not to drive this thread off topic?)


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## Despotte (Jun 2, 2006)

Is VERY easy to set up your bank account with PayPal (at least for a US bank) you can do it all online and you even make a few cents while doing it because they confirm the account by sending you two "tests" of a "unknown amount" that when you see it deposited in your account you enter those numbers into the "test" area and you are all set up. You do need to know your BIC but that is all on the bottom of your checks.

BTW a Good News / Bad News thought about leaving some money in your PayPal account for you. Bad News My wife just left me and took all my money in my bank account. Good News My pay pal account is untouched however. I have heard UNSUBSTANTIATED rumors that PayPal takes your money to pay others but that just seems REALLY stupid and if proven would cause the entire system to collapse I have used (and recommended) PayPal for years and NEVER had a problem with it. I get better Rates on PayPal then my checking account So I frequently leave some money in it. It is quick and easy to transfer between the two accounts so I like the fluidity of having both. That being said I will probably set up a google account also for a THIRD account.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

Despotte said:


> I have heard UNSUBSTANTIATED rumors that PayPal takes your money to pay others but that just seems REALLY stupid and if proven would cause the entire system to collapse I have used (and recommended) PayPal for years and NEVER had a problem with it. I get better Rates on PayPal then my checking account So I frequently leave some money in it. It is quick and easy to transfer between the two accounts so I like the fluidity of having both. That being said I will probably set up a google account also for a THIRD account.


Now, that rumor doesn't really make sense anyway as such I'd say. However, Paypal has been known to freeze accounts (where you cannot withdraw any money for them) for whatever reason they deem acceptable - which can often be essentially no reason at all. I don't know if they do this as badly as they used to (they had a class-action suite filed against them a while back), but they definitely have retained a very poor reputation because of it.

For more information (from an obviously biased but still informative source), you might check out paypalsucks.com


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## Ken Styles (Mar 16, 2006)

^ that website is 99merchant in disguise. They want you to use their service instead of paypal..


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

Ken Styles said:


> ^ that website is 99merchant in disguise. They want you to use their service instead of paypal..


I'd be interested to know any truth in this, but there doesn't appear to be any presence of a '99merchant' on the web. Typo, or...?

I do know there was a real class-action suit against Paypal for it's actions. Beyond that, I can't personally say for sure, since Paypal hasn't screwed me over


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