[jamesy]

Hi Guys,

I have been hanging round the edge of the business arena for a few weeks now and have finally decided to go for it with a fairly small project to get me started. I’ve got an idea for an e-commerce site and I have a friend who is going to look at the web design for me (Need to see if this works out although he does work in this field) The question I have is about online payment methods and cost. How expensive or cheap is it to have CC payment and or Paypal? High-end chocolate is the product and I don’t want costs eating into profits excuse the pun.

Cheers
James

[jdpos]

For CC Payment your best going with Google Checkout as the fees are significatly cheaper.

As a merchant account Paypal is best for features but worst for fees. If you want a merchant account search around google for reviews on merchant accounts.

[Cathy]

High end chocolate is a right I tell you!

How can you consider charging for it???? *sobs*

Seriously though, shop around for a merchant account, maybe approach your own bank first and then check with others for comparison.

I've not used Google checkout but...for chocolate...I could be persuaded

Good luck with the project.

[IP2]

Not convinced Google Checkout is your cheapest option...Barclays/ Lloyds can offer some highly competitive rates if you can meet projected cashflow.

Google may be big in search, but it is yet to be a bigger player in merchant services than our banks. (Although that day may come!)

[tommy]

Protx is a well respected in this field and the fees aren't to bad either. But what ever you do stay away from Nochex!!

[MSC]

[quote=tommy;46588]Protx is a well respected in this field and the fees aren't to bad either. But what ever you do stay away from Nochex!![/quote]
Tommy do you mind elaborating on any problems you know if with nochex?

Jamesy hello and welcome! I am in a similar boat although it isn't high end chocolate but skin care, which I am about to lauch the end of this week I have set up a google checkout account and have paypal. The problem I can see with google is that people have to have already registered their cc details on their google account. I am not sure how many people are using google checkout, so I suppose only time will tell. The good thing is that you can have google checkout along with something else.

[tommy]

[quote=MSC;47034]

Originally Posted by tommy

Protx is a well respected in this field and the fees aren't to bad either. But what ever you do stay away from Nochex!![/quote]
Tommy do you mind elaborating on any problems you know if with nochex?

Nochex over the past year or two have been closing accounts, not paying out merchants money due to unbelivable reasons, there customer service is shockingly bad and very unhelpful.

But if I was you I would offer a couple of different payments if you can just so customers do have a choice as some people dont like using paypal.

Tom

[PointandStare]

Paypal is the easiest and most accessible in that even if you don't have a paypal account you can still use it.
Google on the other hand requires you to open yet another account.

I'd start with paypal and work up from there.

[Poppy Design]

Hi

Paypal should be free to set up (providing your shop cart supports it) and thereafter takes a percentage fee on sales.

Protx - a lot of my ecommerce clients use this and seems pretty fair - I think it is about £20 per month (though you will need an Internet Merchant Account probably via your bank).

The ecommerce software I use supports payment by cheque + payments By Paypal, Protx, Nochex, Worldpay, SSL so you could have them all!

Being practical though - if you can offer your clients a non-online method (i.e pay by telephone, by cheque via post) and also an online method you should be pretty covered)

If you need any more help give me shout - I do lots of online shops with different payment processing options.

Joanne

[mts]

I would recommend using a cart which paypal supports or looking into what your bank can offer you.