Google Checkout vs. Paypal
Being a web developer, I am usually asked to make a website for a business. Business operate on money; therefore, usually some sort of selling is required. I have used both paypal and google checkout to process credit cards, there are advantages to both, and cons to both. Paypal has been around for many years, and I first helped my brother in law (Jon Lewis) start his online business using paypal. Paypal was good about fixing orders, but has been known to reject many credit cards due to its strict processing credit card checks. I have implimented Google Checkout on a site of mine, and am very pleased. Paypal is more popular, so more people are willing to use it. However, Google Checkout is as fast and efficient as checkout out gets. So here is the run down:
Cost to operated. Both paypal and Google Checkout offer similar fees for running a credit card. It is a percentage of the sale, no monthly fees, and both are fairly close in price. Google Checkout is a little bit cheaper, but probably not enough cheaper to be worth mentioning.
Ease of Implimentation. Paypal is about as easy as it gets, place a button, sell a product. This is good, but does not offer flexability. They do offer more advanced solutions as far as Integrating with your site throughout the entire transaction, however, these require https (encrypted) websites and custom shopping carts. Since it is usually more hassle than its worth for a quick ecommerce website, I will leave these features out. Google Checkout offers the same, place a button, sell a product. However, they also offer an intermediate step up for those without an https website. With this method, you form a shopping cart in your page, encrypt it with your merchant id (which nobody should know), and submit it via a button to Google. This allows you to guarentee nobody has altered your shopping cart in transit, since only Google knows the merchant id to unlock the shopping cart. This method of implimentation is what I recommend for a balance between functionallity and ease of setup. The third method is available, but requires a secure website.
Features. I am not sure how far paypal has evolved since I last used it, however, Google Checkout has an option for almost anything and everything. With the second method of implimentation, features such as return URLs, Modify Cart URL’s, Cart expiration date, varying shipping rates, tax zones, shipping location limitations (eg. All 50 States).
In my opinion, Google Checkout will gain ground due to its well developed, highly customizable, easy to work with interface. It clearly explains each of the 3 levels of implimentation available.
As I was about to offer a link to the 3 levels of implimentation, they have now split it up. Level 1 got put into its own category, so now, levels 2 and 3 are now levels 1 and 2 respectively. I recommend Implimentation 1 on this page Google Checkout Developers Center.
I have developed my own shopping cart system for Google Checkout. Ask questions and I will gladly answer as time permits.
Jeff
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October 6th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
Hey Jeff,
Does Google Checkout have a virtual terminal?
I haven’t looked too extensively into Google Checkout. I have customers who need 3 day shipping, 2 day, or overnight. Can this be set up in GC? We offer free shipping, but we usually charge for faster shipping methods. Since our products range in weight is there a way to set different prices for shipping by weight?
The one thing about Paypal, like you said, is they have been around longer so they have a little more clout especially if you have a lot of customers who are Ebayers.
October 7th, 2006 at 12:19 am
Shipping by weight has always been a difficulty, so what I did was write a script that caculates the shipping based on weight and service type. It worked, but in the end, I always wanted to set my price manually to be certain it was calculated correctly. The USPS shows exactly how they caculate shipping prices on their website, so I based my script off of that.
As far as virtual terminals. Google only offers one solution. Take the order in person or over the phone; post custom item/amount to Google Base (https://www.google.com/base/); email customer a link to the Google Base item for sale. In short, the answer is no.
October 7th, 2006 at 9:44 am
That’s cool. You should sell that script. Could that script work inside on a completely static site?
I was actually working on setting up a Virtual Terminal with my local bank, but they haven’t called me back. Makes me want to deal with a different company since my bank has such lame customer service to get me started on their VT. I wanted to switch from Paypal’s VT since it has rejected several cards since we’ve been using it. I set the the VT to be more lenient so we’ll see how it performs the next few months.
October 7th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Hey john… i think you should contact this people
http://www.merchantequip.com
They will tramit with several gateways… as authorize.net
the chances to get apporved are high..
it cost $39.95 to get started and only $10 a month for the gateway.
Rates are 2.25% (regular Visa/MC) and 2.00% (checkcards) both
cardtypes are .25 cents per transaction with the check crads having an
additional .05. The account includes a 15 dollar minimum and an 6 dollar
statement fee
July 19th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
I am so grateful to see there is finally a real alternative to PayPal. I have not been a PayPal fan & find PayPal to be only viable for small ticket items, subscriptions or ebay transactions. It is too hard to get your money out of PayPal - who wants a monthly limit to the amount of money you can withdraw or be forced to use a debit card to buy other stuff??? Who wants the hassle of slowly withdrawing your money?
I love the incentives for AdWords users! I have been using AdWords to effectively grow my business over the past few years. Now Google is rewarding me for services I already use… it is a win win. I continue to grow my business & get to process my orders through Google Checkout. It appears I may have to FIRE my merchant account provider now due to the fees they charge. This is a HUGE savings annually.
I have begun to use Google Checkout for my mid-ticket items & it seems flawless thus far!
Thank you Google!
December 9th, 2007 at 5:49 am
I am just beginning to use Google checkout on my stores site @ http://www.ilektroniks.com and have processed a few payments but ran into an erro where my shipping module doesn’t calculate shipping. An issue but so far I think Google checkout is cool!
ilektroniks.com
February 26th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
I create a shopping cart and use both Paypal and Google Checkout. Would you tell me how to encrypt my checkout button in google checkout? I can not find any information on google checkout website.
Thank you!
February 29th, 2008 at 10:37 am
My brother-n-law wrote this post so I will have to see if he can come and answer your question.