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Will that be Cash, check, or Credit Card? Why not payment processing, like Amazon™ or Paypal™? Better yet; there’s an alternative, and it’s called Google Checkout™.
“Holy payment services Batman, a new payment service from Google?” Yes, from the creators of one of the worlds most renowned search engine companies, the people that practically redesigned how we search the internet; comes Google Checkout™.
There is a new way to process your online purchases. It is similar to other online payment sites, such as PayPal, and Amazon in its functionality. All you have to do is fill out a form with your shipping information and your credit card number while using this new checkout service. You only have to do this once. Google Checkout stores all of your personal information so that you can use it on future purchases. It keeps a log of your purchase history so that you can view and keep track of them in the same place and browser program. The information shared with the vendors is limited by you and Google.
Google Checkout also provides fraud protection which will reimburse you for fraudulent purchases. It makes for safe, speedy and effortless shopping. Just look for the shopping cart icon next to the business that you will be purchasing from. This is located right next to the merchant listing on Google.
There are rumors around the internet that Google Checkout is meant to become a Paypal killer; this is highly unlikely. Even though Paypal has become a very popular payment processing service on the internet, they make most of their money on purchases made by transactions on their parent company, eBay. Google Checkout is not designed to be a person-to-person system like PayPal. , With its pricing structure and user-friendliness, Google Checkout is a persuasive option for businesses, regardless of the businesses’ size. Google Checkout charges their merchants a lower processing fee than many other payment service providers: $0.20 per transaction plus 2 percent of the total payment, compared to $0.30 plus 2.9 percent for PayPal. Credit Card companies charge much higher fees still. Retailers that already use the Google AdWords advertising program will benefit most from becoming a Google Checkout partner; for every $1 spent on advertising on AdWords, Google will process $10 in sales for free. With companies like Buy.com, Timberland, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Starbucks Store, it’s safe to say that Google will not be targeting person-to-person transactions.
The real threat is to Amazon. Known greatly for its convenience, it stands to loose the most out of this new payment processing service. As previously mentioned, Google checkout aims at making shopping easier by gathering all of your necessary information and putting it all in one place for easy access; efficiently improving your shopping experience. This certainly makes the whole idea more appealing. The only obstacle for Google is gaining the trust of the customer; with their reputation and internet relations this should not be difficult at all.
With all these impressive features and reasons to try Google Checkout, there has to be some kind of downside. Come-on, nothing is perfect! There are several things to keep in mind when making your decision about switching to Google Checkout. The first would be the security risks. Google combined proprietary services GMail and AdSense with their new Checkout system. Does this mean that you would have to get creative with your user name and password? Many people would say to just keep changing your password every few weeks and use inventive password combinations. Another thing to worry about is the processing time and the possibility to affect delivery time. Since the ETA is not given or specified by Google Checkout and this service is relatively new, you may not get your items during the suggested time frame. The most important concern is one that I came across while researching this new Payment Processing Service. Apparently Google Checkout has some limits; this means that both customers and merchants may have set limits as to the purchases made and payments received (these limits are determined by Google and imposed based on certain criteria that they decide on). For example: if you are a merchant with these set limits, if you sell $950.00 through Google in the current month, you will receive a $500.00 payment from Google for the entire month, and the remaining $450.00 will be held by Google until the following month. If you make more than $50.00, the next month the balance in excess of $500 will carry over again until the following month, creating a cycle of carryovers that will leave you exhausted and quite possibly broke if you’re depending on those sales to help manage your cash flow. At the present time I’m yet to receive any explanations from Google as to exactly how their payout limits work and how to go about removing such a limit.
Stay tuned, we will be giving updates on this new service from Google here and on our blog (http://www.seomatrix.com/wordpress).In the mean time I suggest studying Google Checkout’s Terms of Service and FAQ’s very closely before switching to this new service. In theory, Google Checkout has the potential to become the industry’s leader in payment processing.
Cheers till next time, and Happy Shopping.
Josue Rodriguez
SEOMatrix
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