Do people mind paying through paypal?

[blackdog]

I recently met a guy who works for an auto parts company and we started talking about the idea of me distributing a few of their products online.

Anyway, I've never done an ecommerce site, so what i was thinking of doing was setting up the site and doing a little experimenting with adsense, search feed, etc to see if i can get a decent ROI.

now this is just a little experiment for now, so i don't want to throw too much money at it. so i was hoping to use paypal for the time being so that i don't have to deal with setup fees and etc with a credit card processing company. that way i don't lose quite as much money if i decide that this isn't going to work out.

what i'm wondering is will using only paypal hurt my conversion ratio? because i believe you can pay with a credit card through paypal even if you don't have an account... so would consumers have a problem with this?

thanks for your insight!

[SantaRosaDesign]

It's true that your users can pay with a credit card, so I don't see any reason why it should matter to them.

[WebDevGuy]

they have a new program where they don't have to be a paypal member to use paypal services. It's like $20/month but they never know they're using paypal - in fact you can use pay on your site!

[Spider Ninja]

For myself, I never mind paying through paypal and I always enjoy getting paid through paypal ;-)

[maro25]

I would say that a LOT of people prefer to pay by paypal if it was provided

[dreamscape]

I would say that a LOT of people prefer to pay by paypal if it was provided

If they already have an account and see paypal is offered, that might be true. But I seriously doubt a lot people who don't have an account see it and say, "Oh wonderful I've been wanting to try paypal. Now I can."

Their new merchant like program, paypal pro or something, might be worth a try, but just regular old style payal payments, you are likely to only get customers who already have an account, and very few who do not.

[chrisfer]

2 problems I have encountered in discussions with customers regarding paypal. First new online consumers don't want to sign up to have to purchase anything, it's an added step you might not want, as well new online consumers don't always know what paypal is (remember just because you have been online since forever doesn't mean your customer has been).
Second paypal has a reputation along the lines of E-Bay, that is a giant online garage sale. I have had customers tell me they refuse to use paypal because they don't trust it.
If you want to go low budget go for paypal, if you want to impress customers and increase conversion get better.
Cheers

[Musicbox]

paypal is very good company.

[xella]

paypal is very good company.

yes, but that is until they limit or close your account without warning & thoroughly screw up your busines!

[paypalrb]

new online consumers don't want to sign up to have to purchase anything, it's an added step you might not want, as well new online consumers don't always know what paypal is

With PayPal's Account Optional checkout, your customers don't have to sign up for a PayPal account. They can pay by credit card without signing up.

You could also consider using PayPal's Website Payments Pro, which is the version that costs $20/mo. The Direct Payment API that comes with Pro allows you to support a credit card checkout on your own website without the customer seeing that it's processed through PayPal. (You would also need to offer Express Checkout for your customers who want to log in to PayPal to pay.)