"PayPal: the Grand Daddy of Online Sales Transactions"
by Merle
Published on this site: April 20th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
I love PayPal. They've been doing business online almost as long
as I have, and they're constantly improving and adding new features
to their service.
According to their website ( http://PayPal.com
), they have over 56 million accounts and more than 53,000
people who sign up for new access every day. They deal in
transactions totaling over $48 million per day.
PayPal makes it easy for anyone to take payments over the
Net with no need for a merchant account. What that means to
you is lower fees and a level playing field. If you've been
hesitant to start your online business because you thought
you couldn't afford your own merchant account, PayPal is all
you really need.
There are three types of accounts:
- Personal: For your personal shopping use. You cannot
accept debit or credit card payments, but sending and receiving
money is free.
- Premier: For buying and selling under your own
name. Send payments for free, with low fees for accepting
money.
- Business: This is perfect for your online business.
Add your own name to be included on your customer's credit
card statements. Sending money is free, but you are charged
small fees to accept payments.
There are no set up fees and the fee you pay PayPal when
accepting cash is based on your sales volume for the month.
- Standard Rate: $0 to $3,000 - pay 2.9% and .30 per transaction
Merchant Rate: $3,000 to $10,000 - 2.5% and .30 per trans $100,000
and up - 1.9% and .30 per trans.
To apply for the merchant rate, you'll have to have one month of
sales that meet the ranges above and fill out a short application
to get approved.
Many of the options I'm going to point out to you are for "business
accounts" only, so you'll want to go that route when registering
or upgrade your current account to that level.
Paypal has added so many new features over the years, it's hard
to keep up with just how powerful it is. I'm amazed every day at
the variety of features that can make your life as an online entrepreneur
run as smooth as silk.
Let's take a look at some of these options:
- Shopping Carts: If you sell multiple items on
your site, PayPal has a built in shopping cart. Just copy
and paste their buttons for an instant store front. No third
party software needed.
- Subscriptions/Recurring Payments: If you sell
a service that needs to be paid for monthly, you can set
up this type of payment option on your site. This is great
for trial periods and membership sites.
- Donations: Maybe you don't sell anything, but
you have a very informative site or newsletter. A PayPal
button suggesting your readers make a donation is one way
to help defray your costs.
- Optional Papal Accounts: One of the drawbacks
to using PayPal used to be your buyer had to register for
their own PayPal account. This is no longer true and you
can select in your control panel to make it optional, not
mandatory.
- Customized Payment Pages: You can add your website
colors and logo to PayPal's payment pages.You can create
and save up to three different page styles for a seamless
check out process.
- Logo Center: If you accept PayPal on your site
you'll want to add logos to your website letting the world
know. You'll find many shapes and sizes to use.
- Invoicing: Send your customers detailed invoices
via email. You can include detailed line items, descriptions,
tax and more. You can save up to 10 customized invoices
for later billing purposes.
- Payment Request Wizard: Did you know you can add
payment buttons to your Outlook and Outlook Express messages?
This is a quick and easy way to get paid faster.
- PayPal Debit Card: If you have a PayPal account
you'll want to get a debit card to go with it so you can
easily access your funds at at any ATM. The card has a Mastercard
logo so you can go shopping and the money will come out
of your PayPal balance. You can also use it to draw out
cash from your account up to $400.00 per day. You'll also
earn 1.5% cashback on your purchase.
- Refunds: Anytime you receive a payment, you can
easily refund it by clicking a button up to 60 days after
the sale.
- Mass Pay: Easily send payments to large groups
of people. This would be an easy way to pay your affiliates
if you run your own affiliate program.
- Packing Slips: If you sell hard goods you can
create packing slips for your shipments.
- Shipping Calculator: Easily add shipping costs
for your "buy it now" buttons or your PayPal shopping
cart items.
- Seller Protection Policy: If you meet their guidelines
you can protect yourself from liability and PayPal will
absorb the chargeback at no cost to you. Covers up to $5,000
on any fraudulent transaction and is for tangible goods
only.
- Auto Return: You set the url for your buyers to
come back to after they make their payments. Great for setting
up your download page for what they purchased and makes
for instant delivery.
Since eBay also owns PayPal, they've also integrated some pretty
cool tools for eBay Sellers:
- End of Auction Emails: When your auction ends,
wouldn't it be nice if you could send a customized email
with all of the details included automatically? Now you
can. This is great for putting nervous buyers at ease when
they are waiting to hear from you.
- Auction Logos: If you want to offer an option
in your eBay listings so buyers can pay you directly you
can manually add a PayPal logo to do so.
- Post Sale Manager: If you sell many items on eBay it
can be a full time job tracking it all. With PayPal Post
Sale Manager you can easily manage invoices, shipments,
and feedback on everything you sell.
- Shipping Center: USPS and UPS have teamed up with
PayPal to offer you integrated service in one location.
Calculate shipping
costs, print shipping labels, track shipments and much more.
- Buyer Financing: Add promotional financing to
your "big ticket" items so your eBay buyers can
more easily afford to purchase with monthly payments.Buyers
are approved within 30 seconds
and you get paid your full price immediately.
- eBay Gift Certificates: Send eBay Gift certificates
to your friends and family so they can buy anything on eBay
as long as the seller accepts PayPal.
As you can see, PayPal is all you need to run your online
business. If you thought all you could do was accept or send
payments, you're missing out on the powerful features that
makes PayPal the perfect business partner for any entrepreneur.
And as partners go, that's one thing you can both agree on.
Trevor Bauknight is a web designer and writer with over
15 years of
experience on the Internet. He specializes in the creation
and maintenance of business and personal identity online and
can be reached at [email protected].
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