Merchant Account

**Will** · 03-10-2005, 07:15 AM

I always thought that worldpay fees had been scaring away new and small merchants, but now they will also lose their current customers.

So what do we have now? - 2checkout, e-gold, ikobo, paypal. I think they are worth checking, however you can always find unsatisfied customers.

**chromate** · 03-10-2005, 07:35 AM

Never heard of e-gold. Wouldn't use paypal because I reckon too many users would drop out of paying just because they have to register before they can pay. I'm scared of ikobo

So perhaps 2checkout. But their transaction charges are way too steep.

Perhaps I would start with 2checkout, but then I think I would just go to barclays or something and set up a propper merchant account, get an SSL cert, pay someone to secure a server and process payments myself. You could also take payment over the phone that way too.

Edit: Just an update on my ecommerce findings... Seems a lot of brand name companies I'm trying are not allowing their distributors to supply ecommerce only stores. Reason being, with the lower overheads, it would be too easy for e-tailers to undercut their brick and mortar shops. So to preserve existing relationships with shop owners, they wont supply ecommerce stores. SUCKS!

**dSub** · 03-10-2005, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by chromate

AWCH! Thanks for letting us know. That really is a massive hike in charges. I'm not surprised you're p*ssed off with them. I would be too! That would also go some way to explain why they removed their pricing structure from their site. It'd scare too many people off.

Hmm it's a shame. If I were to start an ecommerce store, I'm not sure who I would use now.

AHA! So it's wasn't just me not being able to find anything about their fees. They had just removed it altogether. I find that not very professional and also misleading. Isn't there some kind of law to force them to display their fees and so on? I mean what if someone wants to sign up and then they discover their sky-high fees? That just ain't right!

**ozgression** · 03-10-2005, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by chromate

Wouldn't use paypal because I reckon too many users would drop out of paying just because they have to register before they can pay.

Paypal now have an option to not require sign-up to send payments. Eg. You can now accept credit cards, in the same style as 2co does.

**chromate** · 03-10-2005, 04:20 PM

Really? Ah right. Thanks for letting me know. Maybe they are an option then.

**ozgression** · 03-10-2005, 09:22 PM

I think that option is selected by default.

**Will** · 03-16-2005, 10:05 AM

And I never saw any site offering me to pay thru paypal, without having an account – there’s always login/register account procedure, which must be completed in order to make the purchase.

**lz83ny** · 03-16-2005, 11:47 AM

Probably only few know about this option. I didn't know either.

**dSub** · 03-17-2005, 02:31 AM

Probably so. All I ever hear regarding this, are people complaining about the fact that paypal requires buyers to register before then can actually perform the transactions. You may be right, not many people may know you can change that. I for one didn't know about that.

**Will** · 03-17-2005, 08:10 AM

I’m not sure I understand; actually merchants decide if the buyers must sign up the account with paypal? In my opinion it’s illogical. Why doesn’t paypal cancel the registration at all?

**dSub** · 03-17-2005, 11:11 AM

Because paypal just won't let it go. I mean it's great opportunity to have people create new accounts without too much marketing and promotion. They let the merchants handle that, and once a buyer is interested in something from a specific store he or she will have the account automatically created. This way paypal gains more and more accounts, who may be actually used again, not just for that transaction.
Perhaps it's not fair, but I don't think paypal got where it is today by being fair I suppose...

**Will** · 03-18-2005, 04:05 AM

And I just found out that this option is available only for the US merchant with proper accounts.

**chromate** · 03-18-2005, 06:13 AM

Agh! No good for me then

**dSub** · 03-23-2005, 03:32 AM

Of course they will do their best to restrict these facilities since they aren't bringing any real advantage to paypal. All they really want is more and more accounts and that's about it. Doesn't matter if it's actually helping its users or not. Hopefully their competition will get better and better so there will be alternative choices apart from paypal.