I had three site selling toys, which I launched about a year ago, and sold (for a great profit) six months later. The sites all offered both PayPal and Google Checkout as payment methods.

I had a look at the number and value of orders processed by each over the six months, and it was about equal.

On the one hand, you could argue that this is great news for GC, as it was fairly new at the time, but still managed to grab 50% of the payments.

On the other hand, you could call it a victory for PayPal, since Google is a very trusted name in the web world, but they still only managed to take half of the payments. If PayPal were really as hated as some people make out, then you would expect a trusted name like Google to sweep the board clean.

So I’ll leave to it to you to decide, but it is clear to me that you need to offer both to make the best of your site.

I would like to try some experiments with this, and split-test offering both, and one or the other. It would be interesting to see how (or if) sales are affected.

Ta ra
Alan

Steve, What is your web address, Lynn, you have my permission to give Steve my email address so he can contact me with his web address.

Thanks

I hope you didnt mind my sharing our conversation with ClickNewz readers, but I knew they would enjoy it as much as I did!

Your new site looks great – very nice start. Perhaps one day I’ll get brave and become a customer of yours… *grin*

Regarding PPC etc- my mother shops online and is a general internet user like most, and understands that there are paid listings vs free listings. She has always been incredibly helpful to me when it comes to insight on outside perspective with things like this.

It might be fun to grab my cam and do a random public survey at some point – I think we might all be surprised to hear what people think of the things we are overly familiar with…

Just to clarify, I wasn’t defending PayPal, just pointing out a fact. I agree with your comments about them, and push my customers to use Google Checkout wherever possible (even though this is against the PayPal TOS!).

I’m surprised at your comments on the way people view PPC though. I assumed (maybe wrongly) that most people wouldn’t think so much about them.

Ta ra
Alan

Yes, I prefer Google because everything I use is Google. My cell phone is a T-mobile G1, my search engine is Google, my address book, my calender, my contacts, everything is linked with Google. It makes it easier to have everything is one place. I can click on the link and check out, my info is saved and it takes me less time preventing me from getting buyers remorse and canceling that sale that you could be profiting off. Overall Google has everything I need, I’m comfortable with Google!

Yes, Alan PayPal may be used more, but it has also been out for nearly a decade. Where Google just released check out about 2 years ago. That’s five times longer to build a clientele and establish itself as a leader. I just don’t trust pay pal anymore. It reminds me of old dirty chairs and pyramid schemes. I would rather pay more money and use Google checkout than use PayPal. Also, Google is growing and spreading its business model from just a search engine to producing operating systems for telephones, to street mapping the entire world. I think its time to jump on the bandwagon and understand that Google has a bright future ahead of it.

Just so everyone knows I had very little knowledge of internet sales, marketing, or being an affiliate. Most people who have a little bit of internet/computer knowledge could tell you what pay per click is. I’m not saying your average 15 year old myspacer could tell you but a good majority of people do understand the concept.

Great Job Lynn and thank you for your help and inspiration,

Steve

For example, PayPal is way more used that Google Checkout, even though the latter has a much more trusted company behind it. Also, it sounds like Passenger Steve had some idea about IM, even if only a basic view from a consumer. Most people would never think about PPC and typing in the URL.

So, very interesting, lots of fun, but be careful how you use such information. You can end up rewriting your core business based on the opinions of one person, only to find out that most people don’t think like that!

Thanks for a great post Lynn,
Alan

I find it hard sometimes to understand how others view pages on the internet since I know more about them than the average user, but this is a good reminder that we need to continually put ourselves in our readers’ and customers’ shoes.

Also, it reiterates the fact that we need to keep everything as simple as possible when it comes to how our visitors interact with our site. Keeping the long, complicated forms on our site will end up costing us a lot of customers.

Anyone with a niche ecommerce or affiliate site could appreciate the insight, I’m sure. I actually wrote this blog post in the shuttle from the airport to the Hard Rock hotel (on my way to the OTE2 event). I did quite a bit of blogging while I was traveling – I just didnt get it all published. Yet

And Chris – I dont think that’s weird at all. Many marketers teach that you have to get your target market in mind, all the way down to that micro level of being able to connect with who they are and what they like and how they live. Being in tune with your market is what helps you stand apart from the rest and dominate your niche!