Google Checkout (PayPal Killer?) versus PayPal - A Review
Google Launched Google Checkout today. It appears to be a surefire PayPal killer.
Google Checkout like PayPal Website Payments Pro provides developer API to integrate third party shopping carts with Google Checkout. The API looks much more capable (like archiving) than PayPal at first sight and comes with good examples.
Google Checkout like PayPal is free for consumers. It charges the merchant. However the fees are significantly less than PayPal.
PayPal Website Payments Pro charges $20.00 USD monthly fee. The transaction fees are 2.2% to 2.9% + $0.30 USD.
In Google Checkout for every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free. For example, if you spent $1,000 on AdWords last month, this month you can process $10,000 in sales at no cost. The more you spend to promote your business through AdWords, the more you save on transaction processing fees with Google Checkout. This is a nice bonus for big AdWords merchants.
If you exceed your free transaction processing for the month, or you don't advertise with AdWords at all, you'll only be charged 2% plus $.20 per transaction. No monthly fees.
Google Checkout provides comprehensive Dashboard for order processing.
Checkout proactively identifies and filters out fraudulent transactions, and under our Chargeback Resolution policy, Google evaluates all chargebacks you receive and, whenever possible, fights them on your behalf.
Some transactions are also covered by our Payment Guarantee policy: if you get a chargeback on an eligible transaction and give us all requested documentation and information within 10 days of the request, we'll reimburse you within a week.
It provides nice integration with AdWords allowing buyers to directly purchase from AdWords advertisement.
What are the limitations?
Merchants with a U.S. address and bank account can process transactions through Google Checkout. Buyers with a U.S. billing and mailing address can make purchases through Google Checkout. In shoort Google Checkout is currently US only service.
Overall I think Google Checkout is a surefire PayPal killer in the long run, especially when it expands internationally.
PS. If you liked this story please consider digging it.
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July 3rd, 2006 at 1:02 am
[...] Angsuman compared Google Checkout to PayPal. [...]
July 4th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Nice article about Checkout! Thanks for providing this
The only two things I’m currently missing in Checkout in Adsense account support (buy stuff from the Admoney you made) and European Checkout!
(see the Terms, its currently US only)
July 20th, 2006 at 7:09 am
[...] But far from being only a beaut of a concept for AdWords users… if you don’t advertise with AdWords at all, you’ll only be charged 2% plus $.20 per transaction. No monthly fees. (Taragana) [...]
August 28th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
I just stumbled across this post while comparing Paypal vs. Google Checkout.
I notice you quote PayPal’s monthly fee for Pro, but Google Checkout doesn’t allow you to process payments entirely on your own site, right? So you should probably compare it to PayPal Basic. If Google Checkout had an option that didn’t require my customers to go to google.com for a couple pages, for no monthly fee, it’d be a no-brainer. Here’s hoping they add that.
September 11th, 2006 at 9:09 am
[...] How to reliably accept payments online? You can signup for a free PayPal account which allows you to accept payments online. I would recommend setting up a business account. They charge 2.9% + $0.30 USD for transactions below $3000. Another reliable option (for US merchants only) is using Google Checkout (review). [...]
October 9th, 2006 at 4:45 am
In response to Matt, I believe they have that, it’s called “Website Integration!”
October 9th, 2006 at 9:26 am
I missed Matt’s comment before. They do allow complete website integration as Big J pointed out.
July 19th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I am so grateful to see there is finally a real alternative to PayPal. I have not been a PayPal fan & find PayPal to be only viable for small ticket items, subscriptions or ebay transactions. It is too hard to get your money out of PayPal - who wants a monthly limit to the amount of money you can withdraw or be forced to use a debit card to buy other stuff??? Who wants the hassle of slowly withdrawing your money?
I love the incentives for AdWords users! I have been using AdWords to effectively grow my business over the past few years. Now Google is rewarding me for services I already use… it is a win win. I continue to grow my business & get to process my orders through Google Checkout. It appears I may have to FIRE my merchant account provider now due to the fees they charge. This is a HUGE savings annually.
I have begun to use Google Checkout for my mid-ticket items & it seems flawless thus far!
Thank you Google!
August 14th, 2007 at 10:09 am
con quien estoy?
August 16th, 2007 at 5:36 am
Google Checkout is now available for UK businesses. We’re considering migrating accross from paypal.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Just to correct the misinformation above, the user experience with Google Checkout is not the same as the experience with PayPal Payments Pro (Direct Payment). In the latter, the user never has to leave your site. With Google Checkout the user always enters their credit card information on Google’s web site, not yours, regardless of the integration mechanism you’ve chosen.
April 5th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
As soon as Google gives me the ability to process the credit card orders myself instead of emailing my customers, then I’ll sign up (I sell services and not on a website). I’m not going to wait around on my customers to get the whim to pay me. Until Google fixes that, I’ll continue using PayPal’s Virtual Terminal.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:47 am
I’m pretty disappointed in GCO as an end-user actually. I ordered from a place, and due to a bug where I pushed “back” on the browser my order was submitted, except it was under the wrong address. Because I used GCO, the place refused to change the shipping address, and I can only place a new order. I asked GCO to intervene and contact the seller with my correct shipping addressed but they just give me a canned nonanswer about how to use GCO.
The place says my only option is make a new order, but the camera I’m ordering is no longer at the sale price that I originally ordered it for, so I’d be $250 (the difference in sale price)
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Anything is better than Paypal. Paypal offers no protection to the sellers, I know many people lost money and goods because of Paypal Charge Back Reverse Scam. Paypal also holds payments in your account for many stupid reasons such as “if you are on Ebay less than 6 months, and item is sold over $100″ along with many many more rules to hold your money, while Paypal makes millions of dollars of interest every day on the holds. So use Google Checkout or Moneybookers if you are a seller. You will be much safer!