Retailers: Are you using PayPal to accept payments ?

[EGOL]

We started using PayPal Express Checkout to give customers the option of checking out with PayPal.   I was shocked to see 25% to 30% of our customers going with that option.

So, now I am considering using PayPal Website Payments Standard or Website Payments Pro to replace my merchant account.

If you are using a PayPal solution either as a customer option or a full payment solution, how is it going for you?  Does it work as smoothly as a merchant account?   Has it changed your conversion rate?  What kind of chargeback and fraudulent transaction experience have you had?

Any experience that you have to share is appreciated.   Thanks!

[max.favilli]

I am using PayPal as a payment option on a couple of website from day 1, paypal have been preferred by an average 35% since then, slightly behind credit cards (the two other options are cash-on-delivery and wire-trasfer).

I have been shocked by these numbers too.

We use Website Payment Pro, the customer UX is subpar when compared to the two credit cards getway we use but customers doesn't seems to care, the merchant management user interface (to manage refund and phone payment solution) is incredibly sluggish.

In terms of conversion rate changes I cannot judge because we never A/B tested with or without.

In terms of fraud, since it's not asking Visa 3DSecure and MasterCard SecureCode it's positively more prone to frauds. But in my experience the merchant protection they offer is good, we had 90% of our fraudulent orders covered, even in months where frauds were higher than the limit of 4% of total payments theoretically covered by the contracts.

[EGOL]

Thank you very much, Massimiliano, for this detailed report on your experience.

I appreciate it. 

[LesleyPaone]

I use paypal exclusively for my business as an ecommerce developer, but I have a lot of clients that use paypal for their standard ecommerce sites as well. If I were to make a recommendation I would say use standard and pro together. If you do that you offer your customers a regualr credit card type solution and also a paypal solution too. But one thing that is not advertised that a lot of people do not seem to know is if you handle over 5k in transactions a month, paypal will lower your standard rate by .5% to make it 2.4%. If you handle over 10k a month they will lower it to 1.9%. If you make it to the the 50k a month they will the price of both the pro and the standard yet further, but it is not a general cut you negotiate the rate at that point.

[EGOL]

Thank you, Lesley.

That is great information that could save us a lot of money.

Much appreciated.

[LesleyPaone]

EGOL,

No problem. If you are thinking of switching to them one other thing I know that they do is pay aprt of the cost of getting their gateway integrated. Like I have mentioned before I work with PrestaShop, the Paypal Pro module for PrestaShop is $200. With all of my clients that have switched they I have gotten them to cover the module with an account credit. So that is something to look into as well to make it a seamless little out of pocket transfer too. If you need, I can PM you the person I generally work with at PP's email address, they are in the pro department.

[EGOL]

Thank you, Lesley.   That is good to know.