Just curious, how has going from paypal only to paypal and a merchant account combined increased your sales? I'm wondering if it's worth finally taking the plunge since I see roughly 400 people a day go to step_one of my cart, and only 40 or so go to step_two. Any input would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Credit card acceptance with your own merchant account should be your primary source, PayPal is a decent back up but it cannot replace the ability to handle credit card orders with your own merchant account.

Take the plunge Bohica. You should always have at least two processors; just in case one goes down for whatever reason. The more payment methods you can provide your customers, the better.

Also, some "newbie" customers (which are not Internet savvy) don't like PayPal because it takes them off your site to make the payment, which concerns them.

If you are in the United States or Canada and procesing more than $1,000 a month, a merchant account is usually a lot better in the long run.

Yes, the "plunge" will more likely be a major boost in sales! In the beginning we had only PayPal and added Authorize.net, we nearly doubled our sales.

BTW, 400 hits is impressive, any good marekting tips?

Oh yes.

It's a move to do before there's too much subscriptions into your PayPal. Imagine the hell, you'll be into if PayPal suspend your account and you're totally dependant of it?

A merchant account isn't as cheap as PayPal, but it allow you much more control in the long run.

Offering PayPal is a most though. Theres lot of people that like to pay with their bank account.

Cheers,
Matt

I guess I'm going to do it then. Seems that the overall thumbs up is for having paypal AND a merchant account.


Originally posted by twhnman
Yes, the "plunge" will more likely be a major boost in sales! In the beginning we had only PayPal and added Authorize.net, we nearly doubled our sales.

BTW, 400 hits is impressive, any good marekting tips?

That's just hits, I only get about 100 unique visitors hitting step_one, of which only about 6-7 a day actually order and I'd like to increase that to at least 10. Hopefully getting a merchant account will help bump that up. :)

Paypal offers merchant services for a monthly fee now:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overview-outside

Originally posted by ChokEy
Paypal offers merchant services for a monthly fee now:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-pro-overview-outside

Yeah, but my cart doesn't work with it. :bawling:

I offer three options to my customers:

1) PayPal
2) CC / Debit through my Merchant account
3) Mail-in

A year or so ago, PayPal was the most choosen option by new customers. That has now shifted to direct CC / Debit through my merchant account.

We've used CC + Paypal from the start (2.5 yrs ago) and CC is the primary payment method.

We just keep PP around because some people still think it's the safer way to go and that it's more convenient.

Well, you said it yourself that you get 400 potential clients, but only 40 real clients a day. I think it is definately time for a move!