online sales - what's the best provider?

RedBern · 7 September 2014 at 5:00PM

Hi,
I'm involved with a social enterprise which is going to be selling on the web. The web designer has said we can use paypal to take payments, or another method. He thought (but wasn't sure) that paypal may be quite expensive? Anyone have any advice for a secure way of taking internet sales or is paypal the best?

thanks

InsideInsurance · 8 September 2014 at 1:12PM

PayPal does have higher per transaction fees than more advanced setups but requires a lot less commitment, lower standing charges and releases the money quickly.

If you are confident in the business and are sure you'll have a good turnover and no immediate cashflow issues then go another route. If you are testing the market/ have doubts etc then PayPal is sufficient for now.

There is also the element of trust, people dont know you but do know PayPal and so for some it may give them more confidence in keying in their credit card number. Of course the counter argument is that PayPal only is the sign of a small company and so highlights the fact you are small and so may be a risk to buy from you

radu_ · 9 September 2014 at 3:28PM

I think InsideInsurance is right.

If you are confident that the business will do well and want to look for a more sustainable solution, Stripe might be a good one although it requires a decent developer since is more technical. Also Amazon Payments is available in the UK although I am not sure what you need to do in order to start using it.

We use PayPal because we are working the other way around(as in we pay our members) and it is easier that other solutions for the time being.

To start with I think PayPal is a great way of testing.

RedBern · 17 September 2014 at 9:48PM

Thanks both. Will have a look.

online sales - what's the best provider?

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