Selling products and services online can be a very useful thing to do. Many businesses and non-profits want to be able to let customers use their credit card to pay online rather than taking payments over the phone or in person.
One option is to have a full blown shopping cart system…and that’s certainly ideal. But a good (much cheaper) alternative is PayPal. Fresh Look Web Design recommends PayPal for any organization that wants to accept credit card payments while cutting costs and minimizing risk.
No Risk
With PayPal’s Website Payments Standard program, which is what we are highlighting here, there are no start-up fees, monthly fees, or cancellation fees. So for businesses or non-profits that want to try out the concept of accepting online credit card payments, PayPal is a good option. There is no risk involved.
It’s Easy to Setup
To use PayPal only requires a familiarity with the computer. You don’t need to understand code or anything technical. You simply follow the instructions, and they provide you with the code to put into your website. If you maintain your own website, simply copy and paste what they give you. If someone else maintains it for you, just copy and paste the code into an email or Word Document and send it to your web developer.
It’s Easy for Your Customers
PayPal does not require your customers to sign-up to pay online. All they do is enter in their credit card information and they’re done. No hassle.
Who should use PayPal?
Anyone can use PayPal, but we think it’s especially useful for:
Example
- Non-profits who want their users to easily donate online
- Organizations with only a few products to sell
- Organizations with a limited budget
What does PayPal cost?
The standard option with accepting credit cards with PayPal is called Website Payments Standard. The pricing details are below:
- No setup fee
- No cancellation fee
- No monthly fee
- Fee of $0.30 per transaction
- Additional fee of 2.9% per transaction (or if you have high monthly sales volume that percentage can drop, see table below)
| YOUR MONTHLY SALES | YOUR FEE PER TRANSACTION | EXAMPLES |
|---|---|---|
| $0 to $3,000 | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 fee on a $100 sale |
| $3,000+ to $10,000 | 2.5% + $0.30* | $2.80 fee on a $100 sale |
| $10,000+ | 2.2% + $0.30* | $2.50 fee on a $100 sale |
| $100,000+ | Call 1-888-818-3928 | |
For eligible non-profits, the rates go down to 2.2% for monthly donations up to $100,000, and 1.9% for more than $100,000 in monthly donations.
What this means is that if you don’t any products or receive any donations than you don’t pay anything. The downside of course is that you do lose a percentage on every sale. But if you can encourage more sales/donations than you would otherwise with no online payment option than it’s definitely worth it.
So whether you want to use PayPal to test the waters of online payments, or as a permanent solution to your website, PayPal is an excellent alternative for those looking to save perhaps several hundred dollars on a shopping cart. We hope that you can use it to make your business even more successful, and if you have any experiences you would like to share, please let us know!
