Pixmania, Amazon and PayPal attending Insite
July 23, 2008
Pixmania, Amazon and PayPal have all been confirmed for the ChannelAdvisor Insite events taking place around the country this summer. All three companies will make a short presentation and then host a round table where interested sellers will have the opportunity to talk directly three of the biggest names in ecommerce.
Amazon sales are growing at a fast rate than any other marketplace and many sellers listing on Amazon are seeing better results than on eBay. PIXmania are due to announce news on their PIXplace marketplace. PIXmania boast 15 million customers a month visiting the site. PIXmania is a part of DSG (Dixons Stores Group) and looks likely to be a great new venue for many sellers in the run up to Christmas, I’ll be interested to hear their plans on opening up the site for business sellers.
If you want to talk to Amazon, PIXmania or PayPal the Insite conferences will be a great chance to talk direct to the management of each company. The first Insite takes place in London on the 21st August with further dates in Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester.
eBay.com, .ca sellers told ‘PayPal required’ in error
July 22, 2008
Sellers listing on eBay.com and eBay Canada may be receiving messages telling them that PayPal is required on their listings in error today. eBay say that they are aware of the problem and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.
With so much speculation that ‘compulsory PayPal’ will be rolled out beyond the UK and Australia, this will be one glitch they’ll want to fix as soon as possible.
eBay shop has new products and ships worldwide
July 16, 2008
The eBay shop has had a complete revamp and opened with tons new product lines. Even better they now ship worldwide so if you’re after some eBay merchandise they’ll even ship to the UK.
I couldn’t resist so I had to do a test purchase (no I’m not going to say what 
). First thing that struck me was that they DON’T accept payment via PayPal! I’m amazed that an officially authorised outlet selling eBay merchandise only accept credit cards - didn’t anyone tell them that PayPal is the safest way to pay online?
The second surprise was a nice one, they didn’t charge me anything for shipping. I was expecting to at least pay a premium for an international purchase, and I’m not sure if this was a mistake or if it’s intentional but I’m not complaining either way.
If you’re after some eBay goodies there’s sure to be something of interest (I recommend the recycled notebooks - they’re fab, I picked one up at eBay live!).
They can also cater for bulk orders and even customise items with your eBay User ID, email them at customerservice@theebayshop.com for more information on special orders.
Updated I’ve actually spoken to the eBay shop today and they’ve been flooded with orders from the UK so please hold off placing any more orders for a few days. I’ll update the post again once they’re set to ship. There will be shipping charges so if you’re really desperate for some cool eBay merch in the meantime give them a call on 1866-252-3229 
PayPal competition offers a year free of selling fees
July 10, 2008
After the stick, the carrot: PayPal are offering the chance to win your eBay and PayPal fees paid for a year. There’ll be one winner picked each month from August to January; each of the six lucky winners will have their fees from January 2008 credited back to their PayPal account. Knowing that you could spend the last four months of the year selling fee-free sounds a pretty nice way to cover the Christmas spendy season, no?
There’s a catch (you knew there’d be a catch). Only users who accept all payments with PayPal will be eligible to win the grand prize. That’s right: if you take cheques or postal orders or bank transfer or Nochex, you’re not going to win.
Personally, I’m rather torn on this one. In fact, all my eBay sales *are* paid for by PayPal, but I still do list a couple of other payment methods as acceptable. Is it worth editing all my listings to be in with a chance with this one? What do you think?
PayPal claims shown in eBay dispute console
July 10, 2008
eBay.com have just announced that PayPal disputes will now be shown in the dispute console on eBay. It will show the status of open disputes, as well as indicating when you need to take action. If you’re unfortunate enough to have a number of claims open, this should make dealing with them a little easier. The change on the eBay.com site will be made in the next few days.
PayPal isn’t compulsory on eBay UK (if you’re a big enough seller)
July 7, 2008
eBay UK sellers must accept PayPal. It’s the rule. It’s been the rule since 3rd June. And it’s to increase buyer protection and confidence, so that’s alright. Right?
Not quite. Not if you’re one of the really big sellers, whom eBay will keep happy even if it means ploughing up that famous level playing field.
Questioned on the PowerSeller Board about Dell’s lack of a PayPal offering, pink Joe had this to say:
When we made the Paypal change, our seller support teams contacted our largest accounts to discuss this. A very small number of sellers, including Dell, who use a different checkout process were unable to adapt their technologies in time. So we created a new policy such that if a platinum powerseller met certain conditions, we would work with them to migrate their systems. Those conditions include that the seller must offer their own payment protection policies such that buyers have access to the same cover as Paypal would provide and that they migrate quickly. It is that, and not the country, that allows Dell to list without Paypal for a short period of time.
Smaller sellers who want to use their own merchant accounts to process card payments rather than PayPal will be extremely unimpressed with this. As several people have commented on the original thread, not accepting PayPal seems more like to be about “wouldn’t” than “couldn’t” adapt technology. Plenty of other sellers were, after all, expected to change their technologies to ensure that their buyers had PayPal’s protection, and eBay announced the change in March: four months should be long enough for Dell to change a computer system, shouldn’t it?
What’s more, buyers learn that “all eBay UK listings now offer PayPal”. How is it improving the buyer experience if a few of the very largest sellers and the most well-known names are allowed to flout the rule?
Thanks to Whirly for the heads-up.
eBay Australia backs down on PayPal
July 3, 2008
eBay Australia have said that other methods of payment may continue to be offered by sellers on the site, though offering PayPal will remain compulsory:
eBay will continue to allow all existing payment methods on eBay.com.au. We have decided to withdraw the notification to stop any further confusion and disruption among the eBay Community. … eBay requires all sellers to offer PayPal as a payment choice on eBay.com.au along with other permitted payment methods of their choosing.
eBay have strenuously denied any plans to make eBay.com PayPal-only; it remains to be seen whether compulsory PayPal will be tried in other markets than Australia and the UK.
TipIt sends PayPal cash via Twitter
July 2, 2008
Micropayment services, and especially those which allow readers to tip bloggers, are a dime a dozen these days, but TipIt is the first one I’ve seen that allows PayPal tips to be sent via microblogging service Twitter.
TipIt’s core service is fairly straightfoward: you put a ‘tip jar’ link on your website; your supporters can tip you tiny or less-tiny amounts of money; when their total tips reach £2/€3/$4, they’re told to pay by PayPal; assuming that they do pay, TipIt take a percentage for processing fees (currently just over 5%), and you get your share of the rest. According to the company, around 70% of tippers make good on their promises: you wouldn’t want to rely on it to pay the mortgage, but it might cover your webhosting.
But TipIt also offers the ability to transfer money via Twitter. Just tweet “d tipit @TARGET AMOUNT MESSAGE”, and you’re back in the same “email to remind you to PayPal” loop. It’s not perfect, far from it, and I’m betting it will be just the first of many such providers, but it has enormous potential.
Via TechCrunch.
Best in show hardware: Credit card swiper for PayPal
July 1, 2008
I visited a lot of stands at eBay Live! this year but USBSwiper.com definately won my vote for the best new hardware product of interest to eBay sellers.
The USBSwiper does exactly what it sounds like, it enables you to swipe a credit card in a USB dongle and deposits money into your PayPal account. It works with both PayPal Payments Pro and PayPal PayFlow Pro so functions equally well in the UK and the US.
Rather than typing the details of cards into the virtual terminal it enables the card information to be read by the USBSwiper in the same manner as every cash register up and down the country prior to the introduction of chip and pin.
If, as a seller, you visit tradeshows and want to accept credit cards on the spot for customer orders all you need is your laptop, a WiFi or mobile internet connection and the USBSwiper. In addition it avoids the need for a separate merchant account for accepting credit cards, which is a boon for the small business as the only cost to process the funds are the PayPal charges.
There’s a set up cost of $49.97 (~£25.00) for the hardware and $197.00 (~£100.00) for the software license. From then on the solution costs just $4.95/mth (~£2.50) making ongoing costs negligible.
This really is one of the products sellers have been begging for for years and definitely a point of sale tool that businesses operating primarily online should consider for offline transactions.
eBay refuse be drawn at ACCC conference
June 30, 2008
Simon Smith, MD of eBay Australia, refused to be drawn into arguments at today’s ACCC conference held to discuss PayPal only on eBay.com.au. Sellers argued that PayPal isn’t safer than other payment methods and that “It is the Australian way to support having choices”
Whilst sellers were more than happy to air their opinions, Smith read a prepared statement and declined to enter into the heated discussion. I’m guessing that was in all likelihood a stipulation made by eBay’s legal team, who may still decide to challenge an adverse ACCC decision in the courts.
Reports say that only sellers voiced opinions at the conference, and it appears that Google had nothing to say in person following the revelation that Google authored an anonymous submission to the ACCC.
Kijiji one, PayPal ten, but Skype nowhere?
June 26, 2008
Last week at Live, eBay’s classified ads site Kijiji celebrated their first birthday by giving away bags of popcorn on the exhibition floor. The site now has four million users in north America, and General Manager Janet Bannister promised, “we listen intently to our community and are currently working on several innovative features and customer-focused improvements that will enhance the Kijiji experience.”
Kijiji has popular classifieds categories such as For Sale, Housing, Cars & Vehicles, Jobs, Pets, Services and Personals. In addition to the U.S., Kijiji has online communities in Canada, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Japan and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, PayPal are celebrating their tenth anniversary with a special microsite detailing the history of the company; the video interviews are particularly worth a look, especially to see JD looking relaxed.
However, rather quieter of late has been eBay partner Skype: they were not in evidence at all at Live, dispite plenty of empty floor space in the exhibition hall which could have easily accomodated them. I heard a rumour that this was due to “an internal issue”, but no more details than that: one has to wonder if Skype CEO Josh Silverman’s insistance that the relationship between Skype and eBay is as strong as ever is something akin to Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford’s Times ad to say they weren’t getting divorced.
eBay.com.au indefinitely postpone PayPal only
June 26, 2008
eBay Australia have for the second time delayed implementation of the PayPal only policy, but this time a little more permanently
On the 21st May Australian users became obliged to offer PayPal on all listings, and it was planned that eBay Australia would go PayPal only on the 17th June. This was then delayed until July 15th but now pending the outcome of the ACCC decision PayPal only on eBay Australia has been postponed indefinitely.
eBay apologise to users for the change saying it “regrets any ongoing uncertainty that this further delay may cause” and that “eBay appreciates the feedback received from the Community and will use this input to consider where we can make improvements that benefit both buyers and sellers.”
In what sounds like a sea change they also say they are “committed to improving safety and we will continue to look for ways to improve the shopping experience for buyers which will subsequently benefit both sellers and eBay”
This looks like a smart move by eBay, rather than again push the date back in the face of a probably negative decision by the ACCC, cancelling PayPal only plans for eBay Australia now will avoid being forced to if the ACCC decision is against them. If they do have a surprise win they can easily resurrect the policy.
It’s time to move on, and to look at new ways to increase security on the site. A great improvement would be to introduce new checkout features like the ability for merchants to offer alternative payments in the checkout flow enabling eBay to verify that the buyer has paid. That’s one change that would definitely appeal to sellers who have been calling for choice.
eBay to argue case for PayPal at ACCC conference
June 25, 2008
It looks like eBay may argue the case for implementing PayPal only on eBay in Australia in public, at a conference to be held on Monday 30th June at the Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney.
Advance warning to interested parties was sent out via email (opens in .pdf) on Monday this week, and according to Auctionbytes it is to go ahead.
eBay or any interested party could call the conference, so there is no guarantee that they will show up, although it would appear on the face of it unlikely that they wouldn’t want representation. eBay have already stated that they would “work with the ACCC and hopes to achieve a final outcome which has the safety and security of eBay’s members as its paramount objective“.
Currently eBay have delayed implementation of a PayPal only policy in Australia until 15th July (it was scheduled to go live on the 17th June), and the conference could prove the last chance they have to argue their case.
Submissions to the ACCC have been steadily pouring in throughout the whole of June, and currently there is nothing to suggest that eBay will win this battle.
Blockbuster now accept PayPal in the US
June 25, 2008
Renting a video used to involve a trip to town to the hire shop, but these days it’s more likely to be a quick browse online and have them delivered. Blockbuster in the US have just made this even easier - now you can book online and pay for Blockbuster rentals with PayPal.
Initially users will only be able to use PayPal for rentals, but this will be expanded to include purchase of new or used DVDs and pay for Blockbuster’s movie downloading service, which will be available later this summer.
Blockbuster are also offering a 2 week free trial plus a $10 rebate into your PayPal account when you become an active user.
PayPal expand protection for US buyers and sellers
June 19, 2008
PayPal have announced improvements to both buyer and seller protection for users in the US. The cap on buyer protection is being removed for most transactions, so that buyers have unlimited protection against items not received or significantly not as described, whatever the purchase price. Scott Thompson, PayPal’s President said “we’re providing protection whether a transaction costs $50 or $50,000.”
For US sellers on eBay.com, seller protection is being widened to include transactions in the 190 countries in which PayPal operates. Sellers will be covered against claims, chargebacks and reversals due to an unauthorised payment or an item that was not received. The coverage cap for this will also be removed.
The changes are due to be implemented this autumn.
Choice listings, anonymous email, but definitely not PayPal only on eBay.com
June 18, 2008
Adam Trachtenberg, eBay’s Director of Product Management for Platform & Services, gave an overview this morning of where eBay is going in the new few months. Though this was aimed primarily at developers, it provides some great news, and some not so great news, for sellers as to what we can expect for the rest of the year.
Project Echo : merchandising API
This will enable cross-merchandising, in the same way that many websites now highlight “people who bought x also bought y” items. Data based on geography, buying and search histories and user profile will be made available, as well as currently popular items.
Four new API calls have been released: most watched, deals, related category items and top selling products. More are on their way!
Improvements for large sellers
eBay aim to become more efficient and responsive to the needs of larger sellers, with a better API and business process support. Processing will be faster and there will be fewer timeouts with an asynchronous bulk interface: in effect, sellers will be able to manage their entire business away from My eBay, and will be able to organise inventory by their own SKU rather than by eBay item number.
Choice listings are coming
Sellers will be able to list variants of the same item: by colour, size, memory, material etc., compressing multiple listings into one single listing offering buyers a range of options. Interestingly, this was presented as enhancing the *buyer* experience by cutting down near-duplicate listings: I think eBay are missing a trick there, because many sellers have begged and pleaded for years to be allowed to offer real choice listings.
Changes to email communications
Sellers will be able to specify more than one email for message-forwarding: for example, customer service emails from buyers can go to one address, and eBay invoices to another.
Emails between sellers and buyers prior to a sale are being anonymised: buyer email addresses will no longer be visible on ASQs, though “reply” will still work as eBay will handle mapping between the anonymised email and the buyer’s actual email. Post-sale, both parties will be able to see each other’s email addresses. This should - say eBay - cut down on fraud: it will of course also limit off-site sales, and many sellers will complain that it will restrict communication between trading partners. They should also note that it will no longer be permitted to display an email address within the body of a listing.
Mandating essential information
eBay are forcing sellers to include information material to the transaction, some of which has previously been optional for inclusion within a listing. For example, on .com sellers must specify at least one domestic shipping service with pricing, as well as handling time, which will be used to display an estimated arrival time to buyers. A returns policy and who pays for the return of the item will also have to be specified, though on .com at least “no returns accepted” remains an acceptable policy (the same does not apply in most of Europe).
A consistant and safe checkout experience
Various approaches are being tested over different national sites: eBay Australia will (perhaps) be PayPal-only from mid-July, and UK sellers must offer PayPal though may offer other payment methods too. The US will “definitively” not be made PayPal-only, though eBay are “looking at data and talking to people” about the way forward on this issue.
New applications for third-party checkouts have now been closed: as a buyer, I can’t help but cheer here. I’ve been buying on eBay for nearly a decade and I still hate 3P checkouts, so how must new buyers feel?
A whitelist approach to HTML
Currently, eBay have adopted a blacklist approach to HTML, CSS and javascript, blocking known-bad code from use on the site. This will change to a whitelist approach, whereby known-good code will be permitted and everything else blocked. For the majority of sellers, this won’t make any difference whatsoever (Adam joked that there will be no block against ugly templates 
) but anyone using javascript and Flash widgets within their templates may be impacted.
In an attempt to limit possible damage from bad code, descriptions will now be served from a seperate domain so that scraping of sign-in information within the eBay site should no longer be possible.
Verification of new sellers
New sellers will have to complete telephone verification and one of either PayPal or Live Chat verification once they have sold their first few listings, or when attempting to list a high dollar amount. This should keep the site a little more secure.
Adam wrapped up with what is definitely the theme of this DevCon: “we want your feedback”. eBay are certainly doing their best to appear to be listening to developers: they need to make buyers and sellers too feel that they’re being listened too. With big hints that “more change is coming”, the rest of this week is shaping up to be very interesting indeed.
PayPal only: eBay vow to fight ACCC draft ruling
June 13, 2008
eBay Australia have issued a press release challenging the ACCC draft notice and vowing to fight on.
They have delayed implementation of the PayPal only policy until 15th July, it was scheduled to go live on the 17th June. The increase in Buyer Protection raising the cover to AU$20,000 will still come into effect on the 17th June for Australian buyers who pay via PayPal.
Whether eBay will succeed is anyone’s guess, but it’s looking increasingly unlikely. The ACCC note that over 600 eBay users, half of them buyers, sent in submissions opposing PayPal only and they themselves have “serious competition concerns” if they allowed an exception.
eBay say they hope to “work with the ACCC and hopes to achieve a final outcome which has the safety and security of eBay’s members as its paramount objective” and that they believe “the consumer benefits of this initiative are worth fighting for”.
PayPal make changes to the UK user agreement
June 13, 2008
Personal payments now could be free
PayPal are changing the fee structure for UK users to make accounts more attractive for non-commercial users. They are making a new distinction between types of payment:
- commercial payments, including all eBay item payments, and
- personal payments, “a payment made for the purpose of either your personal, family and/or household affairs.”
And the fees have changed like this:
- Personal payments funded by bank account (echeque) or PayPal balance will be fee-free, regardless of account type
- Personal account holders will be able to receive credit- or debit-card funded commercial payments, at a fee of 3.4% + 20p per transaction for domestic and Euro payments from within the EU, or 3.9% + 20p for other cross-border transactions.
- Senders of personal payments will have the option of paying the fees themselves.
- Personal account holders will no longer be required to upgrade to a Premier or Business account once they have received £250 in payments.
From this, I can see PayPal’s use in the personal payments area expanding massively. Even the hiked 3.9% fee will compare favourably to international bank transfer fees for smaller amounts: wait til my brother in Canada hears about this
PayPal must be offered by UK eBay sellers
In parallel with eBay’s new policy announced earlier this week, eBay sellers must accept PayPal from all funding sources “including but not limited to eCheque and credit cards”. In other words, don’t even think about trying to make all your eBay payments come through as personal, balance-funded payments!
If a seller lists postage to a country and PayPal permits transactions from that country, then the seller must accept cross-border payments from that country.
And a seller must “accept PayPal if the eBay listing includes PayPal as a payment method:” you may not list with PayPal because eBay say you have to, and then refuse to accept the PayPal payment.
Buyer Protection Program
This has been amended to exclude airline tickets, eBay classified advertisements and customised or made to order items. Can we assume that some people have been using PayPal chargebacks for fee-free plane ticket cancellations? 
PayPal only: Australia says no (for now)
June 12, 2008
The ACCC have requested that eBay delay implementation of the PayPal only policy scheduled to start on June 17th.
In a draft notice issued today the ACCC proposed revoking immunity for eBay’s PayPal only policy on the grounds that it will reduce competition and that they believe “consumers are in the best position to decide which payment method is most suitable for them”.
Noting the benefits that PayPal offer they say the advantages do not outweigh the anti-competitive effect.
Whilst this is a draft notice the ACCC notes eBay have already implemented the policy that PayPal has to be offered, but have asked them to delay making PayPal the only acceptable payment method until the final decision.
Now the draft proposal is published all interested parties can make further submissions so eBay will doubtless respond. It’ll be interesting to see if Google make further waves now that their role has been revealed.
It looks as if eBay Australia users can continue offering and using alternate payment methods, at least in the short term.
eBay must have been pretty certain that they would be granted immunity and allowed to implement the PayPal only policy. Regardless of the outcome it is likely to have an effect in other territories around the world and shape eBay / PayPal policy for some time to come.
Yes we can take PayPal?
June 11, 2008
OnlyeBay points out that John McCain’s campaign to be US President is now accepting PayPal. Was this Meg’s idea? I guess we’ll never know, but the Obama campaign needs to follow suit pdq.
Will UK sellers be forced to accept international cheques?
June 10, 2008
eBay UK have just announced some updates to their payments policy, specifically a new section titled ‘Misleading and Discouraging Payments’:
Sellers who state in their listing that they accept certain payment methods must not selectively offer those payment methods to buyers or discourage buyers from using those payment methods.
A similar policy was introduced in Australia last September, where examples were given of sellers saying “I only accept PayPal for payments over $10″ or “I only accept PayPal from overseas customers, not domestic ones”. To this, I think we can add “eBay are forcing me to say I accept PayPal, but in fact I only really want payment by cheque”, as I’ve seen UK sellers start to do recently.
If it were a policy that only related to PayPal, I’d be content: making things clearer and simpler for buyers has to be good for all sellers, and a few sellers having silly bits of small print designed to get around eBay policies is unacceptable.
But the policy doesn’t say “PayPal only”. Does this mean if your payment terms say you accept cheques, you have to accept them from the whole world? Are UK sellers listing worldwide going to be forced to accept cheques in Euros, Dollars and Yen? Many sellers will just not be able to deal with cheques in other currencies, so if the policy does apply to cheques, they will be forced to stop offering them. Is this PayPal-only by the back door?
Yet again, this new policy seems to have been introduced by people who have absolutely no experience of trading on the site. It needs clarification, and it needs it now.
Aussie PayPal promo as ACCC about to rule
June 7, 2008
eBay Australia have announced a PayPal promotion in the run up to the ACCC ruling and the site migrating to PayPal only for payments.
Every purchase made on eBay.com.au gets the buyer automatic entry into a draw for 4 x $10,000 and 10 x $1,000 credited to the winners PayPal account.
The competition runs from today until the 21st June 2008, and also encourages buyers to open a PayPal account if they don’t already have one. Not a bad move on eBay’s part to make it attractive for buyers to use PayPal, and the publication of the winners in July should go further to making PayPal appear attractive. I’m not so sure some sellers already averse to offering PayPal will see it in quite the same light though.
eBay Germany boss doesn’t trust PayPal
June 5, 2008
German news weekly Der Spiegel reports today that the one-time head of PayPal Germany doesn’t trust PayPal payments for his own eBay sales. Frerk-Malte Feller was in charge of PayPal’s German arm until February, when he became head of auctions for eBay Germany; he has also been selling tickets for Euro 2008 on the site. The terms and conditions of these listings make very interesting reading, stating in both German and English:
If you pay with PayPal, I need copies of your passport/ID as well as from your credit card that you are using within PayPal (both sides). Please provide these documents as electronic scans immediately after the end of the auction. The tickets will only be shipped after you have provided these documents.
These additional terms are important, as PayPal will only protect sellers from unjustified chargebacks in accordance with the above. You as a buyer remain fully protected through PayPal’s Buyer Protection Policy. So both sides are well protected. 
Assuming that Der Spiegel’s identification of this seller with Frerk-Malte Feller is correct, then he’s in breach of the employee trading policy, as he hasn’t identified himself as an eBay employee. The seller also appears to be breaking UEFA’s ticket resale rules (see section 8).
If you read German, there’s an interesting thread on the German community forums about this, but so far apparently no official comment from eBay.
PayPal have non-secure images (again!)
June 5, 2008
For the last week users of PayPal have been presented with a pop-up, warning that the page has non-secure items on it. What’s worse is that the non-secure items are on the PayPal log in page.
The image is one offering up to 17% cashback from selected retailers and is hosted at http://www.paypal.com/….8jpg. In order to be secure the URL needs to begin https, not http.
PayPal merchants go to great lengths to ensure images in their website checkout are secure, in order to avoid pop-ups being presented to their customers. PayPal have their own secure servers so there really is no excuse.
Whilst on the face of it, it’s just a minor oversight, it can hardly inspire confidence in PayPal’s great security if they can’t even keep their log in page free from errors.
The seven deadly sins of shopping carts
June 4, 2008
A PayPal survey of online shoppers reveals the reasons that buyers abandon their shopping carts. Nearly half blamed too-high shipping costs, whereas - unsurprisingly in a survey commissioned by PayPal - a fifth said that their preferred method of payment wasn’t available and they couldn’t be bothered to go and find a card to pay.
With more and more eBay sellers every day starting up their own websites, it’s essential to get your shopping cart right. Estimates are that two-thirds of shoppers abandon their carts with goods in them but unpaid for; more cheeringly, one third of shoppers may return to complete the transaction later. Here are some things to avoid if you want your customers to have a heavenly checkout experience.
1. Greed : “I’ll charge what I like for postage”
According to PayPal, 43% of abandoned carts are due to shipping charges being too high. 36% of those surveyed said that the total cost was too high, so we might guess that shipping charges played a part in this too. I’m very surprised not to see “no postage fees specified” on PayPal’s list too, because for me, having to go look elsewhere to find what shipping is going to cost me, is my number one reason for abandoning my own carts.
So be upfront about your shipping. If you have a complicated tariff and lots of international customers, consider at least putting in a link to shipping prices from the cart. Better still, show UK shipping by default and allow customers to alter that to their own country, so that they can see as they shop what extras they’re going to be charged.
2. Sloth : “it’ll be delivered when I feel like it”
We all know if you’re buying from the internet, you should allow plenty of time for delivery. We all know that doesn’t happen. Offering next day or other super-quick shipping, with details of how (courier, Special Delivery, etc.) and when (”order in the next 30 minutes for delivery tomorrow”) delivery will take place can clinch you those desperate last-minute orders. Displaying this as part of the shopping cart encourages buyers to check out sooner rather than later.
3. Wrath : “I hate PayPal!”
As merchants, some of us don’t like it, but PayPal’s reach into the ecommerce world grows ever longer and stronger. Your buyers like PayPal: they’ve been sold on the security aspect, but more importantly, they like not having to get off their bottoms and find their credit card. You like that too: PayPal keeps them at the computer, paying you, instead of wandering off and getting distracted. Other shoppers, of course, don’t or won’t have a PayPal account. Offer both PayPal and a direct credit card payment options; that way, you keep everyone happy.
4. Lust : “I want your email address”
Though you might have good reasons for it, don’t force your shoppers to create an account before they can check out. The more steps you introduce into your checkout flow, the more chance your shoppers have to quit. Don’t take them out of that flow to create an account. Worse still, don’t create an account for them, and then require them to remember the details next time they shop: 14% of PayPal’s survey respondants stopped shopping because they couldn’t remember their user names and passwords on the merchant’s site.
5. Gluttony : “my shopping cart ate your shopping”
French clothing site La Redoute is the worst sinner I know here; if you’re not signed into your account, their shopping cart forgets its contents within the hour. When I go shopping, I’m not thinking about signing into my account; I’m thinking about shoes. So have your shopping cart remember what’s put into it. With a third of shoppers returning hours or even days later to complete their purchase, it pays to allow shoppers to leave items in their carts.
6. Envy : “I’ll keep my information to myself”
According to PayPal, 16% of shoppers abandoned their shopping because they couldn’t contact customer support. Be reassuring. Your shopping cart page should have links to FAQs, shipping details (tariffs and details of services used) and most importantly, how to contact you in case of a question: a phone number as well as email contact could make all the difference here.
7. Pride : sometimes, you have to let it go
A couple of wholesalers I use have an annoying new feature on their shopping carts: they email you if you’ve abandoned them. If that isn’t bad enough, I once had a phonecall, from India, “did you know you haven’t paid for what’s in your shopping cart?” Er, yes, and I doubt I will do now. Make it easy for your customers to pay, but for goodness’ sake, don’t try and annoy them into buying.
What have you done with the shopping cart on your website to make sure your customers complete their purchase? Leave us a comment.
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If anyone has one and wants to spend it with me... - northumbrian: the only fault with that bling thing is if anything it makes the item look to good
- faculty-x: us techies are honoured at the mo from ebay or the ones that have dropped off ebay the most, us...
- faculty-x: bling looks excellent, must get a copy. been messing around with coral for years, should save ages. so...
- Whirly: No voucher for me which is a pain as I need some stuff I know a buyer who will get one, he likes...
- Whirly: #2 If you build the fee’s into your sale price I think it’s a justifiable expense, we regularly...
- Trish Connolly: I need to dissagree with part of your statement. You say, “I’ve met many buyers who are more...
- J R: if we sell something for £500 there is no way we would be willing to give ebay £50 plus Paypal fees, there...
- Whirly: lmao
