Google Checkout is a payment facility provided by Google for online purchases. Intending users store their credit or debit card and shipping details in the Google Account to make purchases at the click of a button.
With Google Checkout one can quickly and easily buy from stores across the web and track all orders and shipping in one place without creating multiple accounts and passwords. Fraud protection is also another distinct feature of Google Checkout.
Google and Paypal
Prior to the launch of Google Checkout, there was widespread speculation that Google was contemplating a product to compete with PayPal. For over a year, eBay management had closely tracked reports of GBuy, deeply worried about the impact it could have on its own PayPal payment service. But as things have now turned out, Google Checkout is not going to displace PayPal.
Unlike PayPal, Google Checkout does not permit the use of stored funds, nor allow payments from person to person. Google Checkout is focused on enabling one-time payments to be made from a purchaser to a merchant.
While eBay may detest Google Checkout because of its competitive threat to PayPal, eBay has to weigh the possible advantage it could gain in increasing the velocity of trading on its ecommerce marketplaces. A growing number of consumers are concerned about fraud on online auction sites, and are therefore skeptical of using PayPal. This is in striking contrast to Google Checkout which has a unique fraud protection feature.
As for the merchants, Google takes a smaller portion of payments as eBay's PayPal does. PayPal starts at US$0.30 plus 2.9 percent of the total payment, but with Google it is $0.20 and 2 percent, respectively. In addition, merchants that use AdWords get a break on these fees to the tune of 10 times the amount spent on advertising
Google may attempt to displace PayPal for small business use. But it is not a part of its scheme to send money to other individuals who are not doing online business. This is in contrast to the convenience of PayPal's payments to anybody with an e-mail address. To avail Google Checkout services, the recipient must be running a website with the appropriate code to link into Google Checkout services.
Google Checkout features
Shoppers using Google Checkout can sell with total confidence as Google Checkout's fraud protection program safeguards their interests. When the buyer uses Google Checkout the charges are as low as 2% + $0.20 per transaction. With Google Checkout, there are no monthly, setup, or gateway service fees. If the user advertises with Google AdWords, there are additional concessions.
As a buyer, one must have a Google account to use the Checkout service, and the signup asks for the address, phone number, and the usual details on a major credit card. This formality is required only once, and then the buyer is ready to check out online purchases with just a couple of clicks. The appeal of Google Checkout for buyers is its simplicity and a single interface across multiple stores.
With Google Checkout merchants can add the Checkout badge to their AdWords ads and Product Search listings to highlight the stores. The badge is an icon that guarantees potential customers that shopping with the stores will be secure.
Google Checkout also helps increase sales as it more effectively turns the traffic into buying clients. Generally cumbersome checkout processes frustrate online shoppers and make them abandon the shopping carts. With Google Checkout, the purchasing information of each Checkout user is stored in a single account, so they can buy by simply providing their username and password.
In its press release announcing Google Checkout, the Vice President of Product Management at Google, Salar Kamangar, aptly stated, "By integrating the checkout process with search and advertising, we're helping our users complete the cycle of searching, finding and buying."
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