Merchants who want to use PayPal to accept payments have a wide range of options available. For basic payments, such as online auctions or simple Web site sales, the merchant can simply provide buyers with their e-mail address, and buyers can make the appropriate payments to the merchant's PayPal account. eBay sellers can place PayPal buttons on their auctions, and the checkout invoice PayPal sends to auction winners will include a link to pay via PayPal.
PayPal also provides extensive services for online merchants. Prior to services like PayPal, someone who wanted to accept credit card payments online had to set up a merchant account through a credit card company. Creating a Web interface to use this account could be confusing and difficult. PayPal bypasses this problem. Business or Premier PayPal accounts can set up a Buy Now button, a PayPal shopping cart, or options for ongoing subscriptions and recurring payments.
A Buy Now button allows merchants to paste a small piece of HTML code into their site, creating a button for buyers to click when they want to purchase an item. This takes the buyer to a secure payment page, where they enter their credit card information and shipping address. Once the transaction is complete, the money, minus PayPal's fees, is transferred directly into the merchant's account.
The PayPal shopping cart is more involved, but it has the same result. HTML code for various buttons (add to cart, view cart) is added to lists of items, and the item details are added by the merchant. Buyers can add the items they want to purchase to their cart, and when they check out, they'll go to a secure payment page, just like a Buy It Now page.
PayPal's two main merchant account types, Standard and Pro, offer slightly different packages. With a standard account, when a customer checks out at the shopping cart page, they go to the PayPal site to log in and make the payment. With a Pro account, PayPal processes the transaction in the background -- the customer makes the entire sale on the merchant's site. A Pro account has higher percentages on transactions (2.2 to 2.9 percent versus 1.9 to 2.9 percent) and a $20 monthly fee. It also requires knowledge of Web services and APIs (Application Program Interfaces), as well as a minimum of two days for installation.
PayPal also streamlines transactions for merchants who sell to international users. It can convert funds to whatever currency the merchant wants for 2.5 percent. Currently, PayPal accepts funds in the following currencies:
Canadian Dollar
Euro
Pound Sterling
U.S. Dollar
Yen
Australian Dollar
Next, we'll find out why some people refuse to use PayPal.
