Adding Paypal to Protx - worth it?

[jheath]

We use Protx on two sites currently. We are debating adding Paypal to one or both. I understand we can add "standalone" Paypal as an additional PSP to Protx or we can add a Paypal option to our Protx account.

I'm having problems quantifying the benefit against the increased cost of (and admin overhead) of adding Paypal in either of the ways.

Our charges for Protx are 10p a pop I believe, plus our % transaction fees for our acquiring bank (HSBC).

Our fees for Paypal would be in this monthly turnover catergory:
£1,500.01 GBP - £6,000.00 GBP 2.9% + £0.20 GBP

Surely if we added Paypal to our Protx account we'd be hit with 10p Protx charge, 20p Paypal charge AND 2.9%?

We could only swallow this if it lead to a worthwhile increase in business. Advice and info on others experiences with this would be greatly appreciated as always.

Regards

Jeremy

[Duncan Rounding]

The only you'll know for sure is to try it out for a couple of months and see if indeed you have more business.

[TraceyHand]

if your charges are correct then it'd be cheaper to add Paypal as a standalone payment option, I assume?
Either way, I'd say go for it.
I doubt you'll find anyone, who takes paypal, who says that no one uses it!
I find the Paypal proportion of my turnover continually increasing on both our sites and I'm sure others will say the same.
No harm in adding it.
TBH, when I go 'shopping', I actively seek out merchants who take Paypal and I'm sure I'm not alone.

[CymraegKev]

I actively seek out merchants who take Paypal and I'm sure I'm not alone.

I spent nearly 2K last night with Dabs using PayPal - my wallet with my business debit card was in the kitchen and it was just .... easier (anything that involves not getting out of the armchair is a bonus for me!). :)

[TraceyHand]

I couldn't agree more, Kevin!

[Donna Kempster]

We were really reluctant to add paypal (fro various reasons) but with the advice of a few on the forum we added it as a standalone PSP in addition to our psp mid way through last year and haven't looked back. I can't categorically say we've increased business per se but we def. have a sig. number of purchases through it. With the current climate customers are going to look at 'every pot of money' to balance their finances and payal comes into play.

D

[Fairyglass]

It's absolutely worth it- on one of our sites we have around 30% of our business piad for with Paypal. We also have Protx but keep the two seperate- really for historical reasons rather than the cost factor.

[pinbrook]

up until a year ago i had a real downer on Paypal. I still think that websites who use PP standard as their only payment method are instantly identifying themselves as a start up/small budget website but i always advocate yes to having paypal as an additional payment method.

In keeping with other peoples experience we have also seen a stready increase in the number of transactions using PP when also using a standard PSP (WP, Protx,HSBC etc).

The thing with PP is there are no set up charges, its simply a percentage per transaction. So no risk, no tangiable extra cost

[RuralWeb]

I've advised adding paypal for years now and IMO its a must have for sites. Use it as a stand alone psp rather than with protx.

[jheath]

it's valuable as ever. Everyone seems to be saying do it, because customers will use it. I'm sure they will, but it will cost more. What I need to determine is if it will lead to more sales as thats the only justification of having a lower net margin. Thanks again - I'll try it and I'll keep you posted!

[RuralWeb]

65% of the uk population has a paypal account and it is the biggest psp in the world so the question should be why would anyone not add it. I handed over a site yesterday which has paypal as its only psp and sales were immediate - people actively search for sites that use it.

[Novicebuild]

it's valuable as ever. Everyone seems to be saying do it, because customers will use it. I'm sure they will, but it will cost more. What I need to determine is if it will lead to more sales as thats the only justification of having a lower net margin. Thanks again - I'll try it and I'll keep you posted!

Is it possible to add Paypal as an option and add a surcharge? If so how? I usually reserve it for no UK buyers and build in the additonal cost into the shipping fee but as I have a standard shipping fee for all UK orders I cant do this

[pinbrook]

you might want to read this re applying surcharges on payments

http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=36536&highlight=surcharge

specifically post 2

[janeread]

I had PayPal set up as a separate payment method, but the admin side of it drove me mad, as each payment was listed minus its charge and it wasn't paid automatically into my account at the end of the month (say) - when it's included as part of the Protx option does it still have that sort of admin?

hope this is clear - not too coherent today! (Yes, I know this implies I usually am coherent)

Jane

[skinnybloke]

Hi - are there any additional benefits using Paypal via Protx as opposed to standalone?

I can't seem to see any - just additional costs.

[leehack]

Paypay via PROTX - what does this mean? Has there been a joining of forces i have not heard of?

[skinnybloke]

See http://www.protx.com/paypal.asp

[DavidPrintkit]

I'm still unsure if i should use this yet.

i cant see that its going to benefit me much,
or am i wrong???

[leehack]

I never knew that was available, but also can't see what it is offering. If you have Paypal Express Checkout, i.e. you have the Paypal PSP, you can integrate that into your PROTX PSP. I don't quite get how merging them once you have bought both services is of any use. PSP's do confuse me at times though i must say.

The Paypal Express checkout is the paid for PSP service, not the free Paypal account isn't it?

[skinnybloke]

Yeah - costs are https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-receiving-fees-outside

I have a client who has standalone Paypal and Protx. He has received a mailshot from Protx about this service and he emailed me asking me to set it up as soon as possible.

My reply to him was that it gave no additional benefits to what he had plus he would be paying Paypal costs plus Protx costs per transaction.

My original posting was to see if I had missed something as it appears to be a no-brainer.

[leehack]

My original posting was to see if I had missed something as it appears to be a no-brainer.
It does seem very strange i must say. It seems to be saying if you have paid for Paypal as your PSP and also paid for PROTX as a PSP, why not merge the 2 and pay a little more.

[plantsforshade]

It does depend if you are above the 1k transactions per quarter, we are not, so comes under the standard £20 per month PROTX charge so no additional costs.

[pinbrook]

Imust admit i can't see why anyone would want to merge paypal and protx, i assume i'm missing the fundamental vital fact that will make it all clear.

are they still 2 separate psps on your website, what happens if one of them is down? does it take the other with them?

The main benefit of PP is to have it as a failsafe when your main psp is problematical

[acompton]

I think the reason for adopting PayPal Express Checkout is in this quote from a recent PayPal mailshot:

PayPal has launched a product search on www.paypal.co.uk/offers making it easier for PayPal users to find exactly what they want. It will be similar to our US version http://paypal.thefind.com/

To get your products listed free of charge simply use PayPal Express Checkout and add the PayPal logo to your home page.

I think that PayPal via Protx would be an accounting nightmare, because the orders appear to have gone through Protx, but the funds would turn up in your PayPal account.

[consciouspnm]

I've just added it as I also got the Protx mailshot. I'll see what happens...

[plantsforshade]

Hmmm I can't help thinking this is some sort of beta test. I half suspect that maybe with VISA following Mastercard to a 3d type verification that PayPal may be linking up with PROTX for them to do the approvals for these cards in real time, don't know, just an idea.

PayPal did after all jump ship out of the EU to avoid some of the PCCI compliance stuff. Edit Seems this was wrong they are still registered with the FSA so have to abide by the regulations.

Regards

Nigel

[pinbrook]

PayPal did after all jump ship out of the EU to avoid some of the PCCI compliance stuff. have you got more info on this?

i've always wondered how paypalpro would be PCI compliant

[plantsforshade]

Hi Jo

No info sorry just a bit of a guess. I am just probably adding two and two and making five, it just would make sense to me, what is the reason otherwise?

Best

Nigel

[cbarling]

I think that Paypal are integrating with the likes of Protx so that any web site that integrates with just Protx can also get Paypal with no further integration. After all, it's the technical integration barrier which is the biggest problem for PSPs.

Unless there is a financial benefit, I can't see why any Actinic merchant would use Paypal via Protx - you have more control over the payment description etc if you set up each method separately in Actinic.

Chris

[consciouspnm]

The Paypal offers stuff is apparently invitation only, so the email from Protx is a bit misleading.

[tristam]

I recently removed PayPal as they were letting too many fraud transaction through - most from the same person. Then this person kept trying through Protx and every attempt failed.

Also had a lot of abandoned carts

If you need any customer service, have you ever tried contacting PayPal?

Since I removed it I haven't noticed any reduction in sales plus I am saving a bit 'cus my fees through Lloyds Cardnet are quite a bit cheaper.