PayPal UK has launched a new low cost web payment product aimed at small and micro-sized businesses seeking an affordable method of securely accepting credit card payments online.
Called Website Payments Pro, the payment system enables the secure processing of transactions involving a wide range of cards without the cost of setting up an expensive internet merchant account. At the checkout, a buyer can pay using any major credit or debit card as well as electronic bank transfer or pay from their PayPal account balance. In addition to Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Switch, Solo, and Maestro, Website Payments Pro allows the acceptance of payments from a number of locally preferred funding sources including Discover or ACH in the USA and Canada, or Giropay or ELV in Germany.
Unlike many other payment providers, there are no charges for set up, cancellations, reporting or gateway costs. Website Payments Pro involves a monthly fee of £20 and a per-transaction sales volume-related rate of between 1.4 to 3.4 percent plus 20 pence. As an introductory offer, PayPal are waiving the £20 monthly fee until July 2007, effectively giving early adopters a cut rate three month trial for evaluation purposes.
Website Payments Pro contains a number of functions that integrates with the merchant’s shopping cart and allows secure payments via the PayPal system in the same way as with a traditional internet merchant account. When the checkout is complete, billing and delivery information are sent immediately from PayPal to the merchant's website.
A new feature of interest is the Virtual Terminal, which also enables site owners to accept offline orders via phone, fax and mail. Merchants login to an online interface to enter card details manually, which are then processed by PayPal.
Website Payments Pro, as stated earlier, integrates with a number of shopping carts. Their recommended carts are: Actinic Express, Evolve Merchant, osCommerce, ekmPowershop, Mal's E-commerce and RomanCart
Prices vary, but worth a look is the free open source shopping cart, osCommerce.
* PayPal UK is an arm of PayPal Inc., a web payment company acquired by eBay in 2002. PayPal has become the leading payment network for online auction websites, including eBay. PayPal is also being increasingly used at other e-commerce sites for the sale of goods and as an online billing system for a wide range of offline businesses too. PayPal's service, which lets users send payments for free, can be used from PCs or web-enabled mobile phones.
