You’ve finally got your website and store all ready to go. You’ve loaded all your product pictures and copy up and designed your site to be perfectly accessible by everyone. Wow, it seems like you’ve thought of everything.
Everything, that is, except how your customers are going to pay! Foolishly, you forgot all about people actually giving you money, and only have options to run credit cards yourself or sending in a check. Or, even more ridiculous, a money order.
Why torture your customers like this? You’re just making the process that much more difficult for both them and you. Most likely, anyone shopping on your site will be turned off by the crazy procedure to hand over their hard-earned money. Third party checkouts can take the hassle out of running an online store for many reasons.<
Ease of Use
Customers generally shop online not only because of the wide variety of items they can find but also because it’s easier. Instead of getting out of bed, putting on clothes, driving to the store, dealing with sales clerks, and fighting traffic to get home, they can simply lean over in bed to grab their laptop or tablet and start buying things.
The last thing they want to encounter during this easy process is some major hurdle they have to overcome to buy your item. If the product is incredibly important to them they may go out of their way to send you a check…but most likely not. They’ll simply find the item somewhere else or just say forget it.
The thing is, most people have an account with PayPal, Google Checkout, or some other form of online payment system. Maybe you started your store back in the mid-2000s when that wasn’t the case. However, times have changed, and buying something immediately is the preferred way of doing business. You don’t carry your checkbook around to each store just in case the store you entered doesn’t take cash or credit, so don’t make your customers do it either.
Security
Besides simplicity, customers want to feel like their favorite websites are as secure as possible. This is doubly, perhaps triply correct when they enter their personal and financial information into the site. They don’t want to keep looking over their shoulder for a “strange activity” notice on their credit card every time they buy something online.
Going through a 3rd party checkout system gives an extra boost to security for all your ecommerce needs. Right away they get the satisfaction of knowing they used a service that’s accepted worldwide and has a strong “paper trail.” In other words, handing over their financial info to PayPal has less chance to go into the black market than if they give it directly to a new store they’ve never shopped with before.
It’s also way more secure on your end as well. If something goes wrong with the payment, would you rather say “Ugh, PayPal did so and so!” or “Please don’t sue me!” to the customer? It’s an extra step between the customer and your store. Sure, sometimes it can be a hassle, that’s true. However, it’s a hassle well worth putting up with, and a feature in your store you can’t just ignore.