Entrepreneur's Journal: How using PayPal can boost revenues

Posted Apr 19th 2009 7:00PM by Tom Taulli
Filed under: eBay (EBAY), Small Business

For some time, I've used PayPal, which is owned by eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY). For example, I recently paid a contractor in India using the service. It was extremely easy.

Well, I had a chance to talk to the Small Biz folks at PayPal and found out that there is much more to the service. In fact, PayPal can be a great way to boost your business.

Of course, PayPal makes it easy to leverage ecommerce. And the costs are competitive, with transaction fees ranging from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent, plus a 30 cent fee. What's more, there is no need to get a merchant account (which can be a painful and expensive process).

OK, suppose you don't have a website; instead, you're storefront is an actual retail space? Well, PayPal has an online version of a credit card swipe machine. Simply put, you enter the credit card information in a computer and PayPal processes the transaction.

Something else to consider: PayPal has 150 million accounts worldwide. Thus, if you offer customers the ability to pay with PayPal, there's a good chance you'll increase sales.

Oh, and it's even possible to send out invoices via email. And yes, your customers can easily pay with a credit card or directly with PayPal. In the tough economy, it's definitely worthwhile getting paid faster, right?

Finally, PayPal is convertible into 19 currencies. In other words, you can expand your business into foreign markets.

So, for the most part, PayPal is more than just peer-to-peer payments and eBay transactions. It's now evolved to a point where a small business can get lots of traction – in terms of lowering costs and picking up some much-needed revenues.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and the founder of BizEquity, a free online business valuation tool for small businesses. You can reach him on Twitter.

Tags: Merchants, PayPal

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-20-2009 @ 10:42AM

Scriptorical said...

This article may be of interest to many but for ourselves and others it is not. We sold for 10 years on eBay. We view paypal as the entity that ruined our business on eBay. We sold under claypipe and had a 100% feedback rating DSR's that placed us in the top 10 percent and more important we had a more then 50 percent repeat buyer status. All done with paper payments only.

Mr. John Donahoe and the policies to which he endorsed has lead to us no longer selling on eBay. When eBay publicly told us on their forums that regardless of our FB, DSR's and repeat buyers, if we did not accept electronic payments we were no longer welcome on eBay. I have those comments screen shot, and we no longer sell on eBay.

I would suggest anyone who considers using paypal to take some time to review the paypal discussion boards, blogs and websites, and read for themselves the problems both buyers and sellers are having with paypal along with the atricles that praise the company. Then make your decision.

As for us we gave eBay 10 of our BEST years from 1998 to 2008. We helped make eBay what it was. We took care of our customers and paid our bills to eBay on time each and every month of that 10 years. In return they stabbed us in the back.

4-20-2009 @ 4:03PM

absoluteprci said...

Well, their merchant account is good but
when they raised their monthly fee to 30.00 bucks from 20.00 that we did not like so much. Their terminal is an online based system which can be used on a iphone or palm and windows based platforms which is great for mobile transactions other then store fronts etc. It's right in your hand or pocket when you need to process a clients payment.

4-20-2009 @ 4:09PM

The Duck said...

Pay - Pal is another tight fisted crocked ordeal orkestrated by ebay to suck more money out of you. I ask you "Why should the customer pay extra to protect themselves in case these crocked sellers may be dishonest" . . . Answer - they are dishonest. DON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM THEM . . . PERIOD.

4-20-2009 @ 4:40PM

klblazer said...

The writer of this story is either negligently misinformed or in PayPal's pocket. PayPal is the absolute worst for a seller or merchant. PayPal can freeze your account for ANY reason it feels (whether legit or not), can hold your cash for up to 180 days, operates at a snails pace regarding problems, normally only answers via email weeks later. Don't believe me ?? Check out paypalsucks.com, paypalsucks.org, aboutpaypal.org or just Google PayPal. Use PayPal as a LAST RESORT

4-20-2009 @ 6:55PM

boycott_paypal said...

Paypal should be in jail for stealing so much money from people! Horror story after horror story. DO NOT USE IF YOU RUN A LEGIT BUSINESS!

4-20-2009 @ 7:30PM

kiboatwks said...

as a buyer Pay-Pal has always worked fine for me

4-20-2009 @ 7:41PM

David Snow said...

to everybody who think that these people just have an ax to grind WRONG what there saying is true it's all about greed ebay use to care about the sellers not anymore it's all about profit there's paypal is bad but NOT for ebay

4-20-2009 @ 8:53PM

antiquitysales said...

Simply put:
PAYPAL IS THE DEVIL!!

4-20-2009 @ 9:39PM

mrrmatt said...

I am an honest power seller businessman with 100% positive feedback. Pay-Pal is the worst form of extortion E-Bay has come up with yet. Pay-pal is not a Credit card company nor is it a bank, So i ask you who regulates them.??. BEWARE BEWARE. they DO hold funds for no good reason. and there is nothing you can do about it. They want you to follow thru with the transaction even though they have put a hold on the funds usally a 10 to 14 day hold....Where in the world would you be expected to complete a tranaction with someone you do not know and then wait for 14 days for the money??? ask McDonolds for a 99 cent hamburger and tell them that they must serve you now, but wait for thier money..what do you think they would tell Pay-Pal??