Written by Honcho | Apr 28, 2011 4:58:50 PM
How does Google checkout work?
Always on the lookout to expand its offering, Google opened its ecommerce wing, Google Checkout, back in 2006. Designed to provide an easier way for consumers to buy securely whilst helping merchants to increase sales, Google Checkout was cautiously received at first. This was partly because it launched in the US only, meaning that consumers could not make purchases internationally; and partly because only a limited number of merchants decided to opt in to the service. Since then, however, Google Checkout has gone from strength to strength, as you’d expect of anything offered by the mighty search engine. Nowadays, merchants who subscribe to Google Checkout can experience a host of benefits for a relatively low fee.
Benefits of Google Checkout
One Login for all purchases: With Google Checkout you can quickly and easily buy from stores across the web and track all your orders and delivery information through your Google Account.
Fraud Protection: Google’s fraud protection policy covers you against unauthorised purchases and they don’t share your purchase history or full card number with sellers.
Control spam: You can keep your email address confidential, and easily turn off unwanted emails from stores where you use Google Checkout.
So, how does Google Checkout work?
Well, first of all, we need to think about what Google Checkout aims to do. Simply put, it helps online merchants to boost business by making the buying process as easy as possible for consumers. How it does this is by allowing customers to shop with various merchants using just one Google Checkout account. This means that they need only use a single username and password to do a lot of their internet shopping, instead of having to remember various usernames and passwords. Trying to remember can be fiddly to the point of being off-putting, so even something as simple as making the username and password process easier can make all the difference between achieving a sale and turning away a customer. Customers who already have a Google account (say, for their Gmail address) can simply use Google Checkout through that. All they need to do is add their credit card details to their account. These are stored securely in order to guard against fraud. For those who don’t have an account, it’s easy enough to create one. Once a customer has set up their account, they simply click on the Google Checkout button on a merchant’s checkout page and voila – their transaction is processed. Google collects all the customer payments and delivers them to merchants on a weekly or daily basis – your choice.
What Benefits does Google Checkout have to Retailers and Sellers?
Google cleverly integrates Checkout with its other applications in order to make merchants’ lives easier, too. If you’re running a Google AdWords campaign, you can display the Google Checkout badge on your ad. Doing so can increase your click rate by 10%. [Source: Google]. You can also evaluate the success of your Google Checkout button via
Google Analytics in the same way that you would do with your Google AdWords campaign. Google has also factored in robust anti-fraud measures into Google Checkout, acting as a buffer between you and any suspicious transactions. Indeed, its fraud prevention tools stop invalid orders from reaching you whilst its payment guarantee policy helps protect you from chargebacks. Importantly, using the service can really help you to boost your sales. In fact, Google says that Google Checkout users convert 40% more than shoppers who have not used Checkout before. That’s an impressive figure and one that makes Google Checkout worth investigating.
You can find out more about Google Checkout and Sign up here >>