posted on December 7, 2001 09:55:23 AM new
Are there any negatives to using Billpoint as a seller? I am considering starting it. Fees look competitive with Paypal for inexpensive items. Does it still cause problems if I don't want to use Checkout? Please advise, oh great message board.
posted on December 7, 2001 12:23:49 PM new
I started taking Billpoint after I set up an account for an auction for America. It is amazing to me how many people just Buy It Now and pay immediately using Billpoint. The fees are lower than Paypal on items less than $15 or so. I still keep the Paypal account, but I have been mostly seeing more immediate payment through Billpoint. Most people do not even wait for my post-auction e-mail to find out what my paypal account info is. I guess it is just easier for them.
posted on December 8, 2001 01:53:51 AM new
I still take Billpoint, but not for long. THey have too cozy a relationship with Ebay (ie "Ebay Payments", and yes--my bidders are still confused by Checkout and think they have to pay with it.
posted on December 8, 2001 06:57:36 PM new
Give your customers both options for payment - Billpoint and Paypal.
My customers love Checkout and Billpoint. I get the buyers who click on eBay Payments when they do searches which brings me new buyers and gives my auctions more bids. I get the buyers who only like to use Billpoint. I get the buyers who avoid the auctions of sellers who won't use Checkout or Billpoint.
And I get the buyers who only like to use Paypal.
The buyers new to eBay, once they go through an auction of a seller who has Checkout configured correctly, with shipping and terms stated in the Checkout boxes, these buyers fall in love with the feature and start looking for the sellers who use it. The buyers just do a couple of clicks, maybe write a little note in the Personal Box to the seller, and their auction is paid for. They can leave their computer and not have to worry about making any more communications with the seller or wait for the seller to get back to them with shipping charges.
There is a growing percentage of buyers who prefer Billpoint because it is integrated with eBay. Capture those bidders and your auctions will get more bids.
At the same time there are buyers who only want to use Paypal, so you need to offer that service also. With Paypal, you want to be careful not to leave too much money in the Paypal account. You can go online and read about the millions of dollars Paypal is in the red. Lots of rumors out there about Paypal's viability. You don't want to get caught with all of your funds with Paypal if something happens to the company because the funds are not FDIC insured.
posted on December 9, 2001 03:55:42 PM new
<You don't want to get caught with all of your funds with Paypal if something happens to the company because the funds are not FDIC insured.>
If we are getting interest on our funds there (a whopping 0.9% - grin), aren't these funds FDIC insured?
posted on December 9, 2001 04:48:08 PM new
No paypal Funds are not FDIC insured even if you money draws interest Paypal is not a bank.
infact if the bottom were to fall out of paypal you and your money become one of million that would probablly lose the larger % of whats in there account.
posted on December 10, 2001 07:58:50 AM newhotccupoftea, I have been coming to this forum for about 3 years now and you are one of the few that seem to work with the everchanging system at ebay and express satisfaction. You say that you have 100% sell through so congrats, you must be doing it right.
You state that you sell the more in demand antiques and also more high end items. Yet you also say that your customers click on ebay payments when they do searches for them. I would think that a buyer would be more interested in finding the item if it is more sought after, and that payment method would be secondary. With many sellers not accepting ebay payments why would the buyer eliminate all of those sellers in his search? I sure wouldn't.
If your customers click on the checkout and pay right away how do you know they included ebay payments in their search? Do you e-mail them and ask?
posted on December 10, 2001 11:43:27 AM new
To set the record straight concerning Paypal: Your funds in the Paypal money market fund are completely safe. They are in the hands of a third party. The funds are not considered part of Paypal's assets, and not subject to seizure by creditors.
Since I don't use Billpoint, I don't know whether they have a similar arrangement.
posted on December 10, 2001 04:30:54 PM new
kiara -
[i]I would think that a buyer would be more interested in finding the item if it is more sought after, and that payment method would be secondary. With many sellers not accepting ebay payments why would the buyer eliminate all of those sellers in his search? I sure wouldn't.[/]
One of the most important things a seller can do is to not attribute their own methods of buying on eBay to ALL buyers. Buyers of high end antiques are not all alike in their buying methodologies.
For example, let us assume you have a 19th century paste upon paste Meissen vase listed. If you described the vase correctly, you will draw in buyers other than pure Meissen collectors - perhaps interior decorators, buyers looking for a wedding gift, someone who wants to see the Sevres technique of paste upon paste done by the Germans and so on. There are lots of potential buyers, lots of potential reasons for the person to make a bid. Some of the potential bidders choose eBay Payments in their search criteria because it makes sense for them - perhaps the example of the interior decorator who did a search for "antique vase" and narrowed the results with eBay Payments; the interior decorator wanted a certain look for a corner of the client's home and it didn't matter if the vase was Meissen, it just had to be antique and of high value, and the buyer preferred Billpoint over Paypal.
If your customers click on the checkout and pay right away how do you know they included ebay payments in their search? Do you e-mail them and ask?
I meet some of my customers. I share resources and information with other sellers in my categories. I attend the conferences. I teach a workshop for the collectors. I don't ask buyers if they use eBay Payments in their searches, it just comes up in conversations and discussions.
I believe the statistics that eBay gathers on searches shows how many users click on eBay Payments.
With regards to Checkout, I have had some buyers put in the personal note box how much they like the new feature.
The reality is that there are very few buyers who would not bid because a seller has Cehckout enabled and offers Billpoint as a payment option. There is no inconvenience for the buyer who doesn't like those features because the buyer doesn't have to use them. Whereas there are buyers who want to use only Billpoint, just like there are buyers who only want to use Paypal. And now we are seeing another group of buyers forming, those who want to use Checkout.
posted on December 10, 2001 06:49:37 PM new
Thanks for your reply, hotcupof tea. Some sellers don't accept online payments and claim that they know their category of selling well enough and their items go to serious collectors who will pay the highest prices anyways. They seem to also have a good success rate so it is interesting to hear all points of view and perhaps it all depends on what you sell.
As a seller I do accept Billpoint and have had success using it so now I am considering PayPal as well because of the requests we have received from our customers and I want as many sales as I can get. I haven't been selling since Checkout was instituted but plan to give it a try.
One other question. Do you get many chargebacks with Billpoint and PayPal?
posted on December 10, 2001 07:50:51 PM new
hotcupoftea has it right, and I would like to underscore the fact that it works as well on the other end of the buyer spectrum.
My average sale is somewhere around $20, and though the commissions to Paypal or Billpoint and ebay eat up about 15% of that, I couldn't dream of selling without the payment services.
I have never had a chargeback in more than 2,000 electronic payments and love the speed of the payment/shipping cycle.
And Checkout needs Billpoint to be truly useful to the buyer, though I do wish it had a direct link to Paypal that was fully integrated.
Checkout is growing in popularity with buyers. Nevertheless, ebay is not really after buyer convenience, they are after building their ebay payments, and making the auctions more of an ebay transaction than ours.
posted on December 10, 2001 08:32:38 PM new
kiara -
Some sellers don't accept online payments and claim that they know their category of selling well enough and their items go to serious collectors who will pay the highest prices anyways. They seem to also have a good success rate so it is interesting to hear all points of view and perhaps it all depends on what you sell.
Multiple bidders means higher ending prices. Sellers who don't offer online payment services should at least try it for a few months. If there is no difference in their gross sales, then stop using it. They will never know if there is a difference unless they offer the online payment options.
One other question. Do you get many chargebacks with Billpoint and PayPal?
I've never had a chargeback. If it does happen it will be part of the cost of doing business, part of the risk I take in accepting online payments. Indeed, if it happened it would be one of those freaky incidences that I had no control over because I would refund a customer if they were unhappy with a purchase for any reason, so the transaction would not reach the level of the customer needing a chargeback.
I am very pro-customer with my eBay business. At all times I analyze how to increase the bidder base, keep the new buyers, make the current buyers as happy as possible.
litlux -
Checkout is growing in popularity with buyers. Nevertheless, ebay is not really after buyer convenience, they are after building their ebay payments, and making the auctions more of an ebay transaction than ours.
I don't think it matters whether eBay is trying to build up Billpoint. As a seller I want eBay to be pro-buyer. I want eBay to stay the number one online shopping choice for online buyers. If some buyers like the direction eBay is going, that is enough for me. I don't have a business without buyers.
Whenever eBay makes a change, I don't care if I am inconvenienced. I really don't. I will never develop complex systems so that I can't adapt my business to new eBay formats. The reality is that eBay is a huge company that will change and evolve to bring in international customers and I anticipate massive stuctural changes in the next few years. I have no idea what eBay will do next, what the next big change will be, but when it does make another change I will be ready to assimilate, keep my auctions going, keep on selling, and all times try to maximize my bidder base.
, and yes--my bidders are still confused by Checkout and think they have to pay with it.