Anyone Used PayPal Pro?

[MIB Mastermind]

Hi Warriors

I was wondering if any of you have used paypal pro as a way of
taking payments?

If so would you recommend I use It for my e-commerce store?

Is it east to get accepted for an occount with less than perfect credit
history?

Thanks
Bryan

[trishworks4u]

there was a merchant account thread about a week or two ago. The thing with paypal and google checkout is that it's a potential inconvenience to customers who don't already have accounts because they will have to register. It's another step in the purchase process. I think Paypal's fees are much higher than others also.

I'd shop around. As far as less than perfect credit... there are companies out there that will work with you.

[Zacman]

Hi,

I recommend starting with paypal standard. It's easy to set up and get verified for.

The fees are not much more than other merchant accounts, and Paypal is a well know processor since they are owned by Ebay these days.

Other merchant accounts can be very expensive to set up and require a separate gateway system you have to commit to for up to 4 years.

If you close your account you can get hit with a couple thousand dollars in fees from the gateway processor for the rest of the term.

Paypal and google checkout work very well for me and if you will notice a large percentage of IMers use paypal. (except for affiliate programs)

I use both Paypal and google since I like being in good with google just in case it helps with google rankings having them as one of my processors.

Cheers,
Zac
P.S. I also have a Paypal debit card which is free and I use everyday since my paypal account is always getting sales on a daily basis and I hardly ever use my personal bank account unless it's an extremely large purchase.

[BenWainwright]

This thread pique my curiosity coz i've been noticing the "paypal pro" option inside my amember program for a while.

So in case you ever need to do recurring memberships and billing, you might wanna check out amember, I really find it useful.

As for paypal pro. Right now just thinking about it gives me a headache, lol. I just stick to the paypal thing. Its very simple, and little hassles. The pro thing has a bunch of coding stuff involved with it. I dunno, I wouldn't use it unless it absolutely offered some option you really need.

[Korey Carter]

I have quite a few clients that use PayPal Pro. It is the same as having a regular merchant account and payment gateway system that seamlessly integrates with shopping cart systems. It makes it so that your customers don't need to have a PayPal account to checkout. They can just use their credit cards without even knowing they are going through PayPal.

We did a couple of tests with clients that use PayPal standard and Pro both as options on our shopping cart and it went like this:

20% of customers checked out using PayPal standard (business)
80% checked out using their credit cards direct.

We always tell people to offer both. That way you make everyone happy.

[MIB Mastermind]

Originally Posted by Zacman

Hi,

I recommend starting with paypal standard. It's easy to set up and get verified for.

The fees are not much more than other merchant accounts, and Paypal is a well know processor since they are owned by Ebay these days.

Other merchant accounts can be very expensive to set up and require a separate gateway system you have to commit to for up to 4 years.

If you close your account you can get hit with a couple thousand dollars in fees from the gateway processor for the rest of the term.

Paypal and google checkout work very well for me and if you will notice a large percentage of IMers use paypal. (except for affiliate programs)

I use both Paypal and google since I like being in good with google just in case it helps with google rankings having them as one of my processors.

Cheers,
Zac
P.S. I also have a Paypal debit card which is free and I use everyday since my paypal account is always getting sales on a daily basis and I hardly ever use my personal bank account unless it's an extremely large purchase.

Thanks for your reply, this is what I may need to do to begin with although anyone wanting to purchase would have to have a paypal account to do so(which the vast majority of people do have anyway). I may apply for paypal pro aswel as can take 5-7 working days to get accepted anyway.

Correct me if i'm wrong but having paypal pro means people purchasing don't have to have a paypal account which is what i'm looking for.

Anyone know if having paypal pro is all that is needed for an e-commerce site or do I need anything else like a shopping cart for example.

Thanks again for any help.

Bryan

[MIB Mastermind]

Originally Posted by Ecommerce Guru

I have quite a few clients that use PayPal Pro. It is the same as having a regular merchant account and payment gateway system that seamlessly integrates with shopping cart systems. It makes it so that your customers don't need to have a PayPal account to checkout. They can just use their credit cards without even knowing they are going through PayPal.

We did a couple of tests with clients that use PayPal standard and Pro both as options on our shopping cart and it went like this:

20% of customers checked out using PayPal standard (business)
80% checked out using their credit cards direct.

We always tell people to offer both. That way you make everyone happy.

Hi, sorry didn't see your post before I posted last their, do I need to have a seperate shopping cart or anything else or does paypal pro have everything that I need?

Thanks,
Bryan

[Korey Carter]

Do you have a shopping cart system now? If not you will need one that is compatible with PayPal Pro.

[Zacman]

You don't need a Paypal account to checkout with Paypal standard.

I have processed thousands upon thousands and only have a few hundred in my stats that are verified in my Paypal account. At least last time I checked. LOL

Right on the checkout page it says. "don't have a Paypal Acount? Check out using your credit card"

You then are directed to the credit card info page and simply check out.

Cheers,
Zac
P.S. you can choose to use a buy now button or use Paypal's shopping cart to check out as well. What the shopping cart feature does is allows you to have your customer continue shopping and add more items to their cart. You can also add you own shopping cart to paypal standard too, but unless you already have one I don't see any reason for the extra expense.

[phil79]

Hi Bryan,

I use Website Payments Pro by Paypal and don't have a bad word to say about them. I'm based in the UK but not sure it makes any difference if you're not.

As for credit history...

I entered an IVA less than 6 years ago (it's basically the same as bankruptcy as far as credit rating goes) and it's still on my file. I do however have a limited liability company.

Jeff Walker of Product Launch Formula fame talks about merchant scare stories during a launch. I've done a few biggies (not million dollar unfortunately) and we did get a call from Paypal on one occasion. They asked a few questions, very friendly, never heard since.

Phil.
P.s. I use 1shoppingcart mostly and unfortunately the two together can't be used for recurring revenue. So I also have a merchant account with my business bank.

[MIB Mastermind]

Originally Posted by phil79

Hi Bryan,

I use Website Payments Pro by Paypal and don't have a bad word to say about them. I'm based in the UK but not sure it makes any difference if you're not.

As for credit history...

I entered an IVA less than 6 years ago (it's basically the same as bankruptcy as far as credit rating goes) and it' strill on my file. I do however have a limited liability company.

Jeff Walker of Product Launch Formula fame talks about merchant scare stories during a launch. I've done a few biggies (not million dollar unfortunately) and we did get a call from Paypal on one occasion. They asked a few questions, very friendly, never heard since.

Phil.
P.s. I use 1shoppingcart mostly and unfortunately the two together can't be used for recurring revenue. So I also have a merchant account with my business bank.

Great stuff, yeah I'm from the U.K also. So should be o.k to get accepted then it sounds like. I am just entering the e-commerce side of the business and have the niche blueprint course and just now getting round to setting it up, the store they give you it seems like comes already integrated with a shopping cart.

Do you or anyone else know if this is the case, which means all I would need is website payments pro and I'm good to go.

Cheers,
Bryan

[Scott Casey]

I use paypal payment pro for several websites...works perfectly...I dont believe they do a "credit check" to approve you.

[Mark Riddle]

With paypal pro, if someone HAS a paypal account are they required to use it? or can they just use their Credit card?

Mark Riddle

[MIB Mastermind]

Originally Posted by Mark Riddle

With paypal pro, if someone HAS a paypal account are they required to use it? or can they just use their Credit card?

Mark Riddle

I'm sure they don't require a paypal account and they can just use their credit or debit card.

Bryan

[Korey Carter]

Yes with PayPal Pro your customer would just use your credit or Visa Mastercard backed debit card. That is the whole purpose of it.

With our cart most people offer both as well as Google checkout.

Again the more choices you can give customers to pay the better.

[Jesus Perez]

Does Paypal Pro require the setup of SSL certificates on your site?

If so, that's something to consider. You'll need to buy the yearly certificate, get it installed and get the unique IP.

[Korey Carter]

That all depends on the shopping cart system used. If it is a hosted solution like ours is then the SSL is taken care of. If it is an open source software or something that you install on your server then you take care of the SSL.

[Bright Wings]

All right. Call me REALLY stupid, but what the heck is the difference between Paypal and Paypal Pro? I have a shopping cart, which allows paypal as an option. But what exactly IS Paypal Pro???

[Korey Carter]

Originally Posted by Bright Wings

All right. Call me REALLY stupid, but what the heck is the difference between Paypal and Paypal Pro? I have a shopping cart, which allows paypal as an option. But what exactly IS Paypal Pro???

PayPal Pro makes it so that your customer does not have to go to the PayPal website to complete the transaction. It all happens behind the scenes just like a merchant account and payment gateway.

Of course with PayPal standard the customer has to go to the PayPal website to complete the transaction.

[jsherloc]

Does PayPal pro allow you to autobill customers' credit cards/debit cards, even if they dont have a paypal account?

[Korey Carter]

Originally Posted by jsherloc

Does PayPal pro allow you to autobill customers' credit cards/debit cards, even if they dont have a paypal account?

When you say autobill do you mean recurring billing? PayPal Pro has a virtual terminal so you can charge the card manually without them needing to have a PayPal account

Also PayPal does have a brand new recurring billing feature that works with PayPal Pro for Monthly subscriptions, memberships etc.... although I have not used that feature yet myself so I don't know how smooth it is.

I hope that answers your questions. Let me know if you have more.

[mailco]

I can't find PayPal Pro in my Paypal.com.au account, maybe it's not available in Australia? Has anybody experienced this?

[Derek S]

I'll let you know how it is as I will be setting up PayPal Pro and 1shopping cart tomorrow. This seems to be the cheapest and best combo to go seeing as I am from Canada and limited.

[phil79]

Bryan,

I don't know anything about Paypal's built-in shopping cart or even if they have one. But Ecommerce Guru's point is interesting - about the brand new monthly billing option.

I'm going to look into that this week and speak to them on the phone. I'll report back.

The reason I moved away from Paypal Pro for newer businesses is purely so that I could use 1shoppingcart.

I need to make better use of one-click upsells and downsells so I'm going to find a package this week that combines everything (merchant, gateway, shopping cart, recurring billing, affiliate program, 1-click upsells etc.) preferably using Paypal Pro as the merchant.

Phil.

[phil79]

Nancy,

Just to confirm... Paypal Pro is an entriely different product to Paypal.

It's Paypal's version of a merchant account and secure gateway - the equivalent to having a merchant account with your bank and using someone like Authorise.net

When a customer purchases using their credit card (instead of via a regular Paypal account) they have no idea that Paypal (the company) are handling the transaction.

The good thing from our point of view is that all income flows into the same place i.e. all your credit card sales AND all your Paypal sales show up in your Paypal account.

Phil.

[Korey Carter]

Originally Posted by phil79

Bryan,

I don't know anything about Paypal's built-in shopping cart or even if they have one. But Ecommerce Guru's point is interesting - about the brand new monthly billing option.

I'm going to look into that this week and speak to them on the phone. I'll report back.

The reason I moved away from Paypal Pro for newer businesses is purely so that I could use 1shoppingcart.

I need to make better use of one-click upsells and downsells so I'm going to find a package this week that combines everything (merchant, gateway, shopping cart, recurring billing, affiliate program, 1-click upsells etc.) preferably using Paypal Pro as the merchant.

Phil.

Hello Phil,

Yes paypal does have a shopping cart but it does not work with PayPal pro. It only works with the PayPal standard business account. It is fairly limited with options. Pretty much bare bones but it works for some.

PayPal also owns the Payflow gateway which from what I understand has a pretty extensive recurring billing feature. I am sure they have just somewhat copied that system to take it to the mainstream in the regular PayPal system.

Is 1shoppingcart.com not compatible with PayPal Pro?

Korey

[Jesus Perez]

Originally Posted by Ecommerce Guru

That all depends on the shopping cart system used. If it is a hosted solution like ours is then the SSL is taken care of. If it is an open source software or something that you install on your server then you take care of the SSL.

That's what I thought.

Anyone that's thinking of Paypal Pro. It's essentially the same as Authorize.net. In other words, customers remain on your site the whole time. This is the equivalent of a merchant account. With Paypal Pro comes the convenience of keeping customers on your site....but there's also some requirements you need to understand:

• You'll probably need to invest in shopping cart software like Sunshop, Cubecart, etc to handle your transactions.
• You'll need a dedicated IP. This will cost you $$ per month.
• You'll need an SSL certificate. This will cost you $$ per year.
• If you're storing credit card information in your database, you will need to be Visa CISP compliant. (Really, really important)
• You will be directly responsible for Chargebacks (and it's fees)

Keep this in mind. Sometimes it's easier to leave Paypal as-is and let them assume the worries of CISP, chargebacks, SSL certs and customer service.

[Korey Carter]

Or you could get a hosted shopping cart solution that is fully compatible with PayPal Pro and let them take care of all of those requirements. Believe me I have seen that the extra sales are worth it.

We offer a hosted shopping cart solution that just hooks up to your site and we do the SSL CISP requirements and everything else. I have seen people increase their sales a bunch over just offering PayPal standard business as on option.

Of course this all depends on traffic but it absolutely helps you convert more buyers. Not everyone wants and has a PayPal account. By not offering an alternative to PayPal standard you are bound to lose sales.