You’ll still need a merchant banking facility for online payments, but there are several advantages to using Actinic Payments for your website.

Firstly the fees are low, between 16p and 40p per transaction but importantly there is no percentage charges or monthly fees from Actinic – the only other fee you’ll pay is from your bank. Crucially there is only one point of contact for support for both your website and for payment processing. If something isn’t working then Actinic can help you to resolve any technical or operational issues.

Managing payments is made easy, all of the third man authentication information is provided directly within Actinic Online alongside your customer’s order. You can refund, void and commit pre-authorised payments from your admin console with no need to log into a third party gateway payment website to manage payments.

For the technical bit, Actinic Payments is 100% PCI-DSS compliant (to level 1), offers a sophisticated fraud screening service as well as 3D Secure (Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode), AVS for verifying a customer billing address and CVV2 (the 3 digit card verification number). Actinic Payments is powered by Credit Call .

The real killer selling point is that once you have a merchant account number that can be used for Internet payments and your Actinic Online account is opened then Actinic set up Actinic Payments for your website and you have no integration work to do. Everything is done for you and you’re ready to start selling.

Checkout by Amazon makes it easy for Amazon customers to shop on your site by using the delivery and payment information stored in their Amazon account. As an additional benefit customers may feel more confident making purchases knowing that they have the same protection under the Amazon A-to-Z Guarantee as they have when they shop on Amazon.

Recent interviews of US Sellers found that up to 90 per cent of customers using Checkout by Amazon are new-to-file and that average order size for orders placed through Checkout by Amazon is 10% to 17%
higher than other payment methods. These two stats taken together can make a big difference to a business. If offering an alternative payment method encourages new customers to complete orders and at the same time spend more why wouldn’t you offer more payment options.

If like M&S you opt for an Amazon Webstore then you’ll automatically be set up for Checkout by Amazon. However you don’t have to use Amazon Webstore to offer Amazon as a payment option – you can add Checkout by Amazon to any eCommerce website.

Many eBay sellers start with a website offering PayPal as a payment option. Others start off with just credit cards as an option. Why wouldn’t you offer all three – PayPal, credit card and Checkout by Amazon? What about Google Checkout, is that an option worth offering? Which payment options do you offer on your website and which are most popular with customers? Do you see a difference in order value between payment methods?

You’ll probably never hear the name Boku though, it’s much more likely that it’ll be presented as a branded product from your mobile telephone provider.

The way the solution works is similar to a pre-pay credit card (or could be simply billed on your mobile phone contract, although only the pre-pay option appears to be currently available). However it’s designed to work wherever you could use a credit card without the retailer needing any special equipment.

For those without NFC (Near Field Communication) enabled mobiles (and that’s almost everyone in the UK) NFC stickers will be provided which will enable you to pay in places like McDonalds just by waving your mobile at the NFC enabled credit card terminal. The service will also come with a payment card that can be swiped to support payments where retailers don’t have NFC enabled equipment.

Boku’s claim to fame is that neither the consumer nor the retailer will need to pay for any special equipment. If you’ve got a mobile cell phone capable of receiving text messages you’re good to go.

Should PayPal be worried? Well it’s worth remembering that PayPal are testing many solutions for in-store payments already. They’re testing a service in Home Depot stores in the US where you can pay by typing in your mobile phone number and a PIN into the merchant’s terminal. In the UK they have a Pizza Express iPhone app which allows you to pay without even touching a payment terminal.

PayPal also purchased Zong back in July 2011, Zong is a very similar proposition to Boku and similarly relies on mobile text/billing to facilitate payments. Zong gives PayPal the same 250 odd mobile carrier relationships that Boku boast.

Payments, and especially in-store mobile enabled payments are going to change how we pay in 2012. The only real question is which solutions will be most convenient. NFC appears the most likely solution to win, but that relies on retailers upgrading their equipment and on consumers getting NFC enabled mobiles.

Alternative solutions with no equipment upgrades look much more attractive but expecting retailers to install custom software or hardware solutions as Pizza Express have done isn’t a realistic proposition. Mobile instore payments need to work with no hardware upgrades, but still be accepted anywhere you could swipe your credit card, before they’ll be widely adopted by consumers.

Using PayPal for your webstore has very different rules than on eBay. Here’s what you need to know from a seller who has seen it all. There are two reasons your direct PayPal payments differ from eBay.

1) That layer of protection a buyer ID offers

You can see the feedback history and know that the potentially fraudulent buyer has jumped through that extra hoop.

2) That mercurial payment status “partially eligible”

Its essentially a shout out to those sellers who tire of PayPal security measures and therefore allows the payment through but does NOT insure it. In reality you should expect about 20% such payments, higher for high value item, versus eBay which is always insured.

The Problem

The problem is that there is no information regarding the credit card used, or crucially whether the billing address matches the delivery address. To our cost, we have learned that “partially eligible” can translate to “junk payment.” A full investigation into a particularly nasty fraudulent transaction reveals that a hacked PayPal account can have its delivery address changed, previous buying location and volumes radically changed, and used to successfully purchase high value items on a PayPal shopping cart. Industry leading fraud protection you say? For higher value items this means you really need to refund the transaction where it is not covered, and this means about 1 in 4 purchases (some days as many as half your orders).

There ARE criminal gangs out there, particularly in the London area who have banks of hacked PayPal accounts primed for use. After all they only need a password rather than full credit card info and 3D secure password. And these gangs know too well that PayPal shopping carts are a vulnerable part of your business. Sometimes the fraudulent payments are actually processed as “fully eligible” which means you will inadvertently donate PayPal money to these criminal gangs by accepting the payment. Also a bad idea.

PayPal, just like eBay, needs to be part of your business. But if you have high value items, you also need a credit card processing account so you have full access to the details of the payment. We recently sold a £3k top end camera via PayPal which was only partially eligible. This kind of payment can easily sink a company if it reverses, yet PayPal say its “ready for dispatch.” So a refund is the only sensible course of action. I’m sure we’ll be defending out refund rate next month to PayPal but its the rock or the hard place.

Why allow a payment through, take the full processing fee and then dodge the insurance on it? That seems a little cheeky to me.

How do you protect PayPal payments on your webstore?

So what advice do you have for other sellers when offering PayPal on your webstore? What additional checks do you do when trading “off eBay” compared to “on eBay”? Were you aware that whilst seller protection (so long as you ship tracked) is actually pretty good on eBay but no where nearly as comprehensive as soon as you’re accepting payments on your own website?

As well as paying for goods without having to queue, the report reveals shoppers can look forward to being able to carry digital loyalty cards, promotional offers and receipts on their phones – keeping everything in one place creating a virtual shopping hub.

PayPal’s findings are based on Forrester Consulting interviews with 10 senior executives from major UK retailers and other businesses, representing a combined 2010 turnover of £85 billion. 45 million Britons use a mobile phone and over a third of mobile users surveyed by Forrester have used the mobile internet to buy something from a retailer’s website. In the future a whole range of devices will be used to make payments direct to the retailer – regardless of whether you’re in store or shopping online.

This isn’t just wishful thinking – back in June of this year Pizza Express rolled out an iPhone app allowing their customers to pay for meals via PayPal. Mind you there’s still a long way to go. The coffee shop I visited today they don’t even take cards and are still strictly a cash based business. Thankfully they spare you the embarrassment of not being able to pay for your cake and tea by telling every customer up front but you have to wonder how they’ll cope with accepting PayPal or indeed any form of mobile phone payments.

There’s also the tricky problem of security tags and the embarrassment of a security guard accosting you at the door because he didn’t see you pay at the checkout. However those problems aside I’d love to go shopping for Christmas presents and just scan and pay for products with PayPal on my mobile and have them automatically delivered to my home – shopping with no bags to carry has it’s attractions.

Consumers will be directed to merge their Checkout account with their Google Wallet account. They can automatically transition their Checkout account to Google Wallet the next time they sign in or make a purchase online and their Checkout history will then be available in their Wallet account.

Thankfully Google recognise that merchants won’t take too kindly to having to change their websites a month before Christmas, so shoppers using Google Wallet will be able to make purchases seamlessly on merchant sites that accept Google Checkout. Buyers will simply be able to log in and pay with their Wallet account… assuming that they’re aware that their Google Wallet will work on sites with the Google Checkout branding.

Once Christmas is out of the way in the new year Google will begin transitioning merchants Checkout logos to Wallet logos, and doubtless there’ll be some back end tinkering to do on your website if you currently accept Checkout.

Realistically this is an admission that Checkout hasn’t caught on, otherwise Google could have built offline payments into Checkout rather than launching them as a rebranded Google Wallet. How well Wallet will catch on has yet to be seen. The big question is will you change the Google Checkout logos on your websites to Google Wallet, or will you just press the delete button and allow buyers to use other payment methods?

That’s a lot of “ifs”, but it’s an insight into the cashless future we’re being promised where we won’t need the exact change for our bus fare but can simply pay with our mobile.

I can understand that the NJ Transit partnership with Google Wallet is only available at New York Penn Station ticket vending machines and ticket windows, Newark Liberty International Airport Rail Station and selected bus routes, but Google Wallet itself is severely hampered by only being available on a single cell phone model from a particular provide with currently just on bank’s credit card being supported as a funding source.

The limitations are not going to make it available to the vast majority of travellers. However in a few years time we could all be paying for travel with a payment system embedded in our mobile phones.

With the Pilot once a purchase has been made eBay will request payment from the buyer and once eBay has the funds they’ll notify the seller that the item should be despatched. The seller then needs to ship the product and when they mark it as despatched this triggers the payment from eBay to the seller.

The big deal on this test is Buyer Protection. Currently buyers are protected for their purchases if they pay with PayPal. Under the pilot with eBay collecting the funds all acceptable payment methods will be covered under Buyer Protection. Buyers have the option to pay with Bank Transfer, PayPal, Skrill (the new name of Moneybookers) or credit card/debit card through either PayPal or Skrill.

As a side benefit the pilot will also ensure that a wider range of payment options are available to buyers on a consistent basis. All sellers participating in the pilot will have the same set of payment options offered on their items so buyers will always have the choice of using their favoured payment method.

All newly registered sellers on eBay.de and eBay.at will be included in the payments pilot. All of their items listed on eBay will have direct payment options to eBay which means buyers around the world buying from these sellers will see the range of eBay payment options.

Payments from eBay to the seller can be either through PayPal or bank transfer, and similar to current PayPal holds the frequency will be dependent on the seller status including if they are a business seller with an established trading history (immediate payout) or Business seller without a trading history or who are below standard (7 day payout) or Private sellers (14 day payout).

eBay say that it’s too early to say if the pilot will be rolled out to more sellers or in more eBay territories. They will of course thoroughly analyse the results of the pilot to determine if it has the desired effect of increasing trust on eBay, particularly for higher value purchases from newly registered sellers.

I do like the way the new payment model offers choice of payment methods to buyers and increases buyer protection. I’m not so sure that sellers with their own merchant banking facilities for accepting credit/debit cards or those who already accept bank transfer will welcome delays in receiving their funds.

However the most important data point from the pilot will be to see if it increase the frequency and value of purchases from buyers. If sales volume and value increase than any change in payment options is likely to be a secondary consideration and something we’ll all just have to live with.

Think Facebook credits for Farmville upgrades and you’ll get the idea of where Zong fits in the market. To make a purchase just enter your mobile phone number onscreen and you’ll receive a text with a one time confirmation PIN code. Confirming your purchase with the PIN and wait for your phone bill to arrive, although with Zong+ you can link your credit or debit card to your mobile phone number and get double your purchase.

You may wonder why PayPal would want to buy this mobile text/billing company and where the interest in social network gaming credits lies. Also if PayPal have an interest in this market don’t they have the expertise to build their own solution? The truth is that all PayPal are really interested in, and the reason they’re coughing up $240 million for Zong is who they know.

Zong have connections with more than 250 mobile carriers in 45 countries and that’s what PayPal want. Zong have done the legwork and with the acquisition PayPal will be well placed to exploit the mobile payments market and take advantage of the billing relationships already set up by Zong.

Richard North, the Chairman of the Payments Council said:

It’s in the DNA of the Payments Council to consult and listen to all those people who actually make payments and use cheques. Listening to over 600 stakeholder groups, working with the banks and following our appearance before the Treasury Select Committee, we have concluded we should reassure customers that the cheque is staying.

Of course, as cheque guarantee cards were scrapped at the end of last month, the usefulness of cheques is limited – but some people do continue to use them to pay at a distance. Just this week at work we’ve had two customers request to pay by cheque — the first in the last two years!

When I was selling on eBay, some buyers were wedded to cheques and refused to use any online method of payment, either because of security concerns, or because they didn’t have any other means of payment. As a seller, I loathed them: slow, made out to the wrong name, liable to bounce slowly and causing me a trip to the bank to pay them in, I wanted electronic means of payment every time.

What do you reckon? Are you happy to see cheques reprieved, or are they already a thing of the past? Leave us a comment.