Re:PayPal Alternatives for Startups
by analog31 on Sunday April 28, 2019 @12:51PM
(#19772154)
My very small side-business uses PP, and it has been frictionless for 12 years. When I started up, I imagined the customer thinking: "Would I rather give my credit card info to PP or to this guy working in his basement who probably has no grasp of data security?"
With that said, there are people out there who have, for whatever reason, vowed to never use PP. Maybe they had a bad experience. Most people who want a PP alternative seem satisfied to send me a money order. If my business were to grow beyond $15k/y, I would think about adding a secondary payment service.
On my end, PP is my accounting system. I use the PP credit card to pay for all of my supplies. At tax time, I download a huge spreadsheet of every transaction, and mung it into my year-end numbers.
Dealing with chargebacks, frauds, and disputes... my view is that the idea of being able to get a refund, no questions asked, has been established as a consumer expectation by the large physical and online retailers such as Home Depot and Target. Those companies can afford to "eat" a few bad transactions. It's harder for the rest of us. If someone has very low sales volume, or is moving big ticket items, a single chargeback or dispute can be painful. Anybody who's thinking of setting up shop online, should think about how they can maintain a cash cushion to absorb the issues that can arise. Eating a few bad deals has to be just part of your budget.
With that said, there are people out there who have, for whatever reason, vowed to never use PP. Maybe they had a bad experience. Most people who want a PP alternative seem satisfied to send me a money order. If my business were to grow beyond $15k/y, I would think about adding a secondary payment service.
On my end, PP is my accounting system. I use the PP credit card to pay for all of my supplies. At tax time, I download a huge spreadsheet of every transaction, and mung it into my year-end numbers.
Dealing with chargebacks, frauds, and disputes... my view is that the idea of being able to get a refund, no questions asked, has been established as a consumer expectation by the large physical and online retailers such as Home Depot and Target. Those companies can afford to "eat" a few bad transactions. It's harder for the rest of us. If someone has very low sales volume, or is moving big ticket items, a single chargeback or dispute can be painful. Anybody who's thinking of setting up shop online, should think about how they can maintain a cash cushion to absorb the issues that can arise. Eating a few bad deals has to be just part of your budget.