Auctionography—June 5, 2007

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This Week´s Auctionography—How Do Payment Options Affect Your Sales?

By Steve Nye, eBay Certified Consultant

Lately I´ve been busy attending a lot of industry summits, conventions, and seminars—including the eBay eCommerce Forum and the PeSA summit. A theme that´s picking up quite a bit of notice is payment methods.

The latest Google research shows that alternate payment methods can increase your conversion rate. Sometimes dramatically. The added options available to buyers can help encourage bids you may not have otherwise seen. Plus, it can help tap disgruntled buyers who have been burned by poor service, fraud, or who just want an alternative.

According to BidPay, a leading alternative auction payment service, a recent survey of 40,000 of their sellers showed a whopping 15.4% average increase in sales since adding BidPay as a payment option.

What does this mean to you?

Put simply, having more payment options can help boost buyer demand & increase bids. Giving consumers a choice of payment options helps build interest in active listings and boost conversions - and the trend seems to be building.

According to a recent survey from AuctionBytes, both BidPay and Google Checkout are gaining market share while PayPal has seen its share slip. In the March survey, BidPay saw its share of respondents grow to 13% compared to 9.7% in September, while PayPal remained dominant but slipping a bit with 94% (down from 95.5%).

Some popular reasons for adding an additional payment service like BidPay include:

• Lower fees – depending on the pricing tier & your current monthly volume
• Buyer demand – a segment of buyers demand an alternative
• Diversify – include an additional credit card processor for your business – no need for a merchant account and reduces your dependency on your current vendor
• Free to join – offering alternative types costs nothing - you pay only if they´re used
• Faster payments – most don´t feature a stored value account, so funds are deposited to your bank account faster
• Seller friendly – dedicated account reps give you a voice

Be sure to select a payment service that´s permitted on eBay. BidPay is listed as one of the few authorized alternative payment services on eBay´s Safe Payment Policy.

About BidPay

BidPay is a wholly owned subsidiary of payment services provider CyberSource. Originally launched in 1999 and claiming over 4 million users, BidPay is an eBay Compatible Application and allows sellers to join for free.

Buyers using BidPay pay for their auction purchases with their Visa or MasterCard credit card. Payments are deposited directly into the seller´s bank account with no delay in processing from pulling funds from a stored value account.

You can register for a free account at www.bidpay.com.

Steve

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