[Diggory Laycock]

Hello,

An jeweller friend of mine wants to be able to sell her pieces on-line.

I'll be making a PHP/SQL-based site for her - but haven't got much experience with e-commerce - can anyone suggest a good service for accepting payment?

So far I've been looking at WorldPay - http://www.worldpay.co.uk/ and PayPal.

Does anyone have any advice? What's PayPal's reputation like these days?

Many Thanks.

[Macola]

PayPal would be fine, if all your customers had PayPal accounts. Many people, especially if they're unfamiliar with e-commerce, don't want to be confronted with a signup screen for PayPal, when they think they're just going to check out and pay with a CC.

You're better off with a third-party merchant provider like 2Checkout (http://www.2co.com). This gives you the benefits of a merchant account without all the hassle, although at a price.

The best solution in the long run is to get your own merchant account and gateway, but it may be more trouble than it's worth if you're just starting out.

[jon31]

Doesn't PayPal allow guests to pay with the CC without having to sign up now?

[Macola]

Originally posted by jon31:
Doesn't PayPal allow guests to pay with the CC without having to sign up now?

If they do, it's a well-kept secret.

[jon31]

I thought they did if you use their merchant account options.

[Macola]

You're right--I finally found it after digging through the Help. As someone who's had a Premier account for over a year, I'm surprised I didn't get a notice. Oh well--good to know it's an option.

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...home&flow=

[jon31]

Excellent. I'm glad you know now