5 Signs It's Time to Switch from Paypal to a Merchant Account | Two Minute Tuesdays

 

5 Signs It's Time to Switch from Paypal to a Merchant Account | Two Minute Tuesdays video transcript

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Hi, everybody! My name’s Matt, and I’m the Social Media Manager here at Volusion.

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Welcome to Two Minute Tuesdays, where we give you two minutes of ecommerce advice to bolster

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your online success.

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A very common question we encounter, especially from new online business owners, is: When

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should I switch from accepting payment through PayPal to accepting credit cards directly

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on my site through a merchant account?

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That's a great question, so pay close attention, because I've got five signs that it’s time

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for you to make the switch.

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First, and often most obvious, there will be a point where PayPal is no longer cost

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effective. Although it depends on the rate that you're looking at for your new merchant

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account and your current PayPal rate, there will be a plateau that you hit with your sales

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revenue that makes a merchant account much more affordable than using PayPal.

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Secondly, if you're seeing an increased rate of abandoned carts, PayPal could be partially

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to blame. With some versions of PayPal, when customers are checking out from your site,

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they're redirected to PayPal's site to log in, create an account, the whole nine yards.

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Essentially, this creates an obstacle for people that just want to buy in a hurry, and

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that could be leading your customers to abandon their carts and search for an easier purchase

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elsewhere.

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Third on our list, if you need to access funds more quickly, a merchant account might better

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suit your purposes. Keep in mind that PayPal will hold onto your funds in your PayPal account

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for five to seven days before moving them to your personal or business bank account.

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That means if you frequently have new inventory to buy or need to pay for big investments

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in a pinch, you might want to take a look at switching from PayPal so you’ll have

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more direct access to your money.

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Number four, and you may not have thought of this one before, but if you're selling

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more to business owners than the average consumer, it's probably time to accept payment directly

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on your site. In B2B transactions, it's quite rare for a corporation to actually purchase

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something through PayPal. Often they want to use a more professional method, like accepting

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payment directly on your site.

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And last, but definitely not least, if you're looking to grow your brand, you might want

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to think about accepting payments directly on your site. Why? To be frank, a lot of people

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will see a site that only accepts PayPal and perceive it as being fairly amateur. On the

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other hand, if you're accepting payment on your site directly, it gives your business

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an air of confidence and credibility, and that's an especially powerful thing for a

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growing brand.

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Keep these five signs in mind when you're considering whether or not you should make

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the PayPal-to-merchant-account migration. If you have any questions, leave me a comment

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in the box below and I'll get right back to you.

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From me to you, happy selling!