E-Payment Methods

This week I would like to talk about several popular online payments methods, including the ones that are projected to be very popular this year among merchants and consumers. As consumers having more easier access to internet through the surge of smartphones and tablets at home or away, e-commerce sites are poised for grabbing a piece of this previously untapped market. Undoubtedly, credit cards payment method is still the most popular choice used by merchants. In the past few years, we have also seen the increased numbers of private label credit cards, such as BestBuy’s and Future Shop’s own credit cards, which offer some benefits to customers if they were to purchase with their credit cards. 

Another method that started to catch e-commerce’s eyes was Google Wallet, or previously called Google Checkout. It has almost similar functionalities compared to PayPal. Many independent e-commerce sites have switched to Google Wallet since it charges slightly lower cost compared to PayPal. However, Google Wallet is only currently available for U.S. purchases. 

Another trend that is gaining more attention lately is mobile payment method. Several vendors such as ISIS, Intuit, and Square — now support a variety of different ways for mobile payments. It allows small independent merchants who cannot afford the expensive credit cards processing fees by the major credit cards to now accept credit cards transactions, at a much lower cost and more convenient. It is definitely interesting to see how the e-commerce payment methods going to evolve in 2012. All we know is that consumers are just going to spend more online as the payments process get less cumbersome. Not a good news. 

Sources:

The Changing Online-Payments Landscape, Gagan Mehra, http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3257-The-Changing-Online-Payments-Landscape

Google Checkout vs. PayPal, http://www.bestshoppingcartreviews.com/content/google-vs-paypal.html

Square Partners with Visa, Gaining Advantage in Mobile Payments Race, Julia Borstin, http://www.cnbc.com/id/42783124/Square_Partners_with_Visa_Gaining_Advantage_in_Mobile_Payments_Race