Part-time business accepting credit cards?

[KerryAll]

A customer ordered one of my pouches last week, in a big hurry to get it. He ordered it last Thursday, I had it ready Saturday, but the e-mail address he gave me either didn't work, or I copied it down wrong. Anyway, I called him today and he said PayPal wouldn't take his credit card (?) so he found a similar product he needed locally. He said he had a sail shop make it for him, but it was $140. Mine was $65 plus $30 shipping, and my products use a much stronger material.
Anyway, it got me to thinking- should I be getting set up to accept credit cards? I'm only doing this part-time and probably not enough transactions to warrant it. PayPal has served me well to now and when I saw some comments on here, I think PayPal takes all major cards. I never thought to ask him what card he was using. I tell my customers there's no charge for them to send money through PayPal with a credit card, and they don't have to give out their card number to a stranger over the phone.
Do I need the expense of being able to accept credit cards directly?

[Dan Furman]

I used both a "regular" cc processor, and PayPal, and gave customers a choice. Seven years ago, it was 80% regular CC, and 20% PayPal. That ration slowly reversed. It was 80/20 in PayPal's favor six months ago, so I finally dropped the other CC processor. Have not had one issue - people seem to like and trust PayPal.

Mine is a service business - that might matter. For products, I am guessing regular CC processors might be more important than they are for me.

[vangogh]

If PayPal wouldn't take this person's card I wouldn't think a CC processor would either. It sounds like more of an excuse to me than anything else.

It's up to you. I agree with Dan. A few years ago more people used the regular CC and now more are using PayPal. Like Dan I'm a service based business. I'm not sure it matters though. PayPal takes credit cards too so it's not like people need an account with them. There are some advantages to having a merchant account, though they may not be a big deal to you. One is being able to set up recurring charges. More important for a service based business I'd think and something you actually can get through PayPal, though not with a free account.

I've always thought the best option is to offer as many ways as possible to your customers when it comes to payment. Why lose someone because your method of payment isn't the one they want to use.

[MyITGuy]

While I agree that the customer was potentially making a story up, there are a few things you should consider:

From the sound of it, you made an item specifically for this buyer before the item was paid for. To avoid these situations in the future, you should consider payment in full (Or at least a considerable deposit) before beginning the work.

You can send an invoice to the client using the PayPal system which ensures you have their e-mail/contact information correct

Look into eCommerce modules for your website that integrate with the payment gateways out there (I.E. PayPal, 2CO or etc). With most payment gateways, the buyer never knows they are leaving your site.

I would try to avoid getting credit cards over the phone (Security, and higher merchant % rate). Instead you may want to gather the information from them and send them an invoice for them to pay online.

[KerryAll]

Thanks for all the input, much appreciated. The pouch I made was a standard item, so no problem selling it; I was just out of stock when he called. My website is set up to click directly to PayPal for that amount, but unfortunately, I am not set up with a shipping calculator, so that has to be a second transaction. I desperately want to get away from this- I'm scared some potential customers are almost ready to buy, then realize 'Oh, damn, I have to contact them for the shipping cost and make another payment'. I don't think the website builder I am using has this much flexibility, but I haven't checked with PayPal to see if there is a way to do this through them. When it's a custom design, it's not a big deal, they have to contact me anyway, but a lot of my sales are 'standard' if that's possible with my type of products.

[billbenson]

I'd get a credit card processor if you think you are loosing orders. Some of them don't have monthly fee's but charge more for the transaction. I added shipping into my price and don't worry about shipping (or credit card fee's). I do what you do for overnight shipping and make a separate charge. I let them go ahead and order it first and put the credit card through on the site though.

If the product is one (which yours appears to be) that people like to buy without talking to you, you should make it as easy as possible for them to do that. You really should try to get away from a site builder site. Free cart solutions like zen cart are pretty easy to use.

[vangogh]

Lloyd you'll probably need to move beyond the website builder set up to fully integrate a shopping cart into your site. Most content management systems with shopping cart functionality usually let you add something to connect to several shipping companies so the shipping cost can be added at purchase.

It would scare me away from buying too if I had to pay you before knowing the full cost.

You can also do something like what Bill does and build the shipping cost into the initial price. This has the benefit of their being no perceived shipping. Some people will use an average shipping cost knowing on some sales they lose a little while on some sales they gain a little.

[KerryAll]

For the smaller covers ($41.95 and $43.95) I averaged shipping costs and include them in the price. Like you said, they sort of get the feeling there is no shipping. Trouble is with the bigger covers (for large farm implements), shipping can range from $40-$75. I suppose I could average it at $60 and include it in the price. I'm wondering, though, would the higher price scare away potential customers? A round baler cover goes for $249.95. If I include shipping, the price tag would be $314.95 (using the $60 average). Is there a psychological barrier going beyond the next hundred unit (from 200 to 300)?
Again, as vangogh suggests, maybe all I need to do is get away from the website builder, so I can have better cart options.

[vangogh]

It's hard to know if people won't buy because of the higher price. You'd think $299/$300 is a barrier so if you could keep prices under $300 I would think it would help. If you include shipping in the price you should also heavily promote that so people understand it's included.

Another option is to list the price as you always have and then toss the $60 in as shipping at the end. That's probably the better way to go. I think what you want to change from what you're doing now is making people pay twice, once for the product and separately for shipping. That makes it more difficult for people to buy and you have to make it as easy as possible.

You will have more options for a variety of things if you move away from a website builder, though of course you'll likely be spending money to get things set up outside the website builder initially. Out of curiosity how much does the website builder cost each month? Is it more than say $10/month? If so the cost of having someone set up a site for you will be returned by lower monthly fees.

[KerryAll]

I'm paying $10 per month, based on a yearly renewal. Yahoo offers a "store" you can use for your transactions, and it is a minimum of $40 per month, plus 1.5% transaction fee. I'm going to look around at other options.