E-Commerce Payment Methods - Research Paper Example

E-Commerce Payment Methods Table of Contents Bill Me Later 3 Google Check out 5 PayPal 6 Polish online shops 8 Easy payment 9 Summary 11 In electronic commerce, there are instruments that play important roles in ensuring success operation of online trading and creating a fully functional hassle free electronic business is not an easy task. Without a doubt, one of the most important factors influencing electronic business is the mode of payment accepted by the website and integrated into shopping cart of a business. Continuous studies reveal that offering alternative methods of paying increase sales because of the fact that, the several options of payment offered by an electronic store increases the likelihood for customers to find a mode that suits them best when making a purchase online. This paper will take a research that expounds on electronic commerce payment methods and their affluence on today’s world. Bill Me Later Different people have different views regarding some methods of settling debts. Likely, as a shopper, you have used several of the most popular methods of payment1. However, when it comes to setting up a Web shop, exactly what does storekeeper require in order providing a choice of modes of payments to his customers? This research outlines the steps needed to take to incorporate three popular alternative methods of payment, which include Bill Me Later, Google Checkout, and Pay Pal in to a business2. To begin with, Bill Me Later is an optional form of payment the, with reference to the vice president of Bill Me Later, marketing department Vince Talbert, this instrument has more than 3 million users within 700 sites and 300 call centers worldwide. During the interview, Vince Talbert said, this company offers its clients a lower cost compared to credit cards and as surprising as it may sound, it assumes the hazards of fraud for both the merchants and consumers thus guaranteeing payment for merchants3. Further findings reveal that, Bill Me Later requires a merchant account whereby, a bank extends a credit line to a business so that the business can accept payment by major credit card. In so doing, if an online merchant finds it necessary to incorporate this method into his site, Vince Talbert said the process is a straightforward one. When a willing client contacts Bill Me Later, the company representative leads him through the task required to fold the requisite data into the existing merchant account. After, to get it up and running on a site, the process is two fold. On one end, there is basic HTML work and on the other, the client needs to fill some merchant processor database work. This research revealed that, this company provides sample code together with promotional messaging and a check out screen that electronic businesses can use while at their sites. The designers the response of Bill Me Later designed it to work just like a response of an authorization card making it easy for merchants to store it in their systems. Bill Me Later is advantageous over its competitors because, according to Vince, Bill Me Later is just as simple as a Master card or Visa card transaction on both the front and back end. Consumers provide a small amount of identification data; mainly their date of birth and the last four digits of their Social Security number and authorization process take place within three seconds. This mode of payment has no complications as it only requires merchants to keep their code of response in their ordering or fulfillment management system in order for them to be able to generate settlement requests the same way they do in the case of processing a credit card4. Google Check out With Google Checkout, merchants are able to charge the credit cards of their customers and do order tracking via the fulfillment process as well as receive payments of orders in bank account. This research carried a critical evaluation whereby it found out that, unlike Bill Me later, Google Checkout does not require someone to have a merchant bank account. According to the Google Checkout spokesperson, this mode of payment has a range of integration alternatives that correlate to a number of business needs and one can integrate Google Checkout through Buy Now buttons, off the shelf shopping carts and/or the Google Checkout application program interface. If a customer wants to integrate Google Checkout into a site, the customer must visit the Google Checkout sign up process where the customer obtains a merchant identity. After that, a customer should copy and paste some HTML into his site5. In order to access advanced Google Checkout features that include different rates of tax and the digital signature application, a customer must use the provided HTML application program interface or the XML application program interface. For sort of application which is bare bone, a customer has an option of copying and pasting the Buy Now buttons onto his site. Upon clicking Buy now, a customer signs automatically into Google Check out and confirms both payment and shipping information. Then, the merchant goes ahead to process the order via the Google Check out Merchant Center. With this respect, this research paper established that, the advantage of Google Checkout is that, it enhances search effectiveness and advertises products. Checkout facilitates the leads of drive through the Ad words badge hence enhances conversations. This mode of payment offers protection against fraud, which ensures sellers receive payment for all orders that meet particular requirements. The funny thing that this research discovered is, more than 90 percent of clothing retailers and other consumers who use Google Checkout on their sites are either new or have increased purchasing6. PayPal The biggest advantage of this mode of payment is its large pool of users. Documented evidence put across that, this form of payment has 85 million accounts. This research found out that, in every three American online shoppers, one has a Pay Pal account. Additionally, this instrument of settling payments is flexible, for instance, a customer can pay in six different currencies using this service. It has versions whereby, depending on the exact version integrated into a consumer’s site, you may or may not require a merchant account. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that, some versions of this mode of payment serve as merchant accounts which makes it optional for customers to consider having one or not. As mentioned, this mode of payment offers many options of its well-known service7. For example, if a customer wants to integrate the Express Check out, he can opt to use this method’s application program interface. More importantly, this form of payment has an integration wizard that helps customers generate the appropriate code. This system put across that, it is worth noting the straightest forward and simplest way to adding this method of payment into a website is via the standardized payment. This standard payment via the Pay Pal website contains a collection of Hyper Text Markup Language based payment options. However, it should be borne in mind that there a just a few Pay Pal options that offer advanced features hence, this mode of payment appears a bit complicated, but if you seem way over your head, Pay Pal presents a list of third parties that may be of help. The setting up of Pay Pal is easy and affordable. Within the context of this research, this paper established that most clients prefer this mode of payment due to its simplicity. Hanna Libby runs simple services office and integrated Beaver Brook Transmissions into her sites, a service offered by Pay Pal whereby she decided not to have a merchant account. This exclaims that, using Pay Pal does not require a merchant account and that, she said, is one of the factors that contributed to her decision in choosing this mode of payment for her website. Furthermore, this servicer has a high level of securing data and is easy to maintain. The first step that an interested customer needs to do is to create an account with Pay Pal followed by entering the details of each product into the site of Pay Pal. Next, you copy and paste the code that the page generates into the site. In addition, Pay Pal provides the view button code, which makes it convenient8. Most of the prospects interviewed during the research recommended Pay Pal as an excellent value service especially for those people who do not want to pay monthly charges of a merchant account. The three types of modes of electronic commerce payment depict the real appearance of the current world that we are living in. Cognitively, it is worthwhile explaining that, the initial widespread and uptake of the internet in the 1990s; there were high expectations of its potential for commercial purposes and preferably for e-commerce. Nonetheless, as such, predictions were too optimistic in the short run, policy and commercial focuses shifted to barriers to e-commerce development. Household surveys conducted in Organization for Economic Corporation and Development countries emphasized a range of barriers to business- to- consumer transactions; at the top of the list was consumer resistance to paying on line figure prominently9. In those days, the weak up date of online shopping partly explained the lack of appropriate online paying mechanisms and consumer confidence in electronic payment and use with perceived security of payment mechanisms. In simple terms, analysts saw the difficulties related to payment as one key explanation of slower than predicted growth of e-commerce in conjunction with other factors such as inappropriate products, sellers being unknown, uncertainty of delivery and lack of consumer’s interests. Polish online shops This paper resolved to consult online resources during the research whereby it demonstrated some varying logic models describing the acceptance of payment methods in Polish online shops. The Polish shops strategy to use traditional and electronic distribution channels had a strong influence on their acceptance of particular payment methods. Moreover, the preferences of online shop managers and the association of online auctions also play a very significant role in influencing different modes of e-commerce payments. Due to integration of different methods of payment in e-commerce, this study confirmed that there is intensifying competition between banks and non-bank intermediaries in payment market as well as the widespread popularity of outsourcing in the spectrum of online payments. As this report analyses the development and use of modes of payments in e-commerce, review has it that, the structure of this service is complex and has impediments to its growth as well as emerging issues related to further developments and structure. The major task of a payment method is to provide a mode of transferring value avid different parties in the economy. As a result, it assess partly the economic cost of transaction whereby, its design will be optimal if organized to permit faster and efficient value transfers while imposing minimal additional costs and perils. Presence of a high costing process of payment may cause serious effects on the activities of an economy since it renders transactions exorbitant and consequently reduced. Conversely, effective system of payment with lower cost could depict a positive impact on economic growth10. Easy payment The most recent mode of e-commerce payment is Easy Payment and this research found it vital to examine the strategy of this mode of payment for e-commerce operators in the current business world. The demonstration coupled discussions regarding the concept of easy pay and its impacts on e-commerce operators (merchants), financial institutions, and the customers. This research discovered, apart from the fact that the policy of easy payment brings about rise to vast opportunities that are advantageous to users, issues concerning safety measures and warranty of dealings call for a slam and critical examination11. As such, this paper points out that it is vital for both financial institutions and operators to try to come up with measures to safeguard their interests in the implementation of the easy payment system to avoid running into a loss. Due to e-commerce payment methods, traders can use the internet to make transactions globally from anywhere at any given time. In addition to the apparent advantages that organizations have to obtain from this, they can combat certain challenges on daily basis. Present in the list of these challenges are stiff and stern competition and struggle for customer retention as the scramble for larger shares of market continue on a global platform. This due to, failure to develop strategies that would keep customers coming can jeopardize all the business efforts. Provided by the merchants and the financial institutions, easy payment is one of the latest modes of payment that customers are using and firms are beginning to use it to embrace and encourage purchasing and spending habits of customers. Easy payment as a mode of e-commerce payment is advantageous because it saves customers from having to pay for commodities at ago but in bits within a specific and agreed time span between the customer and the merchant. In such cases, the merchant requires customers to give out certain information that authorizes such charges from the customer’s credit card or bank account at the allotted time. However, a critical outlook in the whole idea of easy payment particularly in the long run effect on customers put forward that, this practice might entice customers into buying more than what their financial income can support thus resulting to accumulated debt and in extreme cases bankruptcy. On the part of firms and e-commerce operators, easy payment could lead to affected profitability in situations when customers fail to meet up their payment plans or in case of a customer’s default. Consequently, this paper recommends for critical evaluation of this mode of e-commerce payment. Internet is not secure and so the dealings done online are not safe. All money-lending institutions require customers to provide collateral when applying for finances. However, easy payment plans do not ask for that. Therefore, this makes people wonder what merchants can do in order to get their money back in case a customer dies, defaults to pay, and/or anything related to that happens. This issue is brewing situations regarding security hence acting as draw back for methods of e-commerce payment. For instance, the alarming rate of credit card theft in big countries like the United States of America is causing these service providers sleepless nights as if this continues, they stand to lose many clients12. Summary In summary, even though methods of e-commerce payments give rise to increased customer purchase, it is congruent that financial institution together with easy payment operators to try to establish strategies that can safeguard their interests in the implementation of the electronic modes of payment systems. This will enable them avoid running into a loss in case of a customer failure to meet conditions or in the occurrence of unforeseen from the customer point of view. This research strongly recommends caution while handling your instruments of e-commerce payment simply because life is as insecure as the internet. This paper has carried a complete research on e-commerce methods and established cognitive results that are useful in the current technological world that we are living in. Work Cited J. Botha. E-Commerce. Muizanberg: Juta and Company Ltd, 2004. Print. Janice Reynolds. The Complete E-Commerce Book: Design, Build & Maintain a Successful Web-Based Business. Waltham: Focal Press, 2004. Print. Kamel, Rouibah. Emerging Markets And E-Commerce In Developing Economies. Hershey: Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2009. Print. Theerasak Thanasankit. E-Commerce and Cultural Values. Hershey: Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2003. Print.. Theerasak Thanasankit. E-Commerce and Cultural Values. Hershey: Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2003. Print. Weidong Kou. Payment Technologies for E-Commerce. New York: Springer, 2003. Print. Wen Chen Hu, Chung-Wei Lee, and Weidong Kou. Advances In Security And Payment Methods For Mobile Commerce. Hershey: Idea Group Inc (IGI), 2005. Print. Read More