I've had a business account with PayPal for 15 years and they've always served me well, especially since I've established myself as an honest and fair business owner. However, some have an aversion to creating any kind of an account -- some to the point of refusing to shop at a store that requires it, even if it is just a PayPal account.
So I've tried using other payment processing services just to have multiple payment options, but they all want to hold my funds for whatever period of time and that simply isn't right. Those funds are NOT theirs to be holding, nor do they have any reason whatsoever to be holding them -- nobody has ever filed a claim and I've already been verified.
Nope, "just because it's in our terms that you agreed to by using our service" is never a good enough excuse, especially when they shouldn't legally be allowed to do so unless they have a valid (and fully verifiable) reason. Can your bank pull that kind of stunt on you? Absolutely not! It's against the law.
So, they're basically putting my business at risk "just because" they can due to some term that shouldn't even be legal. Well, I simply don't use those other services anymore since I don't agree to their terms. PayPal is the only service that has never held my funds for any reason.
While PayPal does have an Express Checkout service that can be used as a guest checkout option, not all sites offer it. However, I just recently found out that if the business owner has a business or premier PayPal account (like me), the standard PayPal service can also be used as a guest checkout option.
Unfortunately, even with this guest checkout feature, most shopping carts and checkout pages don't make it clear upfront that the option is available -- it just shows the PayPal logo. So, many shoppers will simply abandoned a cart before they even get to the page that does show the option.
For example, take my shop powered by Storenvy. I have no control over what is displayed on the shopping cart or checkout pages. As you can see below, it appears as though a PayPal account is required when it isn't. It's not until the fourth step in the checkout process that the option is shown.
The first step, viewing the shopping cart, displays a big PayPal logo right in the middle:
The second step is where you enter your shipping information and the page doesn't display anything about payment options, so I didn't include a screenshot for it. However, the third step is where you select the payment method. This step only exists because Storenvy also offers Stripe, but I've tried them and closed that account after the very first transaction where they triple charged my customer.
So, since I only use PayPal to process payments, it is the only option displayed -- without any details about whether or not an account is required. Storenvy really should do away with this step if a shop is only offering one payment option as it's completely unnecessary -- not to mention all the more misleading:
It's not until the fourth step that a barely noticeable option appears at the very bottom. Notice how the option to login to PayPal is in a very noticeable blue while the option to checkout directly with just your credit/debit card is in a faded, much less noticeable gray:
So, why don't they make it clearer upfront? Who knows? I'm just glad that my customers have a way to securely checkout as a guest since my shop does offer PayPal Express. I just have to take extra steps to make customers aware that a PayPal account is not required to purchase from me -- like this blog post that I've linked to from my shop's FAQ page as well as beneath the PayPal Verified logo that appears on all of my shop's pages.
Of course, if you have any questions, you can always contact me via the online form at purpleirisplaza.com/contact and I will get back to you at the earliest possibility. So, be my guest and shop happy! =)
