Google Checkout is an Online Payment system.When shopping online,going through the routine of filling up a registration form and getting a demand draft or check issued is painful.An online payment system eliminates the need for that routine.When registering for such a service you provide information regarding yourself and your bank account and credit card to the service provider.The next time you shop in you need to log in to your online payment account and you are taken to the payment providers siteto confirm the payment.The merchant and the service provider do the rest behind the scenes. The product also gets on its way to you faster.
Online payment systems usually charge the merchant tranaction include a fixed charge and a percentage of the transaction value.In return by including an online payment system on their site,merchants can hope to attract people who prefer the convenience of such payment process systems.The present king of hill by far in this market is PayPal,now an ebay subsidiary.Google’s foray in this market is Checkout.
GCK(Google Checkout) only caters to individual to business transactions.This service is not yet available in India.
BUYERS
Users planning to use GCK for their purchases need to provide a credit card number,besides a residential address,at the time of sign up.There are no fees associated for using GCK for purchasing online.GCK keeps track of all the transactions conducted by the user so a purchase history is easily available.GCK does not reveal card detailsto merchantsand if the user so desires even the mail id is with held.Also is allows users to rate the merchantsthey purchased from.This rating is maintained independent of the merchants site.and so allows other users to form unbiased opinions.GCK offers the user protection from credit card theft in case unauthorized purchases are made on the credit card.
MERCHANTS
Merchants who want to offer the service are provided with the javascript code that needs to be inserted into their site.The link provided in the code takes the visitor to the GCK page where the details of the payments are to be made out.GCK charges $.20 plus 2 percent of the transaction value as fees.By offering discounts to the members of its AdWords Programme,Google offers some incentives to sign up for GCK.An investment in ADWords allows free transactions upto 10 times that in GCK.So a merchant who has invested $ 10 in AdWordsis not levied any transaction fees for transactions upto $100.Other ways in which GCK helps merchants is by putting up an icon in their ads.People who can see the GCK iconin the site’s ads can be a assured that GCK is providing the payment service.This helps the GCK supported site’s ads to stand aprt from other ads.Besides that GCK helps the merchants fight buyer fraud, asituation where buyers claim that the product they received is not as described.
LIMITATIONS
GCK is presently available only in the US.Unlike PayPal it is not possible to transfer money between individuals.GCK only allows transfer between merchants who have registered at GCK and users.