Does Google Checkout Help?

Hi,

Does anyone here use Google Checkout on their ecommerce sites? What's the benefits and cons? I'm thinking of integrating it into a few our my sites.

I do use Google Checkout and I highly recommend it as an alternative to your other checkout options.

PROS:
You get a huge Google Checkout Icon next to all your PPC ads. This increases clickthrough to your ad dramatically. You also get free checkout processing if you spend a lot in Adwords. This 2% savings is really nice if you're doing high volume sales.

CONS:
Shopping Cart bounce rate is higher than our standard credit card checkout hosted on our site. This is because most users are new to Google Checkout and have to create an account. Users hate any checkout system that makes them create an account so you lose a few.

OVERALL:
That huge badge on your PPC ads by far outweighs the potential downside and usually customers who start to checkout w/ Google and get stuck come back and checkout on our site through our main checkout option.

GC is very quirky compared to other third party checkout methods like, say, Paypal Express Checkout.

The bad thing is that they leave your site and never have to return. Also, you get confirmation of the order BEFORE you get notification of funds captured. Sometimes it can take as long as 30 mins for Google to complete the capture. Regardless of your backend system, you'll have to log into GC to manage some customer info (like shipping notification, etc). Google also lets them cancel their transaction through the Google system directly and all you get is email notification which means you have to manually update your records.

The good thing is that GC is cheaper than most merchant accounts (2% + $0.20 beats Paypal's best of 2.2% + $0.30). I've also seen that some net savvy shoppers already have an account and know how to use it. While signup is a pain, many major retailers have already done the work for you (and Google) by offering a discount for signing up (buy.com for instance). Google is also marketing the heck out of GC and we all know how well Google can do marketing.

As more of an FYI, Internet Retailer reported a few months ago that adding a second payment method increased conversions by around 8%. Adding a third or more only increased conversions by 1% per method. But even if you're looking at method #3, GC is very attractive as a tertiary payment option.