Google Checkout

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

When shopping online, going through the routine of filling
up a registration form and getting a Demand Draft or
cheque issued is painful. An online payment system eliminates the
need for that routine. When registering for such a service, you pro-
vide information regarding yourself and your bank account or
credit card to the service provider. The next time you shop online,
you only need to log in to your online payment account, and you
are taken to the payment provider’s site to 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 transac-
tion fees, which include a fixed charge and a percentage of the
transaction value. In return, by including an online payment sys-
tem on their site, merchants can hope to attract people who pre-
fer the convenience of such payment process systems.
The present king of the hill by far in this market is PayPal, now
an eBay subsidiary. Google’s foray into this market is Checkout.
Google Checkout (GCK) was touted to be a “PayPal killer,” but is
considerably limited in its array of services. Unlike PayPal, GCK
only caters to individual-to-business transactions. The service is
not yet available in India.