The Rise of PayPal Competitors

As the internet has grown in reach and accessibility, the number of options for virtually every service or product has increased for the end user.  This is also true for payment systems wherein new PayPal alternatives have popped up regularly.  While the competitive nature of the internet can be accredited to the rise of PayPal competitors for the most part, there are certain other reasons as well.

For example, one of the reasons why there are so many competitors in the industry for PayPal is that as PayPal grew in size and users, the quality of its services started to flag, resulting in more disgruntled customers looking for PayPal alternatives.  In addition to this, the fact that these PayPal competitors have tried to expand their market share with better operational support and costs also plays a role in people switching over.

The Need to Cater To PayPal Alternatives

If you, as an entrepreneur, are looking to get the most out of your digital products business then you need to consider providing your customers with a payment system that not only uses PayPal but also takes into account PayPal alternatives.  However, you do not have to use multiple PayPal alternatives and can, instead, just focus on the major PayPal competitors.  Here is a list of all the major PayPal competitors currently operating in the market.

Google Checkout

Google Checkout, simply speaking, is Google’s effort to provide people with a PayPal alternative.  However, as Google is almost always looking to diversify its reach on the internet, Google Checkout, as a PayPal competitor has not fared very well.  The lack of attention in the development and maintenance of Google Checkout has resulted in it not posing as much of a threat to PayPal as it could have.  With similar cost structure as that of PayPal, Google Checkout is often bypassed by the online customer.

However, this does not mean that Google Checkout is completely bust because the evaluation of a Google product would always be done on the basis of its set standards which are higher than most.  Moreover, it is still running and breaking even on a consistent basis, which means that it has its loyal users as well.  Resultantly, you have to treat Google Checkout as a serious PayPal competitor and prepare your online business for it.

2Checkout

2Checkout is one of the lesser known payment systems on the internet, which easily makes it one of the more streamlined and user centric.  However, the sole problem with this PayPal alternative is that it has a onetime setup fee which is charged in the beginning.  As is logical, this could also be the reason why 2Checkout is not so well known.  Fortunately, after the first set up fee, this PayPal competitor does not charge anything else except for transaction costs which are also quite reasonable.  This means that there are no annual or monthly rentals.

The major users of 2Checkout are serious online entrepreneurs who have the experience and knowhow to be certain that their businesses would work on the internet.  The services of this PayPal competitor are regarded to be very professional and prompt, which allows businesses to depend on them significantly.  In fact, 2Checkout provides 24 hour customer support to its users.

Amazon Payments

Amazon Payments is, easily, the biggest PayPal competitor in the market.  The real draw for most American online users with this PayPal competitor is that it allows for free transfer of money within the country.  Amazon Payments provides their users with a wide variety of payment options.  For example, in order to facilitate their core services, the Amazon Payments banner has a group of ecommerce related payment products for their users.  Most of these ecommerce products of this PayPal alternative are mainly designed to help Amazon optimize its buying, selling and auction services.

As a significant chunk of online entrepreneurs conduct their business through Amazon, it comes as no surprise that these businessmen focus on Amazon Payments as their primary payment services.  This PayPal competitor, like PayPal, also has a cut and paste Simple Pay product that allows an online entrepreneur to get his website up and running quickly.

Money Bookers

While the majority of the PayPal alternatives mentioned above are based in the United States of America, Money Bookers, hailing from the United Kingdom is also important for you if you are targeting European clientele.  This PayPal alternative is governed by the Financial Services Authority of the United Kingdom.  The highlight of Money Bookers is that they allow their users to send money to anyone who has an email account worldwide, even if the recipient does not have a Money Bookers account.  This turns out to be significant for many internationals living in the country with regard to purchases and payments.

This PayPal competitor has somewhere around 10.8 million accounts which simply shows the kind of target audience that your business would be missing out on if it is not compatible to this payment system.  There are various services that this PayPal alternative payment system offers including an escrow service for large transactions.  Finally, this PayPal alternative has a flat charge for every transaction.

Making Your Website Compatible with PayPal Alternatives

It is important for you to make your online business compatible with different PayPal alternatives because this would allow you to have access to a larger audience base than you would have with just PayPal compatibility.  The best way for you to go about achieving compatibility with multiple payment systems is to use a script or software that can be plugged into your website.

One of the ways through which you can get such a script for making your website compatible to all the PayPal alternatives is by browsing PayLoadz.com.  PayLoadz is a website that furnishes its users with scripts designed to make their websites compatible with almost all the PayPal alternatives listed above.  Moreover, the implementation of these scripts from PayLoadz is extremely easy in that they can simply be plugged into a website’s interface.