Subscriptions now available in beta

Thursday, March 19, 2009

One of our most requested features is a way to sell subscriptions through Google Checkout, and we're pleased to announce that this functionality is now available on our Beta Features page. Merchants will now have the ability to sell products and services that require recurring billing using our API.

So if you're already comfortable building your own carts using Checkout, you're ready to implement Subscriptions by consulting the documentation. Each billing recurrence is a new order, so everything you've learned about processing orders still applies. You can let us create these billing recurrences for you with Google-Handled Subscriptions, or if you'd like more control, you can create these recurrences yourself with Merchant-Handled Subscriptions.

Please try this feature out, and let us know what you think. If you're a member of our Developer's Forum, you can ask questions and leave feedback here. You can also suggest other new Checkout features here.

Posted by Andrew Cunningham, Software Engineer

Improvements to osCommerce integration

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

At Google Checkout, we're constantly striving to improve our usability. That's why we've recently made Checkout's installation and configuration much easier on the popular open-source commerce platform osCommerce.

We've completely reworked the installation process by no longer requiring users to manually copy and paste large swaths of PHP code into their files. Instead, we've created an automated deployment app that does this for you by looking for the appropriate PHP insertion points and adding the code where it's needed. This should ease concerns about lines of PHP getting copied into the wrong place. If you want to learn more about the installation process, you can take a look at our documentation that contains a step-by-step walkthrough with screenshots showing exactly how it works.

The post-deployment configuration has also been greatly simplified. We've now grouped the most important fields so they're easy to access, and the rest have been moved to a detailed control panel. There are also descriptions in the walkthrough of how to fill in the necessary fields. Both the app and walkthrough are available here.

We're excited about the improvements to the osCommerce Checkout module. If you're using osCommerce, we invite you to give Checkout a try and share your feedback with us.

Posted by Ed Davisson, Software Engineer

Google Checkout fees in 2009

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

When we launched Google Checkout in 2006, we set out to create a fast, secure online shopping experience for our users. Now in our third year of helping merchants increase sales and attract user interest, we're announcing the decision to move from our previous standard fee schedule to a new tiered pricing model where rates decrease as merchants process more transactions through Checkout.

On May 5, we will be implementing a few changes to Google Checkout:

• Google Checkout's transaction processing fees will transition to a new tiered fee structure, where the rates will vary depending on a merchant's monthly sales processed through Checkout. For more details about the pricing changes, please visit our U.S. fees page and our U.K. fees page.

• With the new tiered fee structure, merchants can qualify for rates as low as 1.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S., and 1.4% + £0.20 per transaction in the U.K.

• We will also be discontinuing the AdWords free transaction processing promotion at this time. As previously announced, Google Grants recipients will still be eligible for free donation processing until 2010.

We're committed to the continued growth and development of Checkout and to helping merchants increase sales by driving more leads and higher conversions. Advertisers who use Checkout have the opportunity to display the Checkout badge on their ads, which has proven to help Checkout users convert 40% more than shoppers who have not used Checkout in the past. Stay tuned for more announcements about product enhancements coming soon.

Posted by Anita Barci, Product Marketing Manager