Google Checkout Blog

Sell with confidence using Google Checkout's fraud protection

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

With the Merchant Risk Council Semi-Annual Meeting taking place this week, we wanted to tell you more about the fraud detection and protection that goes on behind the scenes at Google Checkout. Every Checkout merchant benefits from our industry-leading fraud detection systems, which allow merchants to increase sales and reduce some of the costs and risks of running an online business. Overall, Google Checkout merchants experience significantly less fraud than industry averages reported in CyberSource's 2009 Fraud Report.*

Before orders are even charged, Google proactively filters out fraudulent orders using our proprietary fraud detection technology. We supplement this technology by performing manual reviews and examining buyer information across multiple merchants.

For orders covered by our Payment Guarantee Policy (98% of all Checkout orders on average), you won't waste any time or money in performing fraud checks or identity verification, even if the AVS or CVV information doesn't match or you aren't familiar with the customer. With Payment Guarantee information available at a glance in your account, you can quickly review what you need to decide if an order is safe to fulfill. And rest assured that, if you meet the conditions, Google will be responsible for any unwarranted chargebacks on all orders covered by the Payment Guarantee.

Google even provides useful tools for the small percentage of orders that aren't protected by the Payment Guarantee. We'll provide you with valuable customer information and chargeback representment services on all orders. Because you know your business best, this buyer verification information lets you run your own fraud checks and decide which orders to ultimately accept. We'll evaluate all chargebacks received and fight them on your behalf whenever possible.

To learn more about Google Checkout's fraud protection, please read the details in our Help Center. And be sure to come talk to us at the MRC Semi-Annual Meeting today and tomorrow. We'll have representatives from Checkout and AdWords at the event on both days.

*Comparison made in reference to the following statement in CyberSource's 2009 Fraud Report: "Merchants have consistently reported an average loss of 1.4% of revenues to payment fraud."

Making account management easier with Full Access user settings

Thursday, September 24, 2009

With the recent launch of 'Full Access' user settings, you can now give your operations staff, colleagues, or other individuals full access to your Google Checkout merchant account. Your 'Full Access' users will be able to view all of the information in your account and take any actions on your account, such as processing orders, viewing payout information, and updating account settings.

To invite users with full access to your account, sign in to Google Checkout and follow the steps outlined in our Help Center. New users who have been added to your account will receive an invitation email with sign-up instructions. Once they complete the sign-up process, these authorized users can access your account with full access at any time.

It's important to note that you are responsible for all activity in your merchant account by persons to whom you give access through the 'Full Access' setting. By providing those persons access to your account, you authorize them to use your merchant account and legally bind you.

Transaction fee information now available in the Google Checkout API

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Many merchants have requested a way to receive information about transaction fees through Google Checkout API notifications, and we're pleased to announce that this feature is now available. Merchants who have implemented the Notification API, Notification History API, or Polling API can now indicate that they would like to receive information about transaction fees in Google Checkout notifications.

To enable this feature in your Google Checkout merchant account, go to the Settings tab, select 'Integration', and expand the 'Advanced settings' section. Then, check the box next to 'Notifications must include information about transaction fees' and then click the Save button. You will then begin receiving information about transaction fees for your orders in any charge-amount-notification, refund-amount-notification, and chargeback-amount-notification messages that are sent to your notification handler.

Please post any questions or feedback you have about this new feature in our Merchant Forum.

Update to Checkout content policies

Monday, September 14, 2009

At Google Checkout, we regularly review our program and content policies to keep them current and effective. In response to the feedback we've received from users, we're pleased to announce that we made a change to our content restrictions. Going forward, Google Checkout will allow the sale of real estate rentals, timeshares, and day sight-seeing tours.

Google Checkout sellers of real estate rentals, timeshares, and day sight-seeing tours must have a valid public business URL. The sellers may, however, choose to use either Checkout buttons or Checkout invoices to process transactions for the above allowable services based on their business requirements. Please visit our Help Center to learn more about our content policies.