New features make Checkout even easier for online merchants

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Posted by Gavin Chan, Product Marketing Manager

Our team spends a lot of time talking with merchants to learn how Google Checkout can make selling online easier and more effective, and we're excited about some of the new features and promotions that deliver what you've been asking for:

Easy coupon creation: Create coupons from the Google Checkout Merchant Center. You can specify $-off discounts and %-off discounts, and add restrictions such as "one per customer," "new customers only," and so on. Try it now (requires a Checkout merchant account).

Email invoicing: Bill customers for purchases by sending them a Google Checkout invoice over email. The email will contain a link that your customers can click on to pay you via Google Checkout. Try it now (requires a Checkout merchant account).

Simple website integration: With the HTML API, integrating Google Checkout with your shopping cart is easier than ever. Simply add an HTML form to your website and use it to send us your shopping carts. Learn more in the new Developer's Guide.

More free processing: Earlier this month, we announced that we were processing all Google Checkout sales for free until the end of 2006. Since then, we've had such a positive response from merchants that we decided to extend the offer through the end of 2007. From now through December 31, 2007, we'll process your Checkout transactions for free.

Holiday shopping with Google Checkout

Monday, November 27, 2006

Posted by Susan Taing, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Don't miss our newly launched holiday promotion site featuring lots of gift items and special offers. You can find more details about the promotion at our Google Blog announcement.

From the field: Golfballs.com

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Posted by Brandon Hartness, Director of Ecommerce

Golfballs.com fills a golf equipment niche by providing personalized golf balls, bags, shirts, caps, clubs, and much more. We are very dedicated to website usability and the overall customer experience.

Google Checkout has been a great complement to our goals by providing a safe, secure, and most importantly, a very usable checkout option for our customers. We've seen that visitors who use Google Checkout convert at a significantly higher rate than our own checkout. The addition of the Google Checkout badge to our AdWords campaign has resulted in an increased CTR and a decreased average CPC. Our visitors seem to place a higher level of trust and confidence with us because of the badge. Customer experience aside, the savings we've experienced in credit card transaction fees have been very significant and is always a welcome addition to our P&L. When our finance department is happy, we are happy.

Overall, Google Checkout has exceeded our expectations, both in the customer experience it offers and in its reliability. We look forward to working with Google Checkout this holiday season and well into the future.

An API for the rest of us

Friday, November 17, 2006

Posted by Steve Stukenborg, Senior Product Manager

Since we launched, we've gotten a lot of feedback that you wanted an easier way to offer Google Checkout on your website -- without needing to be a coding wizard.

We've just launched a new option for integrating with Checkout: an HTML API. Just send us a shopping cart via an HTML form with name=value pairs, and manage the orders using our Merchant Center interface. You can easily specify shipping options and sales tax options in the shopping cart as well.

For more information on using the HTML API, there's a new Developer's Guide. And don't forget, you can still use Buy Now Buttons or email invoices to offer Google Checkout easily.

From the field: Big Blue Saw

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Posted by Simon Arthur, Founder and President, Big Blue Saw

At Big Blue Saw, we are showing the world a better way to do custom manufacturing. Our customers upload their designs to our website. We then make these designs come to life in metal and plastic through the use of advanced robotic machining technology like waterjet cutting.

But as with any new business, Big Blue Saw was facing several problems. We were not only a new business, we were a new kind of business. Potential customers thought we had a great idea, but were afraid to trust us with both their dreams and their money. To top it off, we actually received e-mail from customers telling us that they were uncomfortable using our existing payment processor.

We wanted to make sure that our customers felt as comfortable as possible with the ordering process. This is why we have given them the added option of using Google Checkout. The Google name may mean the difference between a customer and just another visitor to the site.

Since installing Google Checkout, we've had excellent feedback. Most of our new customers prefer using Google Checkout over our existing shopping cart and payment system. They seem really happy with both, our service and with the Google Checkout system. There haven't been any complaints or glitches with the system. Google Checkout's forward-thinking approach to e-commerce and customer relations is an excellent match for our forward-thinking approach to manufacturing.

New feature: Email invoices

Friday, November 10, 2006

Posted by Todd Jackson, Product Manager

If you ever need to send your customers a bill via email, now you can do it in just a few clicks from your Google Checkout account. Set a dollar amount for the invoice, compose a quick message, and send it off. Your customer will receive the email and pay using Google Checkout.

Try it now on the Send an Invoice page (requires a Checkout merchant account). As always, we're happy to hear your feedback.

Free processing for the holidays

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Posted by Gavin Chan, Product Marketing Manager

With the holiday season quickly approaching, we wanted to do something to say "thank you" to our merchants. To help out during this very busy shopping season, we are processing all of our merchants' Google Checkout sales for free during the holidays. From November 8 through December 31, 2006, Google Checkout merchants will receive free processing for all of their Checkout sales, regardless of whether or not they use AdWords. If you don't currently use Checkout, don't worry—new Checkout merchants are eligible for this offer as well, so sign up now. To all of our merchants: thank you for contributing to the success of Google Checkout and Happy Holidays!