How Google Checkout helps you with chargebacks

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Posted by Joel Slovacek, Senior Operations Specialist

As Gavin mentioned before, Google Checkout is dedicated to preventing fraud as well as protecting you and your business from financial losses due to fraudulent transactions. We do a lot to protect you before you even charge or ship an order by verifying accounts and reviewing orders to make sure that you have legitimate buyers. You'll even be able to see this information on your orders so that you can be better informed about proceeding with any transaction.

Of course, fighting fraud is a team effort, and we need your help. Following some key best practices can ensure that together we safeguard your business. Specifically:

1. Request signed proof of delivery for high-value orders
Without signed proof validating that a package was indeed delivered, it becomes difficult to counter a buyer’s claim that they "never received the package."

2. Keep shipping records and documentation
Documentation is the name of the game in chargeback cases. Keep shipping and packaging information close at hand. Archive all customer correspondence back and forth about an order. The more information we have, the better able we are to represent your interests.

3. Ship only to the shipping address recorded within your Google Checkout Seller Interface
Fraudulent buyers sometimes try to change the shipping address right before you ship goods. Insist on shipping to only the address on record in your Google Checkout account, as this address is the one our risk systems have analyzed.

4. Respond to Google promptly on chargeback information requests
The card associations' have strict reply windows for contesting chargebacks. Therefore, responding quickly to Google's inquiries for information is critical, as it helps give us the time we need to work with you to build a strong case.

Some merchants have asked, "Am I protected for intangible goods like digital downloads and services?" The short answer is that cases like this are much harder for sellers to win. The card associations have historically made it very difficult for sellers to prove that a digital or intangible good chargeback case is invalid. We will continue to work with you as much as we can including using any methods you have used in the past to win these sorts of cases, but do recognize that it can be difficult to win these cases. As a result of the card associations’ position on digital/intangible goods, these transactions are not covered by the Google Payment Guarantee program. Do note that we are committed to working with the associations to build better ways for all merchants to be protected against invalid claims on digital goods and services.

Doing business always involves some risk, and this especially holds true when serving customers online. However, by keeping these best practices in mind, as well as following Google’s chargeback protection policies, you can significantly minimize your exposure to fraudulent transactions.

Rest assured that maximizing your sales and profits while minimizing your exposure to fraud losses is one of our highest priorities and we're committed to working with you to make online commerce faster, easier, and safe.

Merchant Center training

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Posted by Lance Cotton, Online Operations Sr. Training Specialist

We want Google Checkout users to have a great purchase experience, and we know that to achieve this, training you and your team—the people who directly interact with users—is vital. To equip you properly, we've put together a brief recorded how-to presentation on using the Merchant Center and offering great customer support (and it's only 8 minutes!). Watching this will help you do two of the most important things for increasing customer satisfaction and repeat business: quickly 1) process orders and 2) answer your customer's questions.

After you watch the presentation, feel free to give us feedback by going to the Contact Us link in the Help Center.

Best practices for merchant payments

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Posted by Eva Hung, Strategic Partner Manager

We're thrilled to see Google Checkout helping merchants across the web, and we hope the service has helped your store already. I'd like to share a few best practices we've been seeing that may help you be even more successful. Here it goes:

1. Charge orders within 72 hours
When a buyer confirms a purchase, you'll receive an order, and Google performs the authorization for 100% of the order amount. Then you must charge the order within 72 hours (that's 3 days) to be guaranteed the funds. More details are here.

2. Be sure to get the order and risk info before shipping

We strongly recommend that you don't ship an order until you've received the new order notification and risk assessment. Both of these notifications are critical to accurately evaluate each order's risk level - and we believe that merchants who review both prior to shipping will see more successful transactions.

3. Watch for cancelled orders
In some cases, orders in your merchant center may show up as "cancelled" after a successful authorization and a positive risk assessment. This might happen when you charge the card or capture funds after 72 hours, and the attempt to capture funds wasn't successful. In this situation, the buyer is notified that he or she needs to provide a new credit card. If that doesn't happen within 72 hours, the order then appears as "cancelled" in the mechant center. You might also see cancelled orders when a credit card expires after an initially successful authorization. Just be sure to monitor the merchant center for current status.

4. Support buyer inquiries
To help you maintain the strong relationships that you've developed with your customers, we recommend that buyers first reach out to you, the merchant, with their questions. This buyer-to-seller communication is easy with the 'Questions about your Order?' link on the Receipt Page within the user's Google Checkout account.

Why would buyers contact you? Here are some of the things you should expect to handle directly:

• Changing an order
• Requesting a refund
• Cancelling an order
• Status of an order

Once a buyer contacts you, we strongly encourage you to respond as quickly as possible.

5. Train your customer support staff
We recommend that all of your customer support staff learn all of the functions of the Google Checkout merchant interface, so your team can efficiently handle all the Checkout inquiries from the get-go. Soon we will share several initiatives designed to help you train your team, too. More on those coming up.

Protect yourself from fraud with Google Checkout

Monday, July 31, 2006

Posted by Gavin Chan, Associate Product Marketing Manager

One of the lesser-known benefits of Google Checkout is its ability to help you prevent and fight fraud. In fact, Checkout's first line of defense works to prevent fraud from even reaching you: we proactively filter out fraudulent transactions using Google Checkout's proprietary fraud detection technology.

To help you fight fraud, we developed the Chargeback Resolution policy, which covers all Google Checkout transactions. This policy helps you efficiently manage any chargeback you receive; we even fight them on your behalf. Our team will work closely with you to ensure that you have the best chance of winning a dispute. If you already have tools and systems in place to handle chargebacks, we won't stand in your way -- you retain all the rights to directly contest chargebacks yourself.

An important aspect of the Chargeback Resolution Policy is the Payment Guarantee, which offers an additional layer of protection by guaranteeing payment for transactions that follow best practices in fraud prevention. Transactions covered by our Payment Guarantee are marked as "Covered by Payment Guarantee" on the Order Details page of the transaction. If you don't see this designation on a given transaction, don't worry—it's still covered by the Chargeback Resolution policy.

The Google Checkout API

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Posted by Jason HJ Chen, Developer Support Engineer

The Google Checkout team focuses a lot on how we can best meet the needs of both buyers and merchants, especially since these interactions are the raison d'être for this service. But there's a third constituency we aim to serve that isn't quite so apparent—namely all the developers out there working with the Google Checkout API. These are the folks who do the important work of integrating merchants' websites with the product and making available the more advanced functionality found in the API, which in turn helps expand the network of sites offering Google Checkout.

Granted, I'm somewhat biased since I'm involved in developer support for the Google Checkout API, but all developers—regardless of if they're just kicking the tires on the API or are in the midst of integrating—should be aware of the resources available to them.

First and foremost, the epicenter for all things API-related is the Google Checkout API section of code.google.com. There, you'll find a lot of different resources including the developer's guide, sample implementation code, and our small (but growing) collection of developer's cookbook articles.

One other thing not to miss is the Google Checkout Developer's Forum. A growing community gathers there to discuss all things related to the API. A great example of the developer community in action are the different posts addressing needs around the use of HMAC SHA1: there's a post about a Javascript implementation for use with Classic ASP, another on HMAC_SHA1 in Ruby, and an explanation of how to do the same in Perl.

We've got a lot more developer resources planned for the coming weeks and months. If you have any thoughts about how we can improve your experience as a Google Checkout API developer, please get in touch. I'll personally read all of your suggestions, and hope to respond whenever possible.

Help resources in a nutshell

Monday, July 24, 2006

Posted by Marianna Mareckova, Administrative Associate, Product Marketing

Are you a merchant trying to figure out the mysteries of Google Checkout? No worries. You've already stumbled onto one great source of information by visiting the Google Checkout blog -- and here are some others:

Merchant Help Center offers answers to the most frequent questions on various topics: About Google Checkout, Getting started, Making sales, Checkout settings

Developer's Center to find all the information and resources you will need to integrate your website with Google Checkout

If you'd like to discuss with or learn from other Google Checkout users, there are two places you can go:

Google Checkout Merchants Forum. The place to discuss Google Checkout with other merchants, ask questions, and contribute your own expertise. Topics include guidelines, payouts and reconciliation, badges, account linking, free transaction processing, new features, system updates, feedback and suggestions, and much more. From time to time a Google rep called 'GoogleCheckoutPro' will post tips and clarifications.

Google Checkout Developers Forum. This Google Group is a place to discuss technical issues and integration with the Google Checkout API, ask questions, and share answers. Topics cover API integration basics, troubleshooting, using classic ASP/Java/.NET/Perl/PHP/Python/other programming languages with the Google Checkout API, system status and updates and more. From time to time a Google rep known as 'GoogleCheckoutDevPro' will post tips and clarifications.

Google Checkout and AdWords

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Posted by Gavin Chan, Associate Product Marketing Manager

We’re seeing a lot of excitement and questions about how Google Checkout works with AdWords, so we thought we’d answer some of them here. Here are a few of the more common questions we're hearing:

What is AdWords?

AdWords is Google’s search advertising program, which displays ads alongside Google search results and on search and content sites in the Google Network. When you create an AdWords ad, you choose keywords for which your ad will appear and specify the maximum amount you're willing to pay for each click. Your ads are then displayed when people search using the keywords you’ve selected; you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Can I offer Google Checkout if I don’t use AdWords?

Definitely! You can still provide your customers with a fast, safe, and convenient checkout experience. As far as fees go, you’ll only be charged 2% plus 20 cents per transaction for the sales you process through Google Checkout.

What are the benefits of using Google Checkout with AdWords?

There are two main features you can take advantage of when using both programs together: the Google Checkout badge and free transaction processing. The Google Checkout badge is a small shopping cart icon that appears on your AdWords ads when you offer Google Checkout on your website. It communicates to buyers that shopping with you will be fast, convenient and secure.

Free transaction processing enables you to process $10 of Google Checkout sales at no cost for every $1 you spend on AdWords. For example, if you spent $1,000 on AdWords last month, this month you could process $10,000 in Google Checkout sales for free.

Why is Google Checkout integrated with AdWords?

Our goal is to improve the entire online sales process for sellers, from generating leads through online advertising to processing the sales that result. Shoppers often begin the purchase process by searching online and looking for places to buy. One interesting stat from Shop.org: 37% of all online purchases start with a search. When shoppers search, the Google Checkout badge helps turn more of these queries into leads by making it easy for users to identify stores that accept Google Checkout. Once customers click through to the store and are ready to buy, Google Checkout offers a streamlined checkout process that helps convert those leads in to sales. Finally, when it’s time to process sales, Google Checkout works with AdWords to reduce transaction processing fees to zero. We think there's a natural relationship between online advertising and transaction processing -- and that's why you see the integration at every step in the online sales and marketing process.