PayPal

PayPal is owned by eBay and has over 200 million users worldwide. Over 7 million companies accept PayPal, and over 20 million UK shoppers use PayPal each year. PayPal’s service enables any individual or business with an email address to securely, easily and quickly send and receive payments online. You can turn your web site into an online store by adding PayPal ‘buy now’ buttons to your product pages. If the buyer doesn’t have a PayPal account they can use a credit or debit card.

The speed and simplicity of paying via PayPal is a selling point for an online store in its own right. PayPal members can checkout much quicker than card users because they don’t have to enter their card number and address details. If their stored balance is lower than the transaction amount then PayPal will automatically draw the funds from their choice of credit card, debit card or bank account. Some members top up their balance by selling items on eBay and regard it as their ‘spending money’.

You can open a PayPal business account for free. And there is no monthly fee. PayPal only charge 3.4% + 20p per transaction and you can also accept other currencies such as Dollars or Euros. VAT and postage can be automatically calculated during the checkout process and a confirmation email is sent to both you and the buyer when an item is bought in your online store. Funds can be withdrawn free of charge.

Adding ‘buy now’ buttons to your product pages is relatively straightforward but you can also have a basket system provided by PayPal if preferred. If you have a service based business or other products to sell you can also send ‘handwritten’ invoices to your customers by email.

Please follow this link to open a Business PayPal account. PayPal is regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the United Kingdom as an electronic money institution (FSA Register Number: 470235).