Jefferson Graham at USA TODAY looks at the new offers being pushed by the Google Checkout online payment system in Google’s efforts to attract new and large merchants.
First Google has worked on boosting consumer demand for Google Checkout by offering $10 off purchases and other incentives – these offerings were quickly matched by PayPal.
Now Google Checkout has gone as far as dropping merchant fees for the rest of the year, which is quite enticing as Google usually takes a cut of anywhere from 2% plus $.20 on each transaction.
Google ratchets up the pressure by dropping merchant fees through 2007.
Merchants pay a variety of fees to use the services. PayPal charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction on sales up to $3,000 a month. Google’s fee is 2% of the sale plus 20 cents, less if the merchant is a Google advertiser.
Google’s consumer rebate can be used many times. The PayPal rebate expired in November, but the company is offering a one-time-use discount to selected customers via e-mail. Some stores may offer extra incentives through either service.
EBay had no comment on Google’s plans.
