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Accepting credit card payments

LawrenceLawrence
edited August 2013 in General Vote Up5Vote Down
A new payment method has been integrated called Stripe (http://www.stripe.com/) they are a payment provider that allows you to take credit card payments directly on Brick Owl. They have slightly lower fees than PayPal and no monthly charge. Currently it is available in the UK, the US, and Canada.

We have signed up our store but I would very much like some other stores to sign up as it should result in more orders on Brick Owl as a whole. You can go to the payment methods screen (http://www.brickowl.com/mystore/settings/payment_methods) and start the process from there. I would also be interested to hear any feedback you have on this.

A little bit of background on this, The Daily Brick we've been accepting credit card payments for a few years, around 60% of all the transactions are via credit/debit card as opposed to PayPal. The average customer who is not used eBay/other Lego marketplaces will likely not have a PayPal account and so may abandon the checkout when credit/debit card is not available. We've also had a few e-mails from customers asking why only PayPal is available and not credit/debit card.

Comments

  • 34 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • theHellmouththeHellmouth
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Looks cool. Created an account there and registered for the beta in my country. Will be awaiting their answer.
  • misbimisbi
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Looks good - we've given it a whirl...
  • theHellmouththeHellmouth
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    From the help section on payment methods on the my store page:

    "Taking credit card payments as opposed to just PayPal will increase your conversion rate and result in more sales."

    What do you mean with conversion rate and how are you so sure adding a credit based payment option will result in more sales (besides your own experience). Do you have any numbers to actual show that BrickOwl customers checkout and stop on the payment page?
  • LawrenceLawrence
    edited August 2013 Vote Up0Vote Down
    A bit of a change, after you link up/create your account, you need to enter an API key. If you've already created the payment method, if you go back and edit it, you will now see the API key box and it tells you how to get the key. Once you have that setup, the credit card option will appear in your store checkout.

    For any users going through the process after this point, this should be clear.
  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @the Hellmouth It is all my opinion, you can take it or leave it :-) there are a percentage of users who go through the checkout steps and then leave on the payment page, but I can't tell you why they choose to do that.
  • misbimisbi
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    OK - noted thanks
  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Just a bit of further information, with PayPal payments, the money is instantly taken. With credit card payments, the card is authorised at checkout, this means there are enough funds on the card to pay for the order and the card is valid. When you ship the order, the funds are "captured" and transferred to you. If you cancel the order, the transaction is voided, and the funds are not transferred.

    This is how card processing works in normal shops, so the customer is not charged until the order as shipped.

    Lastly, there is a similar service to Stripe that operates in Europe, if there is sufficient take-up of Stripe I will integrate that also.
  • NathvwNathvw
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    BoxerBricks is now set up to accept this payment method.
  • theHellmouththeHellmouth
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Stripe gets big ups from me ... only three hours after my request to have in my country I got invited to use it.
  • steendorpsteendorp
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    I've signed in for the beta in NL.
  • TheBrickMillTheBrickMill
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Signed up. Thanks Admin, great job!!
  • DadsAfolDadsAfol
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @Admin, can I create a payment method called "credit card" but that links to PayPal? I know there are cheaper service providers than PayPal, however we prefer PayPal because 1) funds are instantly available (no settlement period), and all transactions clear in the same account with facilitates accounting and transaction research.

    We've offered this on BL for several years. We provide the instructions to click the "pay with your credit card as a PayPal guest" on the PayPal checkout page.
  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @DadsAFOL I'm afraid not, you're welcome to provide the instructions on your store, but I don't think naming it the same would be right as it is a different experience for the customer.

    You can use PayPal website payments pro, we implemented that a little while ago. There is no settlement period on that and they are instantly available in your PayPal account. The downside is there is a £20 a month charge but in my opinion it is worth it. As far as customers are concerned, the experience is exactly the same as with stripe.
  • TheBrickMillTheBrickMill
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @Admin,
    Just had our first credit card order through Stripe and all went smoothly. We didn't have to do anything at all, as soon as I marked the order as shipped the payment was shown in our stripe account.

    Thanks Lawrence!
    Tracy
  • Ems BricksEms Bricks
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Thumbs up from me too, two orders through Stripe : )
  • walstibwalstib
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @admin

    Is CAD not yet a currency listed to accept? I seem to be getting stuck here.
  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    What trouble are you having? You need to have the currency enabled on Stripe and also select it in the payment method settings.

    Glad it seems to be working well for everyone.
  • walstibwalstib
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    I have signed up fine.

    On the edit payment method screen, where I can choose accepted currencies, I see Euros, Pounds and US dollar.

    I have to stop now, dinner smells good, but have not found an option on the stripe pages to set CAD.

  • walstibwalstib
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Everything looks good on Stripe, everything listed to show CAD and shows as set correctly under account settings --> transfers.

  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Oh, every country has a different list of allowed currencies. If you go to the edit payment method screen again, hopefully it should magically have the correct currencies available for you by grabbing them directly from your Stripe account. You will need to select them and save the payment method.
  • walstibwalstib
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Yes that worked fine, thank you.

    I had not been prompted to verify by e-mail, and found that by accident searching about, this could have had something to do with it as I tried before this was done.
  • DadsAfolDadsAfol
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    It looks like PayPal has two paid options that both allow credit card procesing. There is one that is $5/mo ("Advanced") and one that is $30/mo ("Pro"). The Pro account allows you to take card payments over the phone and via other means. I have no need for that and its not worth the $25/mo difference in price. @Admin, can I use the "Advanced" option here?

    https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/compare-business-products

  • theHellmouththeHellmouth
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Suggestion regarding stripe: could the order status be set to payment submitted instead of pending? Or even payment received as nothing has to happen on the buyer side. I had my first stripe order and didn't see the payment method: it was from my country and I supposed it would be paid by bank transfer so I ignored it. With paypal (pro) I get two mails, one from the brickowl stating I have a new order and another from brickowl to show payment has been made. With bank transfer I only get the one mail to indicate I have new order. Now with stripe I get one mail from brickowl for the order and then after I ship the order I get a mail from stripe. I would like to see a mail from brickowl too stating the buyer submitted their payment to stripe and it is waiting for me to handle my order. Is this possible?
  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    @DadsAFOL Would you mind screenshotting the page and sending it to me? I see a UK specific version, we only have standard and pro, not advanced.

    @the Hellmouth The payment status will be changed automatically when a few more orders use it so I can doublecheck my code. With regards to the e-mails, it does have the payment method in the Brick Owl e-mail so you can see if it needs you to wait for payment or not.
  • theHellmouththeHellmouth
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Yes I know it shows the payment option in the mail. My point was just that the second payment received mail is the actual mail I react to to start processing the order. So I think regarding Stripe such a second mail would come in handy.
  • MinifigManMinifigMan
    edited August 2013 Vote Up0Vote Down
    "Lastly, there is a similar service to Stripe that operates in Europe, if there is sufficient take-up of Stripe I will integrate that also."
    Strip has rolled out in the UK and is beta-testing in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands and outside of Europe: Australia.

    With the similar service you mean Paymill?
  • LawrenceLawrence
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Yep
  • NathvwNathvw
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Just had my first order paid through Stripe and everything went fine.

    Thanks for integrating this Lawrence.

    Nathan @ BoxerBricks

  • LoremongerLoremonger
    edited September 2013 Vote Up0Vote Down
    Just got my first CC order. Thanks for integrating this.
  • DadsAfolDadsAfol
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Hellmouth posted above but I think it got missed... We need some differentiation on payment statuses. I have two orders in "payment submitted". One is a PayPal eCheck not cleared and not ok to ship. One is a credit card auth that does need to be shipped. We need to be able to tell the difference.
  • steendorpsteendorp
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Today a crazy day.
    I had to close my BL-store, because I got to many orders here on Brickowl. I got my first two orders payed with stripe. So It looks like this is working fine.
    After some programming I had the syncing working between both stores. My store on the other markteplace is open again. Some more steps to go to automate this process.
  • budgetkidsbudgetkids
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    I just added Stripe to my account but I have an announcement I think everyone should know.

    Stripe by default will let a charge go through even if a card fails the CVC and/or address verification check when a customer uses the card.

    You can read more on their website here:

    https://support.stripe.com/questions/cvc-or-avs-failed-but-payment-succeeded

    I personally went in and made sure to decline cards that do not pass these fraud steps and I think they should be on by default but I guess not.

    Chris
  • picabopicabo
    Vote Up0Vote Down
    Wow, thanks for that Chris.

    Pam
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