People are noticing eBay Australia’s decision to make its PayPal subsidiary the only payment system for eBay purchases in Australia.
This move mainly affects eBay users. Today my local Mac user group has just switched from PayPal to Paymate, after the matter was raised internally. After the eBay kerfuffle, the user group likes the idea of supporting a local company.
There is no doubt PayPal is very convenient to use, and trusted by many. No setup or monthly fee, and a simple commission on sales (under 4%).
But the eBay move has got up a lot of people’s noses. Will a lot more businesses do what my Mac User Group has done? Too early to say. eBay will no doubt be watching to see how big an impact it has.
I would like to see PayPal focus on creating a better service, not on locking out competitors. While PayPal is convenient to get established, it is hard for some users to negotiate the checkout process and that leads to lost sales. That is one area I would like to see improved.
For a small business, there are many alternatives to PayPal. Google Checkout, Worldpay, 1ShoppingCart … and locally in Australia PayMate (like PayPal, no merchant account required) – who have one new Mac User Group to add to the client list.