BidPay -- A Paypal Alternative
Skip McGrath blogged about BidPay today, asking if it's a real alternative to Paypal for eBay sellers. If you've been around for a while, you might remember BidPay from when they were launched by Western Union way back in 1999. I never thought that Western Union ever really got serious about BidPay, and their business model -- requiring the buyer to pay the fees -- never really worked for online auctions. A lot of buyers didn't like the idea of paying extra fees in addition to the selling price, and sellers didn't like waiting for BidPay to send them a money order for the payment. Western Union, a 150-year-old dinosaur of a company, didn't seem to get the concept of online payments.
But all that's changed now. Western Union shut BidPay down at the end of 1995. At the time, it looked like another one of the many "PayPal alternatives" to crash and burn. But then, about a year ago, BidPay was acquired by CyberSource, a credit card payment service provider. For buyers, that means they can make their payment with their debit card, and BidBay sends the money to the seller's bank account (must be a U.S. bank account), minus their fee -- 2.5% + 50 cents for domestic (U.S.) transactions. And one thing that a lot of sellers will really appreciate is BidPay's Seller Protection. Seller Protection means BidBay, not the seller, accepts the risk associated with chargebacks.
So is the new and very-much-improved BidPay catching on with US-based eBay sellers? Apparently so. According to a survey conducted by AuctionBytes, as of March 2007, BidPay is accepted by 12.6% of sellers, up from 9.7% in Sept. 2006. Of course Paypal is still way out in front, at 94.3%. And now that eBay is requiring new sellers to accept Paypal or another "preferred safe payment form", more sellers may be looking for Paypal alternatives.
And BidPay just might be the alternative they're looking for.
Technorati Tags: eBay, Paypal, BidPay, auctions
But all that's changed now. Western Union shut BidPay down at the end of 1995. At the time, it looked like another one of the many "PayPal alternatives" to crash and burn. But then, about a year ago, BidPay was acquired by CyberSource, a credit card payment service provider. For buyers, that means they can make their payment with their debit card, and BidBay sends the money to the seller's bank account (must be a U.S. bank account), minus their fee -- 2.5% + 50 cents for domestic (U.S.) transactions. And one thing that a lot of sellers will really appreciate is BidPay's Seller Protection. Seller Protection means BidBay, not the seller, accepts the risk associated with chargebacks.
So is the new and very-much-improved BidPay catching on with US-based eBay sellers? Apparently so. According to a survey conducted by AuctionBytes, as of March 2007, BidPay is accepted by 12.6% of sellers, up from 9.7% in Sept. 2006. Of course Paypal is still way out in front, at 94.3%. And now that eBay is requiring new sellers to accept Paypal or another "preferred safe payment form", more sellers may be looking for Paypal alternatives.
And BidPay just might be the alternative they're looking for.
Technorati Tags: eBay, Paypal, BidPay, auctions
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