Top 4 eCommerce Posts for December

Plan for fraud (but try to prevent it) – Practical Ecommerce By some reports, as much as 7.5 percent of all online transactions are fraudulent in one way or another. 10 Essential On-Page SEO Factors You Need to Know – SEJ Smart SEO practitioners know that on-page optimization should be constantly prioritized. How to Market […]

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How to Write and Promote a Return Policy Customers Love (Includes Example Refund Policies From Real Ecommerce Businesses)

In early 2017, LL Bean rolled back their infamous return policy to be just a little less generous. After seeing…

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How Voice Search Is Transforming E-Commerce Marketing

E-commerce has completely changed the way the market used to work and has jumped in quickly upon the screens of customers. Going a step further and making our lives even simpler, voice-controlled search is coming up as the next big thing in our modern-day world.

Devices and software like Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Samsung’s Bixby, and Microsoft’s Cortana are just a few examples of some wonderful platforms that are highly capable of handling tasks effectively. With just your voice you can hail a cab, call a friend, send a message, play songs, and now participate in e-commerce trade.

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5 D2C Apparel Brands Shaping the Future of Ecommerce | Salsify

The apparel industry has shifted dramatically, with an increasing number of customers browsing, researching, and buying online. Within the U.S., 60% of internet users have purchased clothing, shoes, or accessories online in the previous month, according to a 2019 survey from eMarketer. Brands must be able to meet consumers wherever and whenever they shop.

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E-Pack Asia 2020

Event date: 3-5 June 2020
Event location (venue and/or city): Singapore

Following the resounding success of E-Pack US and E-Pack Europe, we’re excited to announce the launch of the new E-Pack Asia, taking place in Singapore from 3-5 June 2020.

Asia’s young population, with access to 5G, super apps (eg wechat) and giant ecommerce suppliers like Alibaba, are leading ecommerce growth. The region is also the manufacturing base for many of the products and packaging being bought around the globe. This creates an interesting mix of challenges and opportunities for the packaging value chain. For brands it is very challenging as cost and complexity increases to fulfill online orders and competition is intensifying with the arrival of ‘up start brands’ using ecommerce to make up for their lack of traditional retail distribution. For Packaging converters and technology providers ecommerce is a way to leverage their expertise to support brands and provide new solutions.

E-PACK Asia will look at these opportunities and challenges as well as the outlook for ecommerce package and the potential for ‘omni channel’ packaging suitable for both online and in store.

Already confirmed to attend the conference as Advisory Board Members include JD Logistics, ChinaPost, CaiNiao(part of Alibaba), Amcor and Smithers, so this event is not be missed.

This conference presents the perfect opportunity for companies operating in this arena to increase their brand exposure and reach through extensive sponsorship and exhibition opportunities.

Event website: here
Event registration link: here

Attend the event

The post E-Pack Asia 2020 appeared first on ECN | E-Commerce Nation.

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India’s richest man is ready to take on Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart

Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, is ready to take on Amazon and Walmart’s Flipkart.

Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio, two subsidiaries of Ambani’s Reliance Industries, said they have soft launched JioMart, their e-commerce venture, in parts of the state of Maharashtra — Mumbai, Kalyan and Thane.

The e-commerce venture, which is being marketed as “Desh Ki Nayi Dukaan” (Hindi for new sore for the country), currently offers a catalog of 50,000 grocery items and promises “free and express delivery.”

In an email to employees, accessed by TechCrunch, the two aforementioned subsidiaries that are working together on the e-commerce venture, said they plan to expand the service to many parts of India in coming months. A Reliance spokesperson declined to comment.

The soft launch this week comes months after Ambani, who runs Reliance Industries — India’s largest industrial house — had said at a conference that he wants to service tens of millions of retailers and store owners across the country.

If there is anyone in India who is positioned to compete with Amazon and Walmart, it is him. Reliance Retail, which was founded in 2006, is the largest retailer in the country by revenue. It serves more than 3.5 million customers each week through its nearly 10,000 physical stores in more than 6,500 Indian cities and towns.

Reliance Jio is the largest telecom operator in India with more than 350 million subscribers. The 4G-only carrier, which launched commercial operations in the second half of 2016, disrupted the incumbent telecom operation in the country by offering bulk of data and voice calls at little to no charge for an extended period of time.

More to follow…

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Vietnam improves its online shopping readiness

read the original version on: www.retailnews.asia

Vietnam has jumped five places to 64th in this year’s global index of readiness for online shopping, a UN report says. With an average score of 61.1 points on a scale of 100, Vietnam did better than most of its Southeast Asian peers in terms of its preparedness for e-commerce, according to the B2C (business-to-consumer) […]

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ShopBase Review: A Newfangled Cross-Border ECommerce Store Builder

So far, it's a verifiable fact that drop shipping never comes along with newbies pretty easily. Not even with a mere blueprint of how ShopBase works. Yet at the same time, with existing e-commerce channels striving for a fairly good dominance in the market, it’s hard to find an all-in-one platform that's honed to perfection.

One that centrally manages drop shipping, white labels, and print-on-demand orders, concurrently.

Our blog site is a huge proponent of e-commerce solutions that are not only savvy but also have the capacity for cross-border sales transactions. ShopBase is seemingly closing in on its competitors quite briskly.

In this review, we’ll look at a couple of features that ShopBase has in store for its ‘freshman’ users. Just to give you a short blueprint, this guide covers the following:

1. How it works
2. ShopBase’s marketplace
3. Pricing
4. Overall features
5. Integrations
6. Customer Support
7. Pros and cons

So let’s get started.

What is ShopBase?

First of all, let’s have a quick breakdown to understand how it all began.

The team behind ShopBase started way back in 2008 where they launched Beeketing, a software that helps e-commerce merchants grow their sales and revenue, pretty fast.

Later on, they released a couple of other automation tools mostly for the Shopify selling channel. This led the team to break even way sooner than anticipated.

And a decade after stepping in the right direction, the team attempted to resolve patent issues merchants have had to cope with while handling cross-border e-commerce transactions.

Part of their objectives was to come up with an automated solution that can loosen up these snags:

• Poor product quality ( print-on-demand products, drop-shipped items)
• Longer shipping times
• Sub-standard packaging

Such falloffs often result in numerous chargeback claims, poor customer ratings, a low customer retention rate, stunted ROI from ads, blocked payment gateways and marketing accounts, the list is long.

With a high success rate in helping ecommerce retailers build a high conversion portfolio of up to 80% on their online stores, cross-border commerce was still a worthwhile proposition to give a shot at.

And the startup, dubbed ShopBase, was designed to give an integrated solution for white labels, POD, and drop shipping setups.

And to make it a perfect stronghold in e-commerce transactions, ShopBase comes with these unique elements which we’ll look at later in this guide:

• A gripping online store builder
• Free migration to ShopBase. The app gives you a stable backup solution
• Capacity to hold multiple product variants(up to 1000 variants)
• Conversion optimization tools
• Swift product import apps
• Cart abandonment recovery
• ShopBase payments (coming real soon)
• Global order fulfillment services integration

That’s just a snippet of what to expect. Let’s get into the finer details.

 ShopBase Review: How the store-builder works

As we mentioned earlier in this review, ShopBase works largely as a cross-border channel built for users looking to toss into drop shipping, white labels, and print on demand products from a single dashboard.

If you want to rebrand products from your supplier with your logo and make them seem like they’re shipped from your store, ShopBase is all set to help you out.

Such a crafty technique gives your products a refined look, builds your customers’ brand loyalty, and gives it an indefinite authority in the market.

Mostly, ShopBase, through an app extension, is best known to personalize print-on-demand products such as:

• Hoodies
• T-shirts
• Sweatshirts
• Leggings
• Long sleeve shirts

But the list doesn’t end here.

ShopBase is tuned up to sort any pertinent needs different users have. The company has a packaging solution that seamlessly broadens the drop shippers order fulfillment success rate.

Same as other pioneering drop shipping platforms, ShopBase offers its new users a 14-day free trial package once they complete the sign-up process. It has beginner-friendly tools to help you create a drop-shipping store in less than 15 minutes.

 

So let’s dig in further to see how practical ShopBase can get.

ShopBase Review: Prevailing Features

Storefront Builder

The first step to start drop-shipping or virtually sell print on demand products is to have a responsive online presence. In other words, you need an online store to start selling your niche products.

And this is why.

About 52% of website traffic comes from mobile devices. A drop shipper, therefore, needs to have mobile-responsive product pages that load quite fast. To that effect, ShopBase goes overboard to extensively elevate the overall users’ experience.

As you’d expect from any top-notch store builder, its online store is entirely mobile-friendly. The setup process is quick and easy for starters. As soon as you’re done with this part, ShopBase promptly redirects you to the admin dashboard.

The dashboard allows you to set these priorities in order:

Order management

This part lets you sort the customers’ order information to avoid missing out on pending deliveries. Its dashboard gives you access to an orders’ list. It shows you the payment and fulfillment status of an ordered item as well as the shipping details of the customer.

You can ascertain whether products are partially fulfilled or if they’re entirely unfulfilled.

In case of any chargeback issues or any other pertinent inquiries, you can resolve the claim from this point to maintain your store’s reputation and credibility status.

Checkout page

ShopBase automates the checkout process to give you a circular-knit control over all the conversion signals. While there are several segments you need to reduce the purchasing barriers, ShopBase’s checkout pages are easy to navigate through.

To avoid all possibilities of making sales from getting trashed, ShopBase helps you deal with cart abandonment by maxing out on all recovery options. You can schedule emails to persuade your store’s visitors into buying a product.

The seller gets to follow through all the prevalent funnel cracks. ShopBase lets you identify all windows that could potentially help your store heighten its conversion rate.

It’s open to all sorts of customizations you need your store’s checkout page to have. Such kind of distinctive attribute lets the drop shipper optimize the checkout pages to enhance the visitors’ average conversion rate.

ShopBase gives you all the key entries to adjust your shipping rates. You can choose to go with options such as weight-based, tiered pricing, location-based, or use a fixed pricing formula to calculate the shipping costs.

Built-in payment gateway

Whichever niche you want to go down the line for; be it white-label, dropshipping or print-on-demand, ShopBase guarantees the most convenient payment methods. These scalable channels cover an extensive demographic range of where your potential customers are distinctly possible to be based at.

The e-commerce store builder directly accepts payments from PayPal, Stripe, and BlueSnap. Store owners can also complete transactions from debit and credit card networks such as Mastercard and Visa.

Reports and analytics

It’s untenable to analyze your drop-shipping or print-on-demand store’s information without data-driven insights.

Just to contextualize how ShopBase works, let’s get up to speed with how to monitor all the visitors’ actions. The dashboard shows real-time updates on all your sales, orders, your store’s traffic, and the average earned revenue.

There’s also a product report to hang on. This leads you to the products that are high selling as well as those that aren’t. To keep a concise track of all visits, ShopBase connects to Google Analytics via a unique ID.

This tool puts to an end any unsubstantiated assumptions by giving authentic reports on these real-time actions:

• Your marketing campaigns’ performance
• The total number of your products pages’ visits
• Conversion rate
• Bounce rate

You can integrate this tool with ShopBase to measure how customers engage with your store and analyze how their actions affect metrics such as conversions and page views per session.

Products upload

You can add products in bulk either via a CSV file or from 3rd party apps like Dropship Connector.

The layout on the backend captures a product’s information(color, size) if it’s in stock and the vendor’s contact details. This simply means that the drop shipper can upload their products right from the inventory page.

You also get to choose your fulfillment service. Whether it’s AliExpress drop-shipping or selling print-on-demand products, you can monitor all actions from a single entry point. Since it stores the product’s SKU number, the user gets notified when a listed item is out of stock.

As part of product management, ShopBase allows you to sort your collections either manually or automatically. Both methods give you options to edit a product’s title and its overall condition.

Users can manage the product feeds and upload the same information to selling channels like Google shopping, Instagram, or Facebook.

Mobile app

Its mobile app gives you quick access to your dashboard at any point in time. This allows you to monitor the performance of all pre-set metrics at a glance.

You don’t have to make hefty steps to fulfill an order. Every action from your mobile app syncs with your online store. This includes your customers' orders, fulfillment status, and the number of sold products.

Web hosting

ShopBase gives you unlimited bandwidth on any of its plans. Space for storing data is enough to accommodate your store’s visits and give it a sweeping performance. To set your online store's domain name, the store builder gives you elementary methods to put your hosting account’s DNS settings in order. In other words, there’s no coding whatsoever.

It’s 256-bit SSL certificate gives your drop-shipping store a smooth run while executing customers’ transactions. In essence, this protects all the payment credentials and secures the store’s data every single second.

ShopBase makes sure there are no loose ends when it comes to your online store’s uptime speed. It’s 99% uptime pace helps you make insightful decisions from real-time updates on sales, orders, and customers’ inquiries.

 ShopBase Review: Apps integration

ShopBase has a peculiar way of connecting to apps that are designed for optimal performance. There’s little to zero coding required while integrating the apps with your store. Most of these apps are built to help the store owner deal with;

• Products marketing and automation
• manufacturing(PODs), shipping, and fulfillment
• Sales and conversion optimization
• Customer support
• Online store management

For starters, these are the most popular and savvy apps to help you optimize your online store:

Print Hub ( Print-on-Demand app for ShopBase stores)

 

Print Hub is a free tool for online store owners looking to sell print-on-demand products. Reaching your business goals using this automated tool has never been easier. It has worked for over 7 million customers and counting.

In a nutshell, here’s how Print Hub works.

Whenever the customer places an order from your store and it’s in sync with Print Hub, the order processing begins instantaneously. The app generates automatic tracking updates that notify both the buyer and the drop shipper on the order status.

Not only does Print Hub process the order, but the team also prints and ships it to the customer. So this technically means that there’s nothing much needed from the seller’s end. Not even product designs.

Its production is quick and the product quality is suitable for your customers’ widespread needs. Print Hub has a rich catalog of decent quality POD products like hoodies, t-shirts, tank tops, rugs, towels, you name it. Anything that’s high-selling in the POD business, they’ve got it.

To integrate the app with your store, you only need to hit the “Add app” button, and that’s it.

Boost Upsell

The app’s name speaks so much about its main objective. To put it simply, Boost Upsell gives you selling techniques designed to cross-sell products. I know, you might wonder what the phrase ‘cross-sell’ means.

So here’s how it works:

Besides the product a customer picks, you might want to persuade them to add complementary items to the cart. The key objective here is to boost your store’s average order value.

To make the process facile, customers can add a bunch of related products in a single click.

Boost Upsell’s cross-sell technique works in the same design as that of Amazon. If let's presume, a customer adds a laptop to their cart, then this tool can help you recommend related products like the keyboard cover and laptop bag via a mobile responsive popup window.

Another perk to leverage from this tool is up-selling. This app uses AI technology to help users make offers that highly convert. Boost Upsell makes the best use of your online store’s historical data to predict your customers' behavior.

As such, the seller happens to feature the most relevant products without any manual efforts.

Dropship connector

Assuming that a massive wave of first-timers is looking to drop-ship products, this tool would be the perfect fit for workflow automation.

Dropship Connector eases all your dropshipping priorities by performing these constructive tasks:

1. The app allows you to import products including their variants from AliExpress via a Chrome extension
2. Fulfill products even when they’re in bulk and from different suppliers automatically
3. Change your suppliers without having to edit your product listings. This suggests that you can switch into a new product listed on AliExpress and keep the same product information in your ShopBase drop-shipping store.
4. Keep a stable track of the order status in real-time
5. Work with as many shipping options depending on your customers’ regions
6. Auto-update your inventory and make alterations to your pricing formula
7. Integrate all products and orders from different drop-shipping platforms.

The better part is that the Dropship connector is a free app and actively accessible at the click of a button.

ShopBase Review: Pricing

Everything valuable has got a price. That's pretty definite. And so does this cross-border e-commerce platform. Aside from the 14-day free trial perk, ShopBase gives you a 10% discount on any plan if you pay annually.

After all, you don’t need to leave your credit card details to access the freebie window. For each of its three plans, the drop-shipper gets to bank on these features:

• Access to the online store builder
• Users can make unlimited product uploads, sales, and bandwidth.
• 24/7 customer support
• AliExpress drop-shipping app and support
• Automatic sync to payment gateways(PayPal, Stripe)
• Auto-import products via a CSV file
• Exclusive Print-on-Demand support
•  A fraud analysis report
• Free SSL certificate
• ShopBase’s Up-sell and cross-sell strategies
• Abandoned cart recovery

All these elements you get from any of the ShopBase accounts are handy and cut above the bare-bone expectations. The company also plans to launch the ShopBase payments which will come with discounted rates for all transactions. Below is the pricing for the plans.

Basic Base plan

ShopBase gives you a wide-reaching platform to set up your online store especially if you’re on a strapped budget.

The price for this plan is $19 per month. Users can open up to 5 staff accounts and hand over tasks such as inventory handling and order fulfillment to their employees.

For each transaction, ShopBase charges a 2% fee if you’re using the Basic Base plan.

Standard Base plan

The Standard Base plan is ranked as the most popular solution for store owners looking to scale exponentially without any daunting efforts or steep costs.

ShopBase charges its users $59 per month for the standard plan. As part of the bargain, this solution can hold up to 10 staff accounts. Over and above that, the drop shipper only pays a 1% transaction fee for each sale.

Pro Base plan

If you want to manage your online store at an enterprise level, then there’s no other way to go about it. This plan is meant for store owners who make high-volume sales and work with a large team.

You’ll need to pay about $249 per month to use the Pro Base. The amount is a bit pricey but just a fraction if we compare what other e-commerce Saas companies like Magneto charge for their enterprise plans.

Since this package is tuned to help you scale to optimum levels, you get to open up to 100 staff accounts and pay only a 0.5% transaction fee per sale.

ShopBase Review: Customer support

ShopBase has a well-trained and dedicated support team. Whenever you need to resolve any snags, rest assured that you can access prompt assistance by phone, live chat, or email.

In the contact section, there are frequently asked articles to help you learn all the curves on this cross-border e-commerce platform. Each new user gets an account manager to help them with the store’s layout, configurations, and scale to an enterprise level.

Same as other big wig store builders, ShopBase has an active community that gives members a window of opportunity to exchange views on drop-shipping, POD products, marketing, and so forth.

ShopBase Review: Pros

• The dashboard’s layout design is pretty friendly for beginners
• The mobile app allows you to monitor your store from any location
• Has plans for sellers in any sales level.
• A simplified cross-border channel for drop-shippers looking to sell white labels and POD products
• Allows customizations(checkout pages, themes)
• It includes workable e-commerce hosting plans
• The storefront is highly optimized for conversions
• All the apps on the ShopBase app store are free

ShopBase Review: Cons

• ShopBase’s marketplace is not as diverse as you’d expect it to be. The limited number of apps is a little discouraging
• The ShopBase community isn’t quite engaging. As a starter, you might need to seek deep insights elsewhere.

Final Mark

Did this review get you closer to what you need to source from ShopBase to spread out your brand’s base in the e-commerce space?

If so, then note this final roundup down.

First of all, we care to help beginners launch their stores on safer grounds. ShopBase is technically one of those platforms to help you reach your significant stages of hailing a milestone in your niche area.

If you’re a bit frugal on the startup costs, then ShopBase is perhaps one of the discounted platforms to help you grease your online store in motion.

Having a cross-border channel is such an ingenious and pioneering stride to making massive revenue from all ends. There’s nothing more rewarding in e-commerce than launching your store on a mobile responsive and conversion-oriented platform.

Despite the limited number of apps, ShopBase doesn’t fall short on its many other features. Its performance is stable to hang freely on your large volume of visits, product uploads, and conversion-optimized integrations.

Just in case we’ve missed out on anything, please let us know in the comment section. We’ll also bring you up to date on any future refinement that ShopBase throws in the e-commerce market.

So stay tuned.

The post ShopBase Review: A Newfangled Cross-Border ECommerce Store Builder appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.

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How to Use Instagram Ads to Increase eCommerce Sales

Recent surveys from Facebook state that up to 83% of shoppers run to Instagram to discover new products and services. The same study shows that 81% of people use the platform to research about brands. Based on those numbers alone, it’s clear how Instagram has grown to become an invaluable platform for every successful online entrepreneur.

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Sustainability in Packaging Asia 2020

Event date: 1-3 June 2020
Event location (venue and/or city): Singapore

Following our success in Europe and US and strong customer demand we are bringing Sustainability in Packaging to Asia, Singapore from 1-3 June 2020. 

Asia is becoming a key arena for sustainability discussions because the consumer base is growing quickly and with it demand for packaging but the recycling infrastructure and waste management is less developed.

As global brands look to Asia to drive their growth, Asia provides many opportunities for sustainable packaging solutions in the region.

We’ve put together an expert advisory committee, to help create a comprehensive and forward-thinking programme for the event, companies already confirmed as members of the Advisory Board include UPM, WestRock, GA Circular, LUSH, GSK，Avery Dennison, Johnson&Johnson and Smithers.

By joining us at Sustainability in Packaging Asia, you’ll hear the latest insights, trends and solutions of the packaging supply chain from key decision makers and influencers. Also you’ll have the exclusive opportunity to network with fellow industry professionals and exchange ideas to help boost your business.

Event website:here
Event registration link: here

I want to attend the event

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10 Main Factors That Determine the Success of the Ecommerce Business

Everyone is shifting to the e-commerce business in today’s world. E-commerce is simply the process of selling goods and services through the internet. To commence your new business it’s a very nice idea to design a fresh website. Most of the people are still coming in this world but few get to see the light of success. There are many ways by which you can achieve success in the field of E-commerce business because many

The post 10 Main Factors That Determine the Success of the Ecommerce Business appeared first on Ecommerce Guru - Free Ecommerce Support, Help Desk, eCommerce Learning Free From Certified Partner, Ecommerce Expert.

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Replay: Shrinking a Business to Save It

Today’s episode is a replay of one of our most well-received episodes from 2019, where Kevin Stecko from 80sTees.com joins the show to discuss how he improved his business by making it smaller. Kevin has undergone the evolution from having a massive warehouse with a huge amount of inventory to scaling back and pricing his products at a premium. Listen in as he shares how he managed that change and how downsizing can help save a business.

You’ll learn:

• How shrinking his business helped Kevin to be successful
• Tips for premium pricing
• How to use drop shipping to your advantage

Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher

(With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Kevin Stecko of 80sTees.com)

What Was Mentioned

• Kevin Stecko: Website | LinkedIn | Personal Blog
• Today I Completed The Turn Around I Mapped Out In 2016 While On Vacation
• Klaviyo
• Liquid Web
• eCommerceFuel Job Boards
• eCommerceFuel Forum

 

Pexels: Bruce mars

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Square vs PayPal (Dec 2019): Clash of the Payment Processing Titans

Whether you’re searching for an offline card reader, a way to take credit card payments online, or a POS app, you’ve probably come across both PayPal and Square in the past.

Both Square and PayPal are incredibly popular tools for merchants and business owners. They offer an easy way to start making money through your online or offline store, whether you’re taking digital payments, or credit cards. PayPal is pretty much a household name among consumers and businesses today. There’s a good chance that many of your favorite stores even offer customers the option to pay for their products using a PayPal account.

On the other hand, while Square doesn’t have exactly the same status that PayPal does, it does benefit from a large and growing consumer base. Square has a very extensive set of features, including some credit card processing systems and readers that are a lot more impressive than PayPal’s.

However, when it comes to making the choice between PayPal vs Square, things can get a little complicated. After all, the two systems are pretty similar.

If all you need is a mobile card reader, or a way to take debit and credit card payments online, then you can use either Square or PayPal for that purpose. So, how do you make the right choice between the two?

We’re here to help with that.

This Square vs PayPal review will guide you through all the ins and outs of both payment processing systems so that you can make the right investment in your business.

Square vs PayPal: Fees and Processing Rates

Probably one of the first things that you’ll want to consider when you’re comparing PayPal vs Square, is how much you’re going to need to pay in processing fees to manage your transactions. Both Square and PayPal offer very similar prices for their credit card processing technology, so at first glance, the two don’t have much to separate them. Additionally, neither service will charge you regular subscription fees beyond the ones that you incur for a transaction.

Square Fees

Here’s what you pay for Square:

• 2.9% plus 30 cents for online payments
• 2.5% for keyed entry
• 1.75% for card transactions

You can see a more complete rundown of the fee types here:

Crucially, Square’s pricing also comes with access to a credit card reader when you first open your account. This means that you can immediately start taking payments both online and offline. Additionally, all of the Square pricing packages come with access to the state-of-the-art POS system from Square, which helps you to manage your business on the backend.

From a security and safety perspective, Square also comes with no chargeback fees whatsoever. Part of the reason for that is that Square has a unique chargeback protection system built into its technology. This covers you from potential chargeback disputes up to $250.

If you process a large number of transactions every month, then Square can also customize your payment processing experience to suit your unique needs. There’s a discount for bulk payments, but nothing for charities and non-profits.

PayPal Fees

So, how does PayPal add up?

The costs look something like this:

• 2.75% for chip and pin/ contactless payments
• 5% plus 5 cents for a micropayment
• 2.9% plus a fixed fee to add PayPal buttons to your site
• 2.9% plus 30 cents for online sales
• 2.9% plus a fixed fee to add PayPal to your checkout
• 3.4% plus 30c for payments from magstripe

If you’re worried about chargebacks and disputes with PayPal, then you’re pretty well-protected again. The chargeback protection offered by PayPal includes support for unauthorized transactions, and even help when items aren’t received by customers.

When a chargeback is initiated with PayPal, the amount requested will be refunded to the customer, while the merchant gets a fee with a cap of $20. Crucially, you can have your initial fee refunded if PayPal finds that the case should be decided in your favor.

Another point to keep in mind when you’re comparing PayPal vs Square in terms of pricing, is that each payment processing company also comes with additional “optional” costs to think about. For instance, though there are no monthly fees for PayPal, you may need to consider costs like:

• Recurring billing: $10 per month
• Micropayments: 5% plus $0.05
• Hosted payment page/ Virtual terminal: $30 per month
• Mass payouts: 2% fee
  

On the other hand, Square comes with extra fee options like Payroll for $34 per month, or

• Loyalty $25 per month
• Employee management $5 per employee per month
• Marketing $15 per month
• Square for Restaurants $60 per month
• Square for Retail $60 per month

Both Square and PayPal are pretty decent overall when it comes to pricing. The core features for both payment processing tools are very similar. Since the pricing for the supplemental services will only apply to some people, you needn’t worry about it much if you’re only looking to build a basic ecommerce site.

Square vs PayPal: Compatible Devices

While extra software functionality will definitely ramp up the price of your Square or PayPal service a little -one other expense you may need to consider is the compatible hardware. This will only be relevant to you if you want to run an offline pop-up store as well as an online service.

Square POS and PayPal Here, the mobile systems for the two providers, run on Android and iOS phones and tablets. Alternatively, you can purchase a number of terminals and other devices to upgrade your offline experience too.

Square is clearly the more robust option for companies in search of hardware, with a huge selection of devices to choose from.

One of the most basic Bluetooth enabled devices is Square’s contactless and chip reader, which you can access for $49. There’s no magstripe transaction with this, but you get your magstripe reader for free from Square anyway.

We’re not going to spend too long going through all the different tools available from Square in this review – as we have other articles available for that. However, we will note that the Square Stand and the Square Register are two of the most powerful POS tools on the market today. The Square Stand for $199 comes with the contactless and chip reader included, as well as a swivel stand so you can show an order to your customers.

The Square Register (read our Square Register review), on the other hand, is a lot more expensive, but it’s also intended for much bigger businesses. At around $1,000, the Register comes with a custom Android tablet included, as well as a customer-facing display and integrated card reader. There’s nothing on the market from PayPal that’s anywhere near this comprehensive.

Interestingly, Square offers a magstripe reader for free to its customers, while PayPal will ask you to pay $15 for the same tech. We’d probably recommend upgrading to the Bluetooth Chip and Swipe reader instead of you’re going to get some basic tech, however. This device retails at $24.99 and comes with a clip so you can mount it to your phone or tablet. If you want to accept contactless payment, you can also get the chip and tap reader for $59.99.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a more comprehensive system overall, then you can try the re-branded Miura M010 that PayPal offers for $99. The device is pretty intuitive, and it works well with a POS system like Vend POS. However, there’s no built-in POS for the PayPal brand like you get with Square.

Clearly Square comes out ahead of PayPal in this area. You can even get financing for your devices to spread the cost out over a longer period of time. However, if you’re just looking for something simple to support your small business or pop up store, then you can probably get by with both Square and PayPal.

Additionally, PayPal Here and Square POS both come with a bunch of cash drawers, bar scanners, and receipt printers that you can attach to them for extra functionality.

Square vs PayPal: Receiving Payments

The price that it costs to manage payments is just one of the things you’ll need to consider when you’re looking for a tool to process your online transactions. You’ll also need to ensure that whichever system you choose can give you access to your money as quickly and painlessly as possible too. A big advantage of PayPal for instance is how fast you can unlock your cash.

Any of the mobile payments that you accept through PayPal will be available almost instantly in your PayPal account. If you have your own debit card or credit card with PayPal (through Mastercard), then you’ll be able to spend your money immediately. There aren’t any fees to use your PayPal card, and you can transfer funds to your bank account if you prefer too.

The transfers are free and can take anywhere up to 3-4 business days to get into your account. You can also initiate instant transfers if you’re willing to pay a 1% fee for the transfer amount.

Square is pretty speedy when it comes to bank transfers and payments too. Usually, you’ll be able to get a standard payment to your bank account within one or two business days, depending on when your payment was processed. Often, the payments taken by your credit card processor before 5 Pm PT will be available the next business day.

Like PayPal, Square offers an instant transfer option too, for 1% of the total transferred sum. As of 2019, Square has also implemented a digital wallet for merchants similar to PayPal. If you order a Square card, you can immediately swipe that card and use it to pay for services instantly, with no funds. The debit card is also backed by Mastercard.

Square vs PayPal: Payment Options

Aside from transaction fees and payment times, another major point you’ll need to consider when comparing Square and PayPal, is how many options they give you for accepting payments from customers around the world.

Square, for instance, stands out as one of the leading payment processing solutions, because it can accept all major credit and debit cards. Additionally, you can use Square terminals and online POS systems to accept Apple Pay, Android, eWallet payments and more. Additionally, Square comes with a free card reader, as well as access to a wide range of alternative hardware options for your offline business. This means that you can either run a local company, a pop-up-store, or a huge global venture without too much trouble.

Though Square is an incredibly flexible option for accepting payments both online and offline, PayPal has plenty to offer too. First of all, you’ve got the benefit that many consumers in today’s world already have a PayPal account that they’ll feel comfortable using to make a payment. Many consumers appreciate seeing the option to pay with PayPal alongside more common choices like credit or debit card transactions.

Additionally, PayPal is one of the most significant payment processors worldwide. You can take payments through PayPal in more than 200 countries around the world, which means that you’ll be able to take your business as far as you’d like. This is particularly useful for companies that are selling services rather than products.

What’s more, with PayPal, you can accept every major debit and credit card for your eCommerce store or your offline business. Another major bonus? If your clients want to spread the cost of whatever they’re buying out over a little while, they can use the PayPal credit system instead.

The PayPal credit feature is a particularly compelling part of what makes PayPal stand out as a processing tool. The more options you can give your customers on how to pay for their goods and services, the more likely they are to convert.

Square vs PayPal: Ease of Use

Choosing the right point of sale system, or an online service for taking card payments, means thinking about a number of different things. Do you want your POS system to be connected to a magstripe reader that you can use for offline payments? Do you need to make sure that your service works with the current checkout that you have set up for your website? Are you going to look into things like android and apple pay as well as debit card and credit cards?

However, before you can get carried away with all the features that modern systems have to offer, you’ll need to ensure that the service that you’re getting is easy enough to use. After all, when you start taking dozens, or even hundreds of payments every day, you don’t want to worry about whether your system is set up correctly.

The good news is that both PayPal and Square are designed for simplicity. Square built its entire business around the idea that simplicity should always be a crucial component of your POS. Everything that you need to run your store will be available for you, whether you’re using one of Square’s state-of-the-art terminals, or you’re sticking to a tablet or desktop.

Obviously, if you’re using the Square POS online, the ease of use that you experience will be affected somewhat by the other technology that you’re using, such as your hosting provider and the company that you’ve build your website with. However, Square is currently one of the best options for beginners in the offline and online world.

On the other hand, PayPal is another exceptionally easy-to-use system for payment processing. You can start taking card payments online with PayPal in seconds. All you need to do is copy/paste some code from the PayPal site onto your shopping cart system. You can also add PayPal buttons to your website that allow customers to add products to their cart or set up automatic billing.

PayPal is an excellent alternative to Square for beginners. The only downside is that it does generally move the customers that come to your website outside of your domain when they’re making a purchase. This means that the payment process is a little more complex for end-users with PayPal than it is with Square.

Square vs. PayPal: Mobile Payments

So, should you choose Square or PayPal when you want to accept mobile payments for a temporary store?

Both PayPal and Square are excellent at offering an efficient eCommerce sales experience. For instance, Square recently purchased Weebly to help businesses design a more immersive checkout process for digital customers. Additionally, there’s a Square API available if you want to build payment processing into your existing checkout.

On the other hand, PayPal is one of the most popular and convenient ecommerce payment options on the market, known by customers all around the world. However, when it comes to mobile payments, Square definitely has an edge on the market.

The Square POS is one of the most powerful mobile apps for merchants on the market, working perfectly with smartphones, iPads and other tablets alike. When you sign up for a Square account, you also get a free magstripe reader as standard.

Although PayPal does provide mobile payment options through PayPal Here, they’re not nearly as advanced or comprehensive as what you can get with Square. For instance, two of the major areas where Square gets out ahead of PayPal in this area is with an offline mode, and inventory management.

Inventory management from the Square POS app means that you can track the quantities of your products in your mobile tool, set low-stock alerts, and even bulk upload inventory information. There’s also the option to adjust stock to account for damage, returns, and theft. Although you do need to upgrade to Square for Retail if you want more advanced features like multi-location inventory management, you still get a lot more than anything available from PayPal.

The customer database provided by the Square app alone is enough to make a massive difference to your payment processing strategy, as you can link purchases to specific customers. You’ll also have the option to save card details and other information to a file, rather than asking your customers to present a card at every purchase.

Sadly, PayPal Here just doesn’t match up.

Although it’s an attractive feature from the PayPal team, and a great way for beginners to get started with offline payments, it’s very limited in functionality.

The biggest benefit of PayPal Here, by far, is the fact that you can create up to 1,000 sub-user accounts underneath your own master account. This means that any of the volunteers or employees that are helping out with your company can also have their own login. Alternatively, if you want to issue individual login details to your employees with Square, then you’ll need to enable employee management, which means paying an extra monthly fee.

Square vs. PayPal: Invoicing and Virtual Terminals

Square and PayPal are both companies that offer an excellent selection of tools for today’s business owners. As well as taking immediate online and offline payments through your credit card reader, chip card reader, or POS system, you can also use these services to invoice your customers.

Invoicing is an excellent tool to have in a world where customers are looking for multiple payment options. Rather than needing to take a card swipe or direct transaction for everything you sell, you can use PayPal or Square to set up long-term payments instead. These online transactions will work similarly to any of the other payments that you take online.

There are no extra fees to invoicing with Square vs. PayPal if you’re using this feature for your merchant services. You’ll just pay the processing costs that are typical for any card system. The feature sets from both PayPal and Square are pretty similar too.

 

With Square’s invoicing feature, merchants can generate custom invoices without any add-ons or plugins for their digital transactions. You can implement a logo and business information, and even attach files to the invoice. Additionally, if you need to take monthly fees from a customer, you can schedule recurring invoices that include terms of services and other details too.

Square gives you the option to add discounts and sales tax through your POS app. Additionally, if you want to accept tips or donations along with your payments, then you can include that too. This makes Square one of the most diverse processing services for invoicing. Small business owners can even use their invoicing tools with customer details pulled from their existing customer database.

Some of the more recent additions to the Square experience include the ability to request down payments on invoices and download contract templates.

PayPal’s invoicing tool is also a handy option for today’s businesses. You can create custom designs for your invoices that include your business information and logo. Additionally, there’s the option to add terms and conditions, notes for clients, and photos. PayPal will even allow you to leave a private note for yourself if necessary. The most notable difference between Square and PayPal is the fact that there’s no integrated customer database or linked inventory. Additionally, you cant store card swipe details on file.

However, like Square, PayPal will give you the option to request down payments on invoices or enable partial payments so that your customers can pay what they owe over time.

From a virtual terminal perspective, Square and PayPal are once again quite similar – the main difference being that you’ll need to pay extra by $30 a month for PayPal’s virtual terminal. The Terminal comes as part of the Payments Pro plan, rather than being built into the standard POS. On the other hand, Square’s virtual terminal is completely free and syncs seamlessly with the rest of the Square environment.

Square vs. PayPal: Extra Features

Both Square and PayPal are exciting options for companies that want quick access to reliable merchant services and payment processing. Whether you’re taking online transactions or contactless payments, you’ll love the wide range of features that come from both providers.

However, both Square and PayPal have areas where they separate themselves from the crowd. For instance, the Developer tools from Square a lot more significant from Square than they are from PayPal. While PayPal gives you invoicing and subscription management, the marketplace tools for developers are pretty limited at this point. On the other hand, Square offers APIs that are ready-made for reporting, analytics, inventory tools, back-office management, and online or in-app payments.

Additionally, both Square and PayPal also offer merchant financing options for companies that need a little extra help finding the money for their new inventory, hardware, and payment processing services. Both Square and PayPal offer financing programs for eligible businesses. However, it’s worth noting that neither option is likely to be the best for your online store if you want to keep costs low when buying a tap reader or cash drawer.

Finally, Square and PayPal also offer access to sales reports and analytics to help you keep track of how your business is performing. Square definitely comes out ahead of PayPal again here, by offering more insight into your customers and your inventory.

Integrations and Addons

Notably, there is another way to extend the functionality that’s available from both Square and PayPal today, and that’s through integrations and add-ons.

Both PayPal and Square offer access to various add-ons and integrations. While PayPal has chosen to partner with a range of other best-in-breed companies, rather than developing software on its’ own, Square focuses on acting as your primary source of support for virtually every aspect of your business.

With PayPal, you can access integrations with things like Google, QuickBooks, eBay, and many others to help with things like sales and sales reports. On the other hand, Square has various of its own add-ons to offer for stuff like employee management, marketing, loyalty schemes, and even gift cards.

That’s not to say that Square doesn’t play well with other third-party integrations too. There are still ways to connect your account to eCommerce, POS, and accounting solutions, as well as tools for invoicing, inventory management, accounting, and much more. The main difference is that you can keep everything in your Square account if you want to.

While Square’s list of integrations isn’t as large as other options like Stripe, it’s a lot more varied overall than PayPal. You’ll definitely have a robust selection of tools available with PayPal, but Square is a lot more flexible and open, for those who need that.

Square vs. PayPal: Customer Service & Support

Ultimately, no matter what kind of payment processing solution you choose for your business, you’re always going to need customer service from time to time. Even if you select something as easy to use as PayPal or Square, there could be moments where you need extra assistance.

Unfortunately, not all companies are as reliable as they should be when it comes to technical support and customer service. Neither Square nor PayPal is likely to win any awards when it comes to customer support and service. Both companies are pretty basic in what they have to offer.

Square Customer Service Solutions include:

• Help Center: The help center from Square is pretty detailed. It covers a lot of different topics, including how to start your Square account.
• Social media: Square offers support through a Twitter feed and a YouTube channel. There’s also the option to post to the Facebook page.
• Phone and email support: Phone support from Square is only available when you have a code. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to access that code if your account is “unfairly” terminated. You should still get a 24-hour turnaround on an email though.
• Community forum: You can also get advice from Square staff and customers by visiting the Square forum. It’s a useful resource to have when you’re struggling with Square features.

PayPal Customer Service Solutions include:

• The Home Hub: Here, you can get most of your questions answered through FAQ topics linking to articles.
• Social media: Twitter and Facebook are available to answer your questions. However, they’re not always speedy at getting back to you.
• Phone and Email: Phone support from PayPal isn’t a very consistent experience, but it is there. Fortunately, you should be able to access most of the answers you need elsewhere.
• Community Forum: Like Square, PayPal allows you to get answers to your questions from other users through its community forum.

Square vs. PayPal: Which Should You Use?

So, which option should you pick when it comes to Square vs. PayPal?

Well, that all depends on what you need.

Generally, Square is the best option for individual sellers and businesses who want an affordable and simple way to sell their products anywhere, accept any kind of payment, and manage everything they need in a centralized environment. You can use Square if you’re a service provider, eCommerce store owner, or a seller using a mobile device at a local pop-up store.

Square is also definitely the best option for anyone with an offline presence. If you’re looking for a POS system that comes with access to some of the best hardware on the market, then Square is it. With your free Square profile, you’ll be able to access all the payment options you need to make a profit in your business, as well as a wide selection of sales, inventory, and employee management tools. There’s even access to a free credit card magstripe reader when you first start.

On the other hand…

PayPal is one of the most popular and appealing payment powerhouse solutions on the market. If you’re looking for something that’s going to help you get the most out of your online store, then you’ll definitely want to look at PayPal as your online payment provider. Online buyers love having the option to pay for things using PayPal. Additionally, the secure system available with PayPal will integrate well with most of the eCommerce platforms that you can use.

PayPal also gives you the option to go far beyond online selling if you need to as well. There’s PayPal Here for your mobile point of sale service. Although it’s not as comprehensive as the kind of experience that you get from Square, it’s definitely worth using for smaller businesses. Additionally, PayPal also comes with virtual terminals and recurring payment options – however, both of these incur monthly fees, unlike with Square.

If you’re selling online, and you’re using an eCommerce platform to manage things like customer details and inventory, the PayPal environment could be perfect for you. However, if you want to combine your brick-and-mortar store with your online sales, then Square will always beat PayPal overall.

What Are the Alternatives?

PayPal makes a lot of sense for some merchants. If you’re selling online through multiple channels like eBay and Esty, then you’ll love the comfort that PayPal gives to your global customer base. It’s great to have a comprehensive platform that allows you to take multiple payments from channels around the world on the same account. Alternatively, Square offers the biggest selection of benefits for merchants that want to deliver a combination of offline and online payment strategies.

Additionally, Square offers more advanced features for business owners than PayPal and doesn’t charge monthly fees for things like recurring invoices and virtual terminals. But, what do you do if you don’t want to use Square or PayPal?

Well, there are still options available.

Here are some of our favorites.

Payline Data

Payline is a simple payment processor that offers mobile, instore and online payment services. Ideal for in-store transactions, Payline is way cheaper and more flexible than PayPal for retail businesses of the traditional nature. Additionally, there’s an interchange plus pricing schedule, which means that the fees vary based on what kind of cards you process.

Pros 👍

• Flexible interchange plus pricing structure
• In-store credit card processing packages
• Cheaper offline transaction fees
• Mobile payment support

Cons 👎

• Only available in the US
• Difficult to forecast your monthly fees
• Not as good at eCommerce as PayPal

👉 Check out our detailed Payline Data review.

Stripe

Stripe is another excellent alternative to both PayPal and Square. This unique solution has quickly become the preferred ecommerce platform of a lot of leading stores. Squarespace has been working with this company for several years now. Additionally, the Shopify Payments system is available through the Stripe payment processing technology too. Stripe offers a comprehensive all-in-one offering for merchants. If you’re looking for streamlined simplicity and a lot of great integrations with third-party tools, this is the option for you.

Pros 👍

• Automatic payments to your bank account
• Mobile and online payments available
• Access to companies all over the world
• Only pay for what you need
• Support with real-time reporting
• Transparent pricing
• Excellent integrations

Cons 👎

• Takes a while for money to be available
• Merchant accounts only available in some countries
• Extra fee for international cards
• Not as simple as Square or PayPal when it comes to using the interface.

👉 Check out our detailed Stripe review.

Google Pay

Finally, Google Pay might not be as well-known of an alternative to Square or PayPal, but it’s an offering that’s quickly gaining traction. If you want to receive debit and credit cards online, then the Google Business solution with Google Wallet is an excellent choice. Google Pay is quick and easy to use for all customers, and it’s free to access too. Google Pay enables fast and simple checkout on a multitude of stores and online sites.

Pros 👍

• Works with a range of payment options
• SCA security built-in
• Takes minutes to receive or send out payments
• No fees required
• Fantastic for smaller businesses

Cons 👎

• Limited availability
• None of the back-end extras associated with Square
• No dedicated offline hardware available

Which payment processing system will you be using this year? Are you going to stick with PayPal or Square, or would you prefer to explore the benefits of one of our alternatives? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Square vs PayPal (Dec 2019): Clash of the Payment Processing Titans appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.

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