June 29th, 2006
Google Checkout released: Only in America
After months of waiting, Google Checkout has arrived — for the United States only. Even merchants from the United States selling products or services internationally will be unable to switch because buyers must also be American — this could make gaining market share a lot more difficult. To be fair though, Google must be working on the complexities that need to be addressed before a service like this can be rolled out internationally.
Besides this glaring deficiency, the idea behind Google Checkout seems interesting enough to steal at least some business away from PayPal. US merchants with an AdWords account can look forward to discounted transaction fees — for them, Google Checkout is a free service up to 10 times their spend on AdWords. It would make sense for companies matching this criteria to add Google as a payment method.
Overall, this new service does the basics and will get the job done for some merchants — but for most it isn’t an option until they can at least support international sales. This video makes it look easy enough for mom to purchase things — a trait most Google services don’t have. PayPal doesn’t have much to worry about now, but once Google Checkout builds momentum it could become something impossible to ignore.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the wireless industry.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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