Google Plans to Add Credit Card Payment Functionality to Google Base

[mandy]

Buying on Google Base

2/24/2006 12:04:00 PM
By Chetan Patel, Engineering Manager & Stephen Stukenborg, Product Manager

While Google Base provides data structure and distribution for a wide range of content and information, a subset of items are for sale. To help users more easily purchase and sell Google Base items, we're planning to enable people to buy items on Google Base using their Google Accounts.

Many of you are probably already familiar with the Google Account. You use it to sign in and pay for a number of Google services, like Google Video and Google Earth. We're now introducting similar functionality on Google Base.

For buyers, this feature will provide a convenient and secure way to purchase Google Base items by credit card. For sellers, this feature integrates transaction processing with Google Base item management.

We're starting with a very small number of sellers and we expect to include more over the next several months. If you're a seller and you're interested in getting an announcement when this feature is generally available, let us know. And if you want to know how this functionality relates to Google's broader work in payments, read this update. We hope this feature will make it even easier for people to use Google Base to post and distribute a wide range of content, whether information for sharing or goods for sale.

full article: http://googlebase.blogspot.com/2006/02/b...-base.html

sign up here to be notified when the feature is available: https://services.google.com/inquiry/sell

Google Base has taken that one expected step which is leading them closer to adding a classified buyer to seller marketplace at Google which may have the intention of rivaling eBay and Craigslist for the local classified market....

For other web merchants, Google Base may in time serve as a total ecommerce sales backend, rivaling Paypal and Yahoo Stores...

full article: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/?p=2995

related topic: Google Provides Update on Planned Payment Services http://community.tuliptools.com/index.ph...798.0.html

[mandy]

This is good news for those who love Google and don't mind contributing towards the company's goal of indexing everything there is to be indexed. But for a company like eBay—which owns PayPal and 25 percent of Craigslist—this is very bad news indeed. For all of its success—eBay has crushed nearly all the competition in both the online auction and consumer-to-consumer (C2C) payments space—it could be vulnerable if another company with the financial wherewithal and infrastructure to challenge its business model came along.

Think of all the eBay Stores and listings with Buy It Now prices... The combination of Google Base and Google Accounts should prove to be a very attractive alternative to high-volume sellers who use eBay as a storefront, especially if Google takes a smaller cut of the transaction than does eBay. Craigslist traffic could also suffer as sellers move their listings to Google Base, especially with Google Base's broader reach than Craiglist's city-specific focus.

eBay-owned PayPal will take a hit, too...

full article: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060226-6266.html

[amy]

eBay, PayPal Face Increasing Competition from Google

Of concern to sellers on eBay is the auction site's new "Safe Payments" policy it rolled out last fall (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m10/i19/s00). The new policy bans sellers from mentioning online payment services in their listings unless specifically allowed by the auction site...

Unless eBay specifically states in its policy that it accepts Google's payment service, sellers will be violating the eBay policy if they include any mention of it...

full article: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m02/i27/s02

[Kristijntje]

A related article:

Google Inc. has expanded its online payment service so that users can buy and sell everything from bicycle brakes to Beanie Babies through its Web site, posing an immediate challenge to eBay Inc.

Google added the payment service to its nascent Google Base classified listings Friday, an expected move that nonetheless sends shockwaves through the Internet industry...

Schachter, the UBS Securities analyst, said Google faces some obstacles if it intends to make a splash in e-commerce. He noted the limited popularity of Google Base in its early stages. Furthermore, he pointed out that unlike eBay's PayPal, Google Accounts offers no buyer protection against fraud...

full article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...HFJP81.DTL

[Kristijntje]

2 more article on the addition of payments to Google Base

Google's recently updated online marketplace is getting mixed reviews, in particular because it can't yet measure the reputation of a buyer or seller...

Seemingly overnight, Google Base changed into the feature many Google watchers long suspected it was: an assault on the online retailing business, incumbents eBay, Amazon, Craigslist and others...

Cubrilovic wrote that the Google credit card payment feature is more intuitive, and faster, than at eBay and other online merchants...

full article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1932190,00.asp

Google is attempting to make it easier for merchants that list items for sale on its Google Base service by allowing shoppers to make purchases using their Google Accounts. The move could be viewed as a declaration of war against PayPal, but Google executives are choosing to sidestep the issue.

Even if Google does intend this service to compete with PayPal, the company needs to get buy-in from retailers in order to succeed. "That's been one of the most problematic parts for anyone who's in this alternative billing space," said Sucharita Mulpuru, senior analyst at Forrester Research...

...A recent study by Forrester Research of 200 of the 400 largest online retailers reveals only 12 percent accept PayPal and 6 percent accept other alternatives like Bill Me Later or eChecks...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/FZdVtmhA...ions.xhtml

[amy]

I've yet to see anything with payment enabled but trying to find anything on Base is next to impossible.

[bargainbloodhound]

Having 1 category (products) with 17 million items in it isn't exactly buyer friendly for people who like to browse. 

[mandy]

Channel Advisor CEO Scott Wingo's Blog has a guided tour with screen shots of the "buy it now" process on Google Base

http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_str...e_buy.html

He also has more on Google Base/Payments in this post:

http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_str...e_now.html

[amy]

[quote author=mandy link=topic=2797.msg10432#msg10432 date=1141657100]
Channel Advisor CEO Scott Wingo's Blog has a guided tour with screen shots of the "buy it now" process on Google Base

http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_str...e_buy.html

He also has more on Google Base/Payments in this post:

http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_str...e_now.html
[/quote]

It reminds me more of an Amazon Payments type service rather than  a PayPal clone.

[bargainbloodhound]

http://base.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=8288  8)