Pay by Mail/ Phone/ other methods (paypal)

[BinaryMoon]

Since Bubble Blitz I have been selling my games via Plimus which has a very cool realtime monitor. I haven't had any purchases complete yet but I have had about 8 people fill out the information for phone and postal orders. I'm just wondering how many sales people get through the post or via phone? With my games previously (sold on shareit) I only had a single sale via post, and it took forever to clear.

I've always assumed people would purchase with their credit cards, and I've had more than 8 sales, but I'm surprised how many people are interested in other methods of payment. I think I'm going to look into offering paypal as well.

The only problem now is how to present users with multiple payment options without confusing them...

[sparkyboy]

Well FWIW, Paypal now offers the ability for customers to pay via their paypal account(very popular), credit cards,bank transfers and debit cards etc.
For all this they charge about a third of what the other merchants charge.

I don't know if they offer the range of services as Plimus etc, but once a customer pays into your paypal account, IT'S THERE IMMEDIATELY!!!!! No waiting for PLIMUS or whoever to send you a transfer!!!!

They have really improved their service.
Go here and decide for yourself:-

www.paypal.com


All the best


Mark.

[HornedGod]

Another payment service that is worth checking out is DXinOne 's Global Payment System.

It links together the vast majority of online currencies (e-gold, e-bullion, EMO, Pecunix, etc) allowing the buyer to use whichever e-currency they have, with you, the seller, receiving it in whatever e-currency you wish.

For more info on them, check out the indepedent training/tutorial site DX4Dummies

[ChrisLabombard]

I release my game on Oct 15... and I have chose to go with PayPal.

Pretty much for the reasons sparkboy stated.

I cant see a reason to use the other services over paypal. Are there any ?

[Sillysoft]

I cant see a reason to use the other services over paypal. Are there any ?

There are some people out there that do not like paypal, but I don't think it's that many people. It can be useful to set yourself up on 2 different systems. This way you can give the user a choice (in case they care) and you are still in business if there is a problem with one of them.

Regarding mail orders: I get very very few. Maybe 1 every couple of months.

[BinaryMoon]

Paypal have changed a lot recently and with the payment response stuff they send you I can set up automated download urls after payment. The only thing I'm concerned about at the moment is the fact I sell a couple of games via affiliates so will have two payment methods for my games and 1 for the other games I sell.

Regarding mail orders: I get very very few. Maybe 1 every couple of months.

That's what I was more interested in. I've yet to see any money from the pay by mail things but Bubble Blitz has only been on sale for about 5 weeks, and I've had 8 people get to the stage where they have filled out their name and address for pay by mail payment. I just have to wait and see if anything arrives

[Tertsi]

I'm using PayPal, BMTMicro and EU wire transfers.

You definitely need something along with PayPal or you'll probably lose at least 10% of your sales and in my case, I would lose more.

[BinaryMoon]

The thing is that people who already use both say they get a lot of sales through paypal but there is no way of knowing wether people who pay through paypal would use the other offerings if they had a choice. I think because of ebay paypal is the best known payment provider so if you offer it people will be more likely to pick it.

[NuriumGames]

I'm using Plimus and also PayPal and EU wire transfers. Get about 20% orders by PayPal and just a few (less than 1%) from wire transfers but people that buys with wire transfer will not use any other method.

[Nexic]

I don't know if they offer the range of services as Plimus etc, but once a customer pays into your paypal account, IT'S THERE IMMEDIATELY!!!!! No waiting for PLIMUS or whoever to send you a transfer!!!!

This is not true as the person paying by paypal would probably have to wait for you to manually send them the download link. With plimus it's sent automatically.

EDIT: I'm talking out of my bottom as others have pointed out below.

[BinaryMoon]

nexic - I think he meant the money rather than the app.

And with Paypal if you create a store & offer products you can get a payment response sent to a url of your choice which means you can send out download emails from your server - if (when?) I use Paypal this is what I will be doing.

[sparkyboy]

nexic - I think he meant the money rather than the app.

And with Paypal if you create a store & offer products you can get a payment response sent to a url of your choice which means you can send out download emails from your server - if (when?) I use Paypal this is what I will be doing.

Yes I did mean the money will be in your paypal account, which you can then use or transfer into your REAL bank account.

If you compare what paypal has to offer to other Merchants, I think you'll find it's a pretty good deal, and worth adding to your site. I'm still wading through it all, but that percentage rate is very attractive indeed!!

All the best


Mark.

[James C. Smith]

In this old topic http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=536 I posted stats about order methods used on Reflexive.com. The data is over a year old now but you still may find it usefull. Here is a copy of the data:

81.5% In Game Credit Card
 9.7% Web Credit Card
 3.6% Web Pay Pal
 3.6% Phone Credit Card
 1.6% Mail Order Check

See the other thread for more comments