Checkout: The Official Google Checkout Blog

Now even easier: Use Google Docs & Checkout to sell online

2009-12-01T16:25:00.000-08:00

As you may have seen, the Google Docs blog announced a preview of the Google Checkout store gadget back in July. The Google Checkout store gadget, available in Google Labs, allows you to create an online store with inventory managed from a Google spreadsheet and payments accepted through Google Checkout.

Since then, our engineers have been exploring ways to simplify store creation. Today, we're excited to introduce a new feature for the store gadget: a wizard that streamlines the store creation process. By automating the manual steps in the original instruction guide, the new store gadget wizard should leave you with even more time to focus on your business.

As with the original release, no complicated coding or technical tasks are required, and you can get your first online store up-and-running in under five minutes. The new wizard helps you embed the store on Blogger, Google Sites, iGoogle, and other websites. We hope you'll find the new version more intuitive and enjoyable to use. To illustrate the difference:

We've heard from small businesses who believe the store gadget offers an easy e-commerce solution without the complicated coding. For example, a husband and wife are using the store gadget to start a stationery store. Read more feedback at Google Labs.

Remember that the store gadget is just one tool in your commerce toolbox. We invite you to learn more about Google commerce solutions:

Apps: Host your website.

AdWords: Advertise your business.

Product Search: Upload product offers to increase sales.

Commerce Search: Help shoppers find the right product on your site.

Checkout: Accept payments and protect against fraud.

For even more detailed information about the store gadget, please visit the Google Checkout Developer Guide.

Posted by Mike Giardina, Google Checkout Strategist

Save on holiday shopping

2009-11-25T12:19:00.000-08:00

With the holiday shopping rush underway, Google Checkout can help you find great deals this season. Over 900 Checkout stores including TigerDirect.com, BlueNile.com, and Petco.com are offering exclusive discounts of $5, $10, or $20 on what you buy through December 17th.

What's more, it's easy to find places to save as you shop quickly and securely with Checkout. You can either search for products on Google.com and look for the Google Checkout promotion badge, or browse participating stores on our new Checkout deals page. Good luck out there!

Posted by Anita Barci, Product Marketing Manager

New Google Checkout acceptance logo

2009-11-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

We recently launched a new, improved Google Checkout acceptance logo. When you display the new logo, shoppers can now not only see that you accept Google Checkout as a payment method, but they can also read reviews from Checkout buyers who have completed a purchase at your online store.

Want to highlight your reviews? When shoppers click on the acceptance logo, a new window opens to display your Checkout reviews page. This page lets shoppers learn more about the kind of experience to expect from your store by showing your average rating and previous buyers' comments. The page also includes links that allow shoppers to easily find reviews about customer service, shipping refunds, and returns. In the case where you have responded to a buyer's review, your response will be displayed below the review to provide any necessary clarification.

Adding the new acceptance logo to your website is easy. Simply copy and paste the code snippet located in your Google Checkout merchant account into your website's HTML. Visit the Help Center to learn more.

Posted by George Reis, Software Engineer and Heather Folsom, Business Product Manager

A new and easy way to offer Google Checkout promotions to buyers

2009-10-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

We're pleased to announce a new feature that will allow Google Checkout merchants based in the U.S. to create and to run their own Checkout promotions at any time.

Starting today, you can sign in to your Checkout merchant account, go to the 'Tools' tab, and click the 'Promotions' link to create a Checkout promotion in less than a minute. You'll be able to specify the date and time you'd like the promotion to run, as well as choose from a variety of dollar-off discounts to offer your buyers.

Whenever you run a Google Checkout promotion, the standard Checkout button on your website will be automatically updated to display the discount amount and cart minimum. Additionally, for AdWords advertisers, we'll change the standard Checkout badge appearing on your AdWords ads to a Checkout badge that includes the discount amount as shown below. These promotional badges have been introduced to enable shoppers who search on Google.com to easily identify and take advantage of promotional offers.

Checkout promotions are a great way to attract new buyers, and we're excited to make this functionality more widely available. Please visit our Help Center for detailed instructions on setting up your own Checkout promotion. Thanks for using Google Checkout!

Posted by Gina Del Vecchio, Google Checkout Specialist

Google Checkout Security Tips for National Cyber Security Awareness Month

2009-10-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of National Cyber Security Awareness Month, we'd like to take a moment to provide some tips for keeping your financial information secure across the web.

At Google Checkout, the confidentiality of the personal information stored within your account, including your credit card and bank account numbers, is our highest priority. This information is stored on our servers with extensive safeguards in place, and we won't share it with anyone except under the limited circumstances described in our Privacy Policy.

In addition, here are a few tips to help keep your information safe as you browse the web and conduct business online:

When shopping online, investigate the seller before you buy. A legitimate business or individual seller should give you a physical address and a working telephone number at which they can be contacted in case you have problems.
Check for a secure (https) connection when transmitting any sensitive information such as credit card numbers.
Don't reuse passwords across multiple accounts, and make sure your passwords are strong.
Always navigate to your online banking account directly (by entering the URL in your browser or using a bookmark), not by clicking on links in emails.
Whenever possible, avoid logging in to your online banking account or entering any other sensitive information onto websites while using a public computer.
Always log out completely after using online accounts, and never save your passwords on public computers.
Beware of money scams.

Although National Cyber Security Awareness Month only comes around in October, remember to visit the Google Checkout Security Center for valuable cyber security information year-round.

Posted by Jessica Smallman, Checkout Risk Operations

Improvements to developer documentation

2009-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

We've improved and reorganized the Google Checkout Developer Guide in several ways to make it easier for developers to choose and implement one of Checkout's integration options.

First, we've updated the left-hand menu and improved navigation throughout the documentation. We've also expanded the documentation to include all integration options, including email invoices, Buy Now buttons, and the store gadget. You can now either read more about which integration option is best for you or you can use the new recommender to guide you through a step-by-step questionnaire to help you decide.

In addition, we've reorganized the documentation into three main sections that are shown in the left-hand menu: 'How To', 'Developer Guide', and 'API Reference'. Two of the sections have been further divided into 'Part I: Setting up Checkout orders' and 'Part II: Processing orders'. In Part I, each integration option has a detailed 'How To' page that describes how to modify your website so that buyers can purchase your product or service through Google Checkout. In Part II, you can find details about the different ways to process those Checkout orders. In-depth descriptions of the HTML API and XML API for both Parts I and II can be found in the 'Developer Guide' section.

Please submit any comments or suggestions about these changes to the Developer Guide documentation category of the Checkout Merchant Forum.

Posted by Doug Kramer, Technical Writer

Sell with confidence using Google Checkout's fraud protection

2009-09-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

With the Merchant Risk Council Semi-Annual Meeting taking place this week, we wanted to tell you more about the fraud detection and protection that goes on behind the scenes at Google Checkout. Every Checkout merchant benefits from our industry-leading fraud detection systems, which allow merchants to increase sales and reduce some of the costs and risks of running an online business. Overall, Google Checkout merchants experience significantly less fraud than industry averages reported in CyberSource's 2009 Fraud Report.*

Before orders are even charged, Google proactively filters out fraudulent orders using our proprietary fraud detection technology. We supplement this technology by performing manual reviews and examining buyer information across multiple merchants.

For orders covered by our Payment Guarantee Policy (98% of all Checkout orders on average), you won't waste any time or money in performing fraud checks or identity verification, even if the AVS or CVV information doesn't match or you aren't familiar with the customer. With Payment Guarantee information available at a glance in your account, you can quickly review what you need to decide if an order is safe to fulfill. And rest assured that, if you meet the conditions, Google will be responsible for any unwarranted chargebacks on all orders covered by the Payment Guarantee.

Google even provides useful tools for the small percentage of orders that aren't protected by the Payment Guarantee. We'll provide you with valuable customer information and chargeback representment services on all orders. Because you know your business best, this buyer verification information lets you run your own fraud checks and decide which orders to ultimately accept. We'll evaluate all chargebacks received and fight them on your behalf whenever possible.

To learn more about Google Checkout's fraud protection, please read the details in our Help Center. And be sure to come talk to us at the MRC Semi-Annual Meeting today and tomorrow. We'll have representatives from Checkout and AdWords at the event on both days.

*Comparison made in reference to the following statement in CyberSource's 2009 Fraud Report: "Merchants have consistently reported an average loss of 1.4% of revenues to payment fraud."

Posted by Jessica Smallman, Checkout Risk Operations

Making account management easier with Full Access user settings

2009-09-24T10:24:00.000-07:00

With the recent launch of 'Full Access' user settings, you can now give your operations staff, colleagues, or other individuals full access to your Google Checkout merchant account. Your 'Full Access' users will be able to view all of the information in your account and take any actions on your account, such as processing orders, viewing payout information, and updating account settings.

To invite users with full access to your account, sign in to Google Checkout and follow the steps outlined in our Help Center. New users who have been added to your account will receive an invitation email with sign-up instructions. Once they complete the sign-up process, these authorized users can access your account with full access at any time.

It's important to note that you are responsible for all activity in your merchant account by persons to whom you give access through the 'Full Access' setting. By providing those persons access to your account, you authorize them to use your merchant account and legally bind you.

Posted by Shubin Zhao, Software Engineer and Jan Kleinert, Developer Relations

Transaction fee information now available in the Google Checkout API

2009-09-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

Many merchants have requested a way to receive information about transaction fees through Google Checkout API notifications, and we're pleased to announce that this feature is now available. Merchants who have implemented the Notification API, Notification History API, or Polling API can now indicate that they would like to receive information about transaction fees in Google Checkout notifications.

To enable this feature in your Google Checkout merchant account, go to the Settings tab, select 'Integration', and expand the 'Advanced settings' section. Then, check the box next to 'Notifications must include information about transaction fees' and then click the Save button. You will then begin receiving information about transaction fees for your orders in any charge-amount-notification, refund-amount-notification, and chargeback-amount-notification messages that are sent to your notification handler.

Please post any questions or feedback you have about this new feature in our Merchant Forum.

Posted by Jan Kleinert, Developer Relations

Update to Checkout content policies

2009-09-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

At Google Checkout, we regularly review our program and content policies to keep them current and effective. In response to the feedback we've received from users, we're pleased to announce that we made a change to our content restrictions. Going forward, Google Checkout will allow the sale of real estate rentals, timeshares, and day sight-seeing tours.

Google Checkout sellers of real estate rentals, timeshares, and day sight-seeing tours must have a valid public business URL. The sellers may, however, choose to use either Checkout buttons or Checkout invoices to process transactions for the above allowable services based on their business requirements. Please visit our Help Center to learn more about our content policies.

Posted by Sameer Abdul, Checkout Operations

Gear up for back-to-school savings

2009-08-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

Another school year is just around the corner, and Google Checkout is here to help you save time and money on all of your back-to-school shopping.

Over 400 Checkout stores are now offering exclusive discounts of $5, $10, or $20 on purchases made through September 1st. You can get a head start on your shopping by checking out our product gadget that features school gear from participating stores.

After you've stocked up on your back-to-school essentials, Google Checkout can also help you shop smarter all year long with one secure login for thousands of stores across the web.

Posted by Caitlin Samenfeld-Specht, Google Checkout Operations

Welcome, NetSuite!

2009-08-10T05:50:00.000-07:00

We’re excited to welcome NetSuite, a leading vendor of on-demand and integrated business management software, as one of Google Checkout’s featured ecommerce partners. NetSuite offers a seamless integration with Google Checkout, making it fast and easy to add Checkout to your website. Plus, NetSuite’s platform provides real-time visibility into key business operations in one system -- including inventory, fulfillment, shipping, marketing promotions, and customer buying patterns for up-sell and cross-sell analysis.

To learn more about using Google Checkout with NetSuite, please visit NetSuite's website.

Posted by Gina Del Vecchio, Google Checkout Operations

Start selling online with the Google Checkout store gadget

2009-07-31T02:56:00.000-07:00

We're happy to announce the launch of the Google Checkout store gadget in Google Labs. In a matter of minutes, you can create an online store that's powered by Google Checkout and has inventory managed in a Google Docs spreadsheet. Selling online has never been easier -- no complicated coding or technical tasks are required, just three easy steps:

1. Sign up for a Google Checkout seller account.
Checkout will process your orders and help you attract new leads, convert more sales, and enjoy advanced fraud protection.

2. List the products you want to sell in a Google Docs spreadsheet.
You'll just need to create a copy of our template spreadsheet, and then replace the sample inventory with your own.

3. Place the Google Checkout store gadget on your website.
You can embed your online store anywhere you'd like -- on Google Sites, Blogger, or your personal website.

Ready to start selling? Create your online store quickly and easily using the Google Checkout store gadget today.

Posted by Anjali Vaidya, Associate Product Marketing Manager

Buy Now buttons for digital goods

2009-07-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

Need a quick and easy way to start selling your new software or your band's music?

You can now use Google Checkout's Buy Now buttons to sell your digital goods online in a few simple steps. Just use the button creation wizard on the 'Tools' tab of your Checkout merchant account and select 'Digital Good' from the 'Describe your item' drop-down list in Step 3. After you place the Buy Now buttons on your website, buyers will be able to quickly and easily complete their purchases using Google Checkout. Once a buyer's card has been successfully authorized, they'll receive instructions on how to access their items using the URL and Key you specified.

Learn more about automatically and securely delivering digital goods to your buyers using Buy Now buttons.

Posted by Lisa August-Schmidt, Google Checkout Operations

Last-minute shopping for Dads & Grads

2009-06-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

Searching for a last-minute gift for your dad or a recent grad? It's easy to find places to save on your summer shopping. You can either browse participating stores on our promotions page or search for products to buy on Google.com and look for one of the Google Checkout promotion badges. Hundreds of participating Checkout stores are offering discounts of $5, $10, or $20. Watch our video to learn how to spot these special offers now through June 21st:

Posted by Chad Liffmann and Jessica Smallman, Google Checkout Operations

Save on gifts for Dads & Grads

2009-06-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

Whether you're shopping for a Father’s Day or graduation gift, or even a little something for yourself, Google Checkout can help you save time and money this summer.

Hundreds of Checkout stores are offering exclusive discounts of $5, $10, or $20 on purchases made through June 21st. And if you’re not sure what to buy, our product gadget displays gift ideas from featured stores. Use Checkout to shop quickly and easily with one login at participating stores, and thousands of others across the web.

Learn more about Google Checkout Dads & Grads special offers and gift ideas.

Posted by Gina Del Vecchio, Google Checkout Operations

Subscriptions now available in beta

2009-03-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

One of our most requested features is a way to sell subscriptions through Google Checkout, and we're pleased to announce that this functionality is now available on our Beta Features page. Merchants will now have the ability to sell products and services that require recurring billing using our API.

So if you're already comfortable building your own carts using Checkout, you're ready to implement Subscriptions by consulting the documentation. Each billing recurrence is a new order, so everything you've learned about processing orders still applies. You can let us create these billing recurrences for you with Google-Handled Subscriptions, or if you'd like more control, you can create these recurrences yourself with Merchant-Handled Subscriptions.

Please try this feature out, and let us know what you think. If you're a member of our Developer's Forum, you can ask questions and leave feedback here. You can also suggest other new Checkout features here.

Posted by Andrew Cunningham, Software Engineer

Improvements to osCommerce integration

2009-03-17T17:08:00.000-07:00

At Google Checkout, we're constantly striving to improve our usability. That's why we've recently made Checkout's installation and configuration much easier on the popular open-source commerce platform osCommerce.

We've completely reworked the installation process by no longer requiring users to manually copy and paste large swaths of PHP code into their files. Instead, we've created an automated deployment app that does this for you by looking for the appropriate PHP insertion points and adding the code where it's needed. This should ease concerns about lines of PHP getting copied into the wrong place. If you want to learn more about the installation process, you can take a look at our documentation that contains a step-by-step walkthrough with screenshots showing exactly how it works.

The post-deployment configuration has also been greatly simplified. We've now grouped the most important fields so they're easy to access, and the rest have been moved to a detailed control panel. There are also descriptions in the walkthrough of how to fill in the necessary fields. Both the app and walkthrough are available here.

We're excited about the improvements to the osCommerce Checkout module. If you're using osCommerce, we invite you to give Checkout a try and share your feedback with us.

Posted by Ed Davisson, Software Engineer

Google Checkout fees in 2009

2009-03-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

When we launched Google Checkout in 2006, we set out to create a fast, secure online shopping experience for our users. Now in our third year of helping merchants increase sales and attract user interest, we're announcing the decision to move from our previous standard fee schedule to a new tiered pricing model where rates decrease as merchants process more transactions through Checkout.

On May 5, we will be implementing a few changes to Google Checkout:

Google Checkout's transaction processing fees will transition to a new tiered fee structure, where the rates will vary depending on a merchant's monthly sales processed through Checkout. For more details about the pricing changes, please visit our U.S. fees page and our U.K. fees page.

With the new tiered fee structure, merchants can qualify for rates as low as 1.9% + $0.30 per transaction in the U.S., and 1.4% + £0.20 per transaction in the U.K.

We will also be discontinuing the AdWords free transaction processing promotion at this time. As previously announced, Google Grants recipients will still be eligible for free donation processing until 2010.

We're committed to the continued growth and development of Checkout and to helping merchants increase sales by driving more leads and higher conversions. Advertisers who use Checkout have the opportunity to display the Checkout badge on their ads, which has proven to help Checkout users convert 40% more than shoppers who have not used Checkout in the past. Stay tuned for more announcements about product enhancements coming soon.

Posted by Anita Barci, Product Marketing Manager

Google Checkout for Non-Profits in 2009

2009-01-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

Since we started Google Checkout for Non-Profits in late 2007, we have been excited by the enthusiastic response we've received from the non-profit community. Over the past year, we've made donation processing simpler and more convenient for thousands of non-profits, benefiting causes such as Myanmar (Burma) cyclone relief, China earthquake relief, Earth Day, and many more. And throughout 2008, we provided all of the donation processing for free, ensuring that 100 percent of contributions went toward supporting those causes.

We will be extending free donation processing for another year, until 2010. However, in an effort to bring more consistency to the eligibility guidelines for Google's non-profit offerings, only those non-profits who are also members of our Google Grants program will be eligible for free donation processing. All other non-profits will transition to Checkout's standard fee structure on March 1, 2009.

If your organization is already a Google Grants recipient using Checkout for donation processing, please make sure to link your Grants account with Checkout by February 15 to continue receiving free donation processing without interruption. If you are not yet a Google Grants recipient and you meet the guidelines for the program, we strongly encourage you to apply. If you apply for Google Grants by March 1, 2009 and you're accepted, we will retroactively credit you for any Checkout fees incurred while your application was pending. For anyone who falls outside of our guidelines or who decides not to apply for a Google Grant, we realize this news may come as a disappointment, and hope that you'll still find Checkout's ease of use and competitive rates compelling reasons to keep using our product.

For those of you who do become Google Grants recipients, we think you'll find both tools to be effective in helping you increase your online fundraising, and even better when used in concert. Watch this video to learn more about how Grants and Checkout work together for non-profits.

Posted by Prem Ramaswami, Product Manager

Holiday shopping with Google

2008-12-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

Looking for ways to save on your holiday shopping list? Not sure what to buy that special someone? Let Google Checkout and Google Product Search help.

Google Checkout is offering savings of $5, $10, $20 or more on your holiday shopping at over 600 participating stores through December 17th. And the Product Search team reviewed millions of recent queries to find some of the most popular products people are searching for in order to help you with gift ideas.

Use Google Checkout and Product Search to help you save money and find gift ideas this holiday season. Happy Shopping!

Posted by Anita Barci, Product Marketing Manager

Savings on shipping with FedEx

2008-11-26T13:21:00.000-08:00

As the holiday shopping season draws near, we'd like to remind our merchants that FedEx is offering discounted shipping rates for Google Checkout stores. Through this program, Checkout stores can receive up to 21% off their FedEx® shipping. To learn more, please visit our signup page.

Posted by Christian Yee, Product Marketing Manager

Driving higher conversion rates

2008-11-10T11:15:00.000-08:00

As the important holiday shopping season draws near, we've compiled a list of tips merchants can use to increase their Google Checkout conversions.

1) Make sure that your "Google Checkout Accepted" logo is on all of your site's pages. Shoppers may arrive at your site at places other than your main landing page, such as product reviews or customer support. Make sure they know you offer Google Checkout even if they find your site in ways you didn't expect. Here's more about Acceptance Logos and how to use them properly.

2) Have your Checkout button placed "above the fold" -- the part of your webpage that's visible without scrolling. This is usually good practice for any element on your site that you want to prioritize.

3) Include a link to a "What is Google Checkout?" page underneath your Checkout button. Guidelines for implementing this Google-hosted page that answers basic buyer questions can be found here under the section labeled "Messaging."

We hope you find these tips useful for increasing your holiday conversion rates. And here are even more ways to help drive sales using other Google products.

Posted by Heather Folsom, Product Manager and Christian Yee, Product Marketing Manager
Google Checkout Team

Button up your website with the Google Checkout shopping cart

2008-10-28T12:16:00.000-07:00

If you've been using our Checkout Buy Now buttons, you're aware that these buttons only allow your buyers to purchase one item at a time from your website. But what happens if buyers wish to purchase more than one item? This is where the new Google Checkout shopping cart comes in. With the Google Checkout shopping cart, your buyers can add multiple items to their shopping cart, change item quantities, and remove items -- all without leaving your site. When buyers are ready to check out, they can complete their purchases with Google Checkout. The cart is quick to load and snappy to respond, so your buyers will love it. To see the cart in action, check out the Demo Store. To learn more about the cart's features, visit the overview page.

How do you get started? If you have an account, all you need to do to set up the shopping cart is visit the Google Checkout shopping cart page located under the Tools tab in the Google Checkout Merchant Center. Just enter your product information, price, and image location. The page will generate an HTML snippet that you can insert on your product web pages. To test that your button is working, just click it. A shopping cart should appear in the upper right hand of your browser window. If you want to customize the cart's look and feel or use more advanced options, you can do that too with this developer's guide.

We hope you enjoy this new feature.

Posted by Boris Mizhen, Engineer, and Heather Folsom, Product Manager
Google Checkout Team

Set your store up for holiday success

2008-10-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

We know that many of you are preparing your stores for the busiest shopping season of the year, so we've compiled some tips and tools that can help you optimize your website, marketing channels, and ad campaigns.

A sample tip: If you're an AdWords merchant, be sure to display Google Checkout badges on your AdWords ads. Google Checkout users click on ads 10% more when they display the Checkout badge.

Our tools consist of several Google products that retailers can use to help drive additional traffic and sales this holiday, such as Google Product Search, which shoppers use to search for and find products they want to buy online. As a merchant, you can use Product Search to promote your products and drive holiday traffic to your store for free.

With the holidays just around the corner, now is a good time to make sure that your site is in the best shape for maximizing your holiday traffic and revenue. Here's more information, and remember -- it's never too early to start preparing for the season.

Posted by Jessica Ng, Product Marketing Manager