Nothing frustrates me more than trying to buy something from a “cash only” establishment.  I’m confident that most people have a credit card and it’s ok to recommend cash but please, if I only have a credit card, wouldn’t you rather have plastic money than no money?  That’s the mentality ecommerce sites need to have.  If you are visiting one of my sites and would like to purchase something, my goal is to make that as easy as possible.  Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express, Phone, Snail Mail, Paypal, Bill Me Later, Google Checkout…I don’t care how you pay, just pay.

So why are there still so many sites that don’t accept PayPal? and even more that haven’t set up anything with Google checkout?  Businesses are about ease of use and integrating yet another payment method might not be worth the hassle.  Another possible reason is the current shopping cart isn’t yet able to integrate with Paypal or Google Checkout.  When trying to figure out what payments to accept and when to say no, think about your average customer and your desire for new business.

Paypal is the top choice for ebay buyers and most sellers.  Anyone that does business on ebay will most likely want to use PayPal if it is accepted as a payment method.  The fees are typically within a few percentage points of most merchant accounts and can easily integrate with most shopping carts.  Google Checkout gets you extra exposure on paid search ads by displaying the Google Checkout logo below your ad (there is some work to actually get this set up but it does stand out and anything you can do to stand out makes sense).

My rule of thumb is: “If a customer is willing to pay for a product or service, payment method should never be a barrier”.  If you don’t accept at least a few “alternative” payment methods with your online store consider taking the time to integrate a few more choices and let the customers pay however they want to pay.  During tough economic times, you also benefit from any incentive programs Google Checkout or PayPal use to motivate customers.  Well worth the 5 minutes of integration.

UPDATE:  Great article from How Do Online Marketers Pay? that compliments this thinking nicely.