Thread: Experiences with Paypal buttons on your website

I'm organising some workshops soon and want to MINIMISE the admin time and cost (ha!) I thought one way to do this would be to add Paypal buttons to my website to allow people to pay this way. Has anyone got any experience of this, and if so:

- how easy and/or time-consuming was it to set up?
- how did you get information like name and address, etc?
- how did it work if people were buying more than one option?
- (perhaps most crucially) would you recommend it?

On a side note - I just worked out that the percentage that Paypal would take from each transation would be just less than 2 second class stamps and an envelope

TIA!

I found it easy to set up and worked just fine! I made separate buttons for Saturday, Sunday, Both Days, Adult tickets and Child tickets. I would definitely use it again! If you need any help with it you can PM me.

Thanks ouroboros - was it the 'checkout' product that you used?

I use it all the time for class registration and workshop fees. No problemo! I give them the option of paying via cheque or money order, and for paypal - I tack on an extra 2.9%. Most people just pay by paypal anyway because it's most convenient.

When you follow the paypal instructions, you will see all your options there regarding multiples and varied pricing. I had it set up for selling services, so their address doesn't come through. You'd have to select that it was an item you are selling, in which case you'll get their shipping address, or else email the purchases and request it.

You may also look at using eventbrite for your class and workshop registration. I know several event producers and dancers who use the service, and they really like it.

Online Event Registration Service - Eventbrite

It was free to set up, and pretty simple. I get an e-mail with the person's name, address, info, and what they purchased. I haven't really set up options.

For my regular sessions, I needed to be able to offer a discount for people who register for multiple classes. That was the only thing I couldn't do through paypal, so I use a free shopping cart utility for that.

For one-off classes, workshops, etc. I use the paypal button. They walk you through the process, it's really easy.

Originally Posted by tamrahennatx

You may also look at using eventbrite for your class and workshop registration. I know several event producers and dancers who use the service, and they really like it.

Online Event Registration Service - Eventbrite

I tried to use EventBrite for a recent event and I had to can it. You have to pay the $0.99 per ticket PLUS you have to pay the PayPal or Google Check out fee. That's where they get you. So we decided to scrap EventBrite and just use PayPal.

I use paypal buttons on my site all the time and its worked out great for me and VERY easy. Paypal will write the html for you and you just plop it in your website! Its great since it caters to the "spontaneous"/ instant purchasers! Which can make up about 2/3 of your total monies in...IME :-)
xoxo,
-NJ

I have really enjoyed paypal as an option for the Vegas Intensive. It's a million times easier to track and process.

If you aren't using a cart, just make sure that you choose the option that allow your customers to purchase mulitple items, because inadvertantly someone will want to buy a workshop for themself and their friend. Yes, they could do the whole thing twice, but I try to make it easier for the customer if at all possible.

These days the Vegas Intensive is large enough that we have a full-on shopping cart with multiple items/packages/& upgrades that people can buy. But we still process via paypal. And if you bring in enough money monthly, then Paypal will lower your precentage for the fees (which is nice).

I've often contemplated getting a merchant account, and even though we process a fair amount of credit cards monthly, I still haven't felt it was worth all the set up costs.

It took me a little while to get set up as a merchant with Paypal, but after that everything was easy. Making buttons is very straightforward and you can add various options. I've not worked out how much I save in stamps and envelopes but it's so much more convenient for me and the people paying me that I don't mind paying the fees.

I've used it a few times and found it very easy to set up. However, a lot of of my students had problems making purchases and we ended up going the snail mail route. It was great when it did work. Unfortunately, that wasn't too often for me.

Thanks for all contributions - I'm considering it for one-off workshops rather than ongoing classes, and would like people to be able to choose multiple items...so will go and suss out the options that Paypal provide now...

Reviving or hi-jacking a zombie thread here :-}
I am preparing to host a workshop & show and would like to use paypal. How does this work for show tickets? Do you offer some sort of printable tickets for a show? How is the buyer directed to get their ticket? Also is the cart option needed for multiple show tickets or if someone wants to purchase the workshop (it's only one class not multiple days) and show?
Thanks!!

Originally Posted by basil1

Reviving or hi-jacking a zombie thread here :-}
I am preparing to host a workshop & show and would like to use paypal. How does this work for show tickets? Do you offer some sort of printable tickets for a show? How is the buyer directed to get their ticket? Also is the cart option needed for multiple show tickets or if someone wants to purchase the workshop (it's only one class not multiple days) and show?
Thanks!!

What I've done is just hold the Paypal orders at the door (will-call). I've suggested that people might want to print out their paypal receipts and bring them just in case a question arises, but there's never been a problem.

You don't really need to mess with a cart option. If you just set up 'buy it now' buttons, they'll automatically take the buyer to a cart. However, you can create 'add to cart' buttons if you prefer, it's just as easy.

Originally Posted by Samira_dncr

These days the Vegas Intensive is large enough that we have a full-on shopping cart with multiple items/packages/& upgrades that people can buy. But we still process via paypal. And if you bring in enough money monthly, then Paypal will lower your precentage for the fees (which is nice).

I've often contemplated getting a merchant account, and even though we process a fair amount of credit cards monthly, I still haven't felt it was worth all the set up costs.

Everytime I've crunched the numbers, a merchant account only makes sense if you are doing $10,000 or more per month. Anything less than that and paypal (or square for in person) makes more sense.

What cart system are you using? I'm just about fed up with zencart.

OK, I thought if a person wanted to purchase more than one item that they couldn't do that with the BUY NOW option. Say if they wanted a show ticket and the workshop that they couldn't do both? I am all for whatever is the easiest since I pretty much don't have a clue
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Lauren_

You don't really need to mess with a cart option. If you just set up 'buy it now' buttons, they'll automatically take the buyer to a cart. However, you can create 'add to cart' buttons if you prefer, it's just as easy.

Paypal has both BUY NOW option and a CART option. I do very little business with Paypal actually, it's usually me buying costumes from Bhuz so I don't have a merchant account. Paypal gave me the option of buy now or cart with my regular account.

Originally Posted by Lara L

Everytime I've crunched the numbers, a merchant account only makes sense if you are doing $10,000 or more per month. Anything less than that and paypal (or square for in person) makes more sense.

What cart system are you using? I'm just about fed up with zencart.

Originally Posted by basil1

OK, I thought if a person wanted to purchase more than one item that they couldn't do that with the BUY NOW option. Say if they wanted a show ticket and the workshop that they couldn't do both? I am all for whatever is the easiest since I pretty much don't have a clue
Thanks!

You can create a paypal cart, which allows people to add multiple items to their cart before they checkout.

Originally Posted by Lara L

Everytime I've crunched the numbers, a merchant account only makes sense if you are doing $10,000 or more per month. Anything less than that and paypal (or square for in person) makes more sense.

What cart system are you using? I'm just about fed up with zencart.

Sometimes it's fun to find these older threads. The way I process things today are quite different from the way I processed it previously. I've grown :)

I'm currently using OpenCart. I used ZenCart for 2 years, and it was kind of complicated. I think OpenCart is more customizable, but it still took some time and resources to get it set up and integrated with our merchant account and processor.

These days I've moved away from Paypal for registrations altogether. I now have a merchant account and it's more cost effective for me to process that way instead of paypal. I'll post my cost analysis breakdown below.

I thought I'd try to post a comparison between taking credit cards online through square up vs. paypal vs. a traditional merchant account. I am assuming $50,000 in gross annual sales.

Paypal (roughly $2.50 fee on a $100 sale)
$1250 total transaction fees
$0.00 total monthly processor fees
$0.00 total monthly gateway fees
$0.00 total set up fee
-----------
$1250 annual cost

Merchant account (roughly $0.70 fee on a $100 sale)
$350 total transaction fees
$180 total monthly processor fees ($15/month)
$180 total monthly gateway fees ($15/month)
$65 total annual SSL certificate
$95 one time set up fee
-----------
$775 annual cost + $95 set up fee

SquareUp (roughly $2.75 fee on a $100 sale)
$1375 total transaction fees
$0.00 total monthly processor fees
$0.00 total monthly gateway fees
$0.00 total set up fee
-----------
$1375 annual cost

This does not include any expenses you might have relating to installing and configuring a shopping cart (which you may or may not need to do). Also, if your online set up is fairly simple, you can probably get away with using the processor's website to process the cards (instead of the gateway). This would save you the expenses of the SSL Certificate and the gateway fees and bring the annual cost down to $530.

Obviously there is a point where having a merchant account is more cost-effective than using paypal or google checkout, but you have to have enough volume to justify it. Every situation is different.