Choosing Between Merchant Services and Ebay Stores
If you are only going to do business online, you may not want to have merchant services attached to your business account. That said, if you still want to offer your customers a number of different payment options, you may want to incorporate an Ebay store into your website, or simply sell your merchandise from there.
For the most part, a great deal will depend on the kind of flexibility you want to have in terms of where and how customers do business with you. Even though many people on the internet utilize Ebay for shopping, there are more than likely just as many others that do not use their services at all. Therefore, if you only use Ebay as a transaction point, you may lose a lot of potential customers.
Many people look at the cost of merchant account services and think that they can do better with an Ebay store. Unfortunately, Ebay’s vendor fees have gone up over the years. Aside from insertion fees, you will also be charged each month if you decide to create a store. Therefore, you might just as well open a merchant account, and enjoy the ability to market your products anywhere you please.
Chances are, if you do business online, credit card processing is going to be crucial to your business. While Ebay can make it easier to set up Paypal and other types of transactions, they are not an end all alternative to a merchant account. Among other things, you may still need a merchant account in order to accept credit card transactions independent of Paypal based options.