Paypal insecure?

[Nigel Smith]

My site has been online a couple of weeks now, but many of my prospective customers are aborting the sale before completion.

The reason being that the site is insecure (no padlock), my sole payment provider is Paypal. Customers contact me by email asking for an alternative method of payment which I'm unable to provide at the present time.

Does Paypal really have such a bad reputation as to deter customers?

I've used Paypal for years for purchases from various sites without problem, even my bank advised using Paypal.

Has anyone had a similar problem using Paypal?

Nigel.

[jont]

The site is unsecure up to the payment page where it will move over to secure for the card details etc. There have been several heated discussions on here about securing the address details pages etc.

The main issue with PayPal is people tend to assume they need a PayPal account or they have heard all the phishing scams or received emails saying their PayPal account has been hacked. This is probably very very very rare and usually occurs due to people falling for phishing scams.

I would at least offer the option to pay by cheque or look into another payment provider (ProtX .. WorldPay etc)

[Nigel Smith]

I think the main issue has been about the address details pages being 'unsecure', customers look for the padlock at this stage - see that it is not secure - and abort the sale.

Having done quite a few test payments I'm quite happy about security, though I would like to see address details secured.

Sorry if I've gone over old ground, but customers do not feel confident the way details are taken.

Thanks - Nigel.

[wjcampbe]

If it is having a significant effect on your site, consider posting something about it in an information area, or mention in your T & C.

People who are nervous about putting name and address details on an unsecured website page should consider that those details are already publicly available in several places, including the official UK census reports and the telephone directory (both paper and on-line versions). We provide secure transmission of sensitive data such as credit card numbers through our Payment Service Providers.

[jont]

... and then the postie has to be let in on the 128 bit encryption to deliver their online bargains to their homes.... never hear many posties stealling the address labels and leaving the items!

However - I wish Actinic would provide the option to have the address pages to be encrypted or not as it obviously is a concern to some online buyers. Maybe one for the wish list again.

[pinbrook]

Sorry if I've gone over old ground, but customers do not feel confident the way details are taken.

this is something that has been discussed in detail in other posts, don't worry about bringing it up again. It is useful to have this post as a reference point, as several of us have mentioned in the past that using Paypal is fine, but it should not be used as the only payment method.

[Duncan Rounding]

As a purchaser I personally prefer to purchase using my Paypal account, certainly in preference to having my card details manually processed offline by some unknown internet dealer.

You could consider having Nochex as an additional option for UK bank cards. It's simple to set up and cost effective for low volumes.

[pinbrook]

I tend to only to buy fromsites which use an online processor ie worldpay, protx, etc, unless they are a well known shop. (amazon,whsmith etc etc)

I don't buy from sites who are unknown to me who process their own CCs as there is a likeihood of the site being on a laptop and thus my CC detail could be on a laptop and then the laptop gets stolen ..... but I've mentioned this hundreds of times before.

having paypal only as a processor also smells of business in a bedroom or under capitalised business. There's nothing wrong perse with this, but it doesn't give the credibility that is sometimes required for a site to be sucessful