Pay Offline questions

[Fairyglass]

Is anyone using the Pay Offline service? I see they're offering a free signup to merchants at the moment. It would be useful to know whether anyone has any experience with the system, as it could be a useful fallback. With the potential slump approaching I'm wondering if this may become more attractive as people seek not to spend on plastic...
I've searched the forum but it looks like it's not exactly popular
Any info welcome!
Ben

[Mike Hughes]

I'd really be surprised if:

a) Anyone bothers to use it (it's better than sending a cheque because.....?)

b) Of those that do, more than 5% ever get around to completing payment.

It's got to be the ultimate in abandoned orders. You couldn't make a worse checkout process if you tried.

Mike

[cbarling]

I'm not sure that I agree. There are three target groups for Payoffline:

- kids under 18 who don't have payment cards
- people who still don't trust submitting payments details online
- those adults who don't have cards (possibly the least attractive of the groups)

It seems that on some sites, you can get c5% of orders using this method. I can't quote chapter and verse, but I think that was the number quoted for a specific large site by the boss of Payoffline when I met him a few weeks ago.

Chris

[Darren B]

I registered a few weeks ago but have still not got around to setting it up.

Perhaps i might do now V9.0.1 is out but then again i have alot of more important things to be doing but i know i will revisit it at some time.

Chris i would be supprised if anyone achieved a 5% success rate for this but as i said i will try it one day.

D

[Fairyglass]

I'm still unconvinced that it will lead to anything, but as it's free I've signed up. I'll report back when I'm sitting on my desert island bought with the proceeds of offline orders....

[bamboo]

A nice chap called Damian Fearnley from Pay Offline called me yesterday to tell me that they have now signed up the Post Office as an alternative to the awful Payzone.

I signed up back in 2007 although I had completely forgotten about it and he admitted there were 'teething troubles' with Payzone which is why they went after the Post Office.
He played it along the lines of helping to keep Post Offices open. He then sent me two e-mails about the sign up of the Post Office one a corporate message format and the other slightly more personal one telling me to change my logos and yet I had just told him it is not active on any of my sites!

You have to wonder how much phone based salesmen take in. He did include this 'incentive'

Here is an example of one of our merchants who is converting many transactions due to the way they describe and promote PayOffline on their website. The concersion rates are very successful for this PayOffline merchant

www . dotbike . com

But despite his best efforts I have resisted thanks to the total lack of figures in both e-mails. Is anyone on here using this service and have any results to share.

[Mike Hughes]

I checked out Ben's site and he doesn't seem to have implemented it yet.

I only just noticed Chris's comments above which are interesting. Yes, I can see kids using it to buy stuff for their bikes, and yes I suppose there could be up to 5% of orders taken using pay offline in these circumstances. That still leaves two major questions unanswered:

1. Why is this better than cheque, paypal, etc?

The dotbike website only has two payment options, Credit Card or Pay Offline. I'm sure if they used these other options they'd get far fewer payoffline orders (maybe selling bike bits to kids gets too many chargebacks on paypal but cheques / postal orders should still work)

2.

The conversion rates are very successful for this PayOffline merchant

Ask for specifics. I'd guess the only reason he's not giving them is because they aren't that great. If they were 80% I'm sure he'd be saying so.

I would still say that this payment is off very little interest to most retailer and customers. For most of us there are better options to spend your effort on.

Of course if payoffline would like to give us some real numbers to back up their claims then I'd definitely like to see them. The same for anyone who's actually tried it.

Mike

[Darren B]

LOL you know i have still not got around to implementing it, the postoffice bit might make me think about it, lets see if i can find some time and see if it works.

Kites should be a good product to test it on

Watch this space

[grantglendinnin]

I'm going to throw a bucket of water on this idea:

- How many of you actually get orders from kids and not their parents?

As amusing as it sounds, I think parents would rather trust the bank than letting their children deal with the payment in the local newsagent (or wherever the Pay Offline option is available).

As with all things e-commerce (actually, with all things sales-related) - you'll never know until you try

[Darren B]

Right thats done - i now have it installed on a site, lets see how it works then.

[Darren B]

- How many of you actually get orders from kids and not their parents?

Unless kids have credit cards these days you would never know

[grantglendinnin]

Sorry Darren, I think you answered the question in post #10

[RuralWeb]

I had it running on a site since its launch and it was a complete waste of time - only one customer ever used it. You are targeting the subprime end of the buying public here and we all now know what happens when you do that!

Also payoffline were going to promote the site I had placed it on but once I had implemented it I never heard from them again.

[freeyourmobile]

How do we setup Pay offline with actinic v7 site

Guys is it possible to setup Payoffline with a V7 site please.

[bamboo]

Confusion in the checkout

That's a deal 'breaker if ever there was one!