affiliate marketing blog  

Not making your customers mad isn’t a goal.  It’s an expectation.  And my own personal expectations are making me think twice about using a particular checkout ever again.

It’s Ebay…  And PayPal…  Why they put me through such hoops just to pay for something I cannot figure out.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I love Ebay.  I find things there frequently.  Like a couple pocket sized digital cameras perfect for the kids for Christmans..  $3.99 ea and $5.00 shipping.  A bargain for sure.  And Paypal works well generally.  Individually I’m happy with both.  But when you go to checkout..  The nightmare begins.  Let me count the ways:

1. Forced into PayPal…  I’m the buyer, I should be able to pay by Credit Card or PayPal at my choice.  I shouldn’t be forced into logging into my PayPal account just to pay for something with a Credit Card.
2. Forced to deplete my cash… PayPal doesn’t let you choose to make a transaction by Credit Card if you have a balance in your PayPal Account.  How Stupid!  It makes it IMPOSSIBLE to deal with when you inport your PayPal transsactions into your Quicken, Quckbooks, or other accounting package.  XX dollars from the cash balance with the rest on your Credit Card?  That’s just silly.
3. 4 emails…  I received 4 emails after a “Buy me Now”.  I sent a query about overnight shipping.  Received 2 emails (automated) before receiving the email I needed from the vendor.  Who is totally cool.  I love that vendor.  But Ebay kicking out 4 emails after purchase, 2 emails after a query, oh..  And after I paid for the purchase???  4 more emails.  THAT’S 10 EMAILS!!!!

Do you do these things to your customers?  Do you send many automated emails?  Restrict how they can pay?  Make them click 40 buttons just to check out?  In other words, are you making your customers mad just because they bought something from you?

Having a streamlined, secure, straightforward checkout process is an expectation.  It’s not a goal, it’s a requirement.  If you havn’t reviewed your own sites checkout process you need to do it now.  Make sure your customers want to do more business with you in the future.  Don’t make them mad with a limiting, confusing, and maddening checkout.