When eBay first started up it was up to the seller to get the payment for items they sold. As a seller, you had to choose a payment service, sign up for it, and send the links to your buyers. Now, however, eBay helps you out by handling most of the complexities of payment processing with their checkout service.
How Do I Offer the Checkout Service?
eBay automatically offers the checkout to the buyers. When they win an auction item, eBay sends them an email with a ‘Pay Now’ button that takes the buyer directly to the checkout. Buyers can also access this feature through their ‘My eBay’ page. You have some control over this service. Step 4 of the ‘Sell Your Item’ process, the payment and shipping step, allows you to choose which kinds of payments you are willing to accept through the checkout service and which you won’t accept.
PayPal – You should accept PayPal, it is the most preferred payment method. You may want to click ‘Edit Preferences’ to either select or unselect the ‘tell buyers I prefer PayPal payments’ box. You don’t want people thinking you love PayPal when you can only tolerate using it. You can also select the box to require immediate PayPal payments on ‘Buy it Now’ items.
Checks and Money Orders – select the boxes for these if you want to accept the more traditional payment methods. This will allow your address to be revealed to the buyers so they can mail you the payment. You will want to make sure that eBay has your correct mailing address.
Credit Cards – the box to accept theses can also be selected, if you have your own merchant account or an account with someplace like NoChex that you would like to use.
It is also worth your time to write any additional instructions that may be needed in the box on this page. For example, who to make checks out to or a warning that international non-PayPal payments may take a while to process.
What Happens for the Buyers?
Once you set up the checkout service with your items, your buyers will then be able to choose which payment method to use out of your available options. eBay will then take them through the checkout process step-by-step. This will save you having to explain how to checkout to each buyer. After the buyer pays or agrees how to pay, eBay will send you a message to inform you of the transaction. It may tell you that the money for the item is now in your PayPal account and you should send the item, or it may tell you that they mailed you a check. Always remember for payments to clear before ever sending anything.
That’s how eBay’s checkout service works. You set up the checkout, and the buyer uses it to make payments for items they buy. You may have noticed that you can set up the checkout differently for different items. Sometimes this can be worth taking the time to do, if you occasionally sell more valuable items. The decision on how to set up the checkout service is up to you.
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[...] to use, they simply follow the instructions on the invoice you send them from eBay or through eBay’s checkout service, enter their PayPal sign in information, click a few confirmation buttons, and they are done. [...]