Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I run a SMB with $1.2M in transactions per year through various online storefronts. Paypal/Stripe are the most common forms of payment, but to my surprise the split is 70%(Paypal), 30%(Stripe including Apple/GPay/Alipay). We see a consistent behavior that perhaps incidates Paypal is far easier to use than Stripe. I feel like the slightest friction in the choice between payment options and it will win. Paypal offers the easiest way to pay, perhaps even easier than Apple Pay. It is one click on the popup window. With Apple Pay, you gotta double click this awkward button on the side, then Face ID that doesn't work with the mask, followed by entering the PIN - the whole thing takes too long. It also doesn't work on most browsers and desktop computers (perhaps Apple Pay works on macOS with Safari). I thought about this a lot and tried to go through the details of the friction that leads to better conversion. Stripe has a better developer experience but it doesn't help the customer.

Stripe desparately needs a customer-facing account that can manage cards and payment methods. If it were my guess, Stripe is already working on this.

As a customer there are a few reasons I might prefer PayPal.

First, they have my credit card info and shipping address already. Using their checkout means I don't need to fill all that info in.

I may not trust some random website I only plan to buy from once with my credit card info.

There are times when I can get money back from PayPal purchases on some of my credit cards. Right now I can get 5% back on one of them until the end of December. That means if paypal is an option I'm going to us it.

I've noticed the same. If you have CCs stored in the browser, I find the Stripe flow easier on my website, and it loads very fast, while the PayPal widget is the slowest-loading part of the website.

I see about a 70/30 percent split, as you do, for Paypal/Stripe.

I wonder if PayPal’s consumer protection is also part of the appeal?

I had to use the dispute resolution once. The merchant become unresponsive to all other means. PayPal ruled in my favour and provided a refund.

I’m not sure a credit card chargeback would have been as simple.

I once had a set of headphones (back when Bose Beats wireless were popular and you got a free one on academic discount when buying a MacBook Air) sell on eBay, with receipt confirmed but the buyer did a chargeback claiming the purchase was unauthorized.

I don’t understand all the circumstances, but PayPal let me keep the money. Dunno if they successfully won the dispute with the issuer or if PayPal ate the loss.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com