Why don't more wineries use PayPal or other payment systems?

On Berserker Day, I did something I don’t usually do: purchase from multiple producers in one day. This got me thinking, as each buying process was somewhat different, with little uniformity between ordering platforms.
Of note, one winery used PayPal, while the others use their own ordering process (seems to be far more common).

For most wineries, after selecting my wines, I had to:
Input my birth date.
Enter billing address manually.
Indicate my shipping address was different.
Input my shipping address manually.
Enter my credit card information.

For the winery using PayPal, I had to:
Log into PayPal.
Click a couple of times.
That’s it.

I understand that PayPal charges a processing fee, but so do credit card companies. Since using these online payment services is far easier for the consumer (and therefore presumably conducive to buying stuff), why haven’t more wineries gone to such payment systems?

What’s the difference in cost (for the winery) using PayPal vs some other system?

I’m guessing a lot of their target audience doesn’t use paypal.

Not sure how many folks are using it, or Venmo, or whatever, but it makes checkout a breeze when available as an option. (It is usually only an option…“traditional” checkout method is still available.)

Probably depends on their back end CRM system - who probably doesn’t have the b2b implemented. I’d assume the wineries would have to submit a feature request to their vendor to get it set up… probably not a high enough demand? But having the customers request it is a start.

Amex/Chase/Citi connect platforms would be nice as well!

Several up in WV are using Square as does my coffee shop. Debit card for most purchases now.

Yea I didn’t get it either. Liked how was it was so easy to buy the GrasslGlass. PayPal and done.

Apple Pay! (As an option)

-Al

Well, West Virginia is so hip as to be using Square…golly!

My website directs you to use paypal or check out with your credit card. My credit card clearing house is also paypal. Never had a problem. At my production/income level, I cannot afford some of the fancy systems (Ceritas has a nice system), but everyone gets their wine, I receive their money simply, and at this point my system works for me. Seems to work for my customers.

I work these days for an app company with most of our customers being small (often one person) businesses (not in the wine industry). For our customers, we offer a payment option that matches PayPal and Square fees but integrates automatically with an inventory (and in our case, booking calendar) system. Vendors like PayPal or Square don’t offer the rest of those features tailored by industry so it can be a pain (or not - depends on frequency and volume of sales*). Square I think was promoting themselves for use by vineyards recently …not clear what features they offer and when I was job hunting last spring, I spoke with a s/w team doing some nice software for relatively small producers who I believe do what we do by including a payment system.

*I assume Merrill does not need a fancy inventory system etc with extra features so there’s no sense in complicating things beyond PayPal.

We don’t make a lot off of the payment fees - it’s a pretty competitive market and you need high volume to really make it work as revenue rather than simply service.

The good news is once you’re a repeat customer at all those wonderful small vineyards, you won’t have to provide all that info as it’s stored against your account.

I think Square is mainly used by wineries for credit card processing without enhanced features, much as PayPal can be used. I’ve never signed up directly with PayPal, don’t plan to.

-Al

PayPal charges the seller 3%. Visa/MC are half of that. Not sure about Discover. It used to be a little more, but might be the same as Visa/MC now. Amex is about the same as PayPal.

Which is less expensive? I was presented with that option I end up charging my credit card via Paypal.

I didn’t see any great advantage to using Paypal instead . . . (but I prefer credit to direct debit from bank.

PayPal is generally higher in fees versus traditional payment processors. Depending on volume, average tickets, etc… it can be significantly cheaper than PayPal. Not sure if PayPal has fixed this but transferring of funds to your bank was a manual process. Sometimes credit wouldn’t be applied until after 48 hours whereby traditional banks/processors can get funds into the account by next business day.

That’s what I figured. Everyone has a cc. Not everyone, abd especialy not every wino has paypal
I was a actually pretty surprised when I say the PayPal payment method pop up on BD10

What does payment gateway have to do with inventory control? Have no idea what you are describing above, doesn’t make any sense to me. Maybe I do not have proper understanding of technology, like you do, I have only been coding for a living since 1977. Cart processor keeps track of inventory, payment gateway has its own separate function.

I set up same Wordpress based site as pretty much all small wineries have these days, built in inventory control runs as a built in and separate process to payment gateways, once a transaction is marked complete (successful payment) inventory process then depletes bottle count(s). Depleted products cannot be ordered at zero quantity. As a matter of fact, Wordpress does all of that, out of the box, FOR FREE. Wordpress can actually display inventory counts in real time (on product page, next to each product SKU), unless one suppresses the ability, which most sites do.

PP is an option, FREE PLUGIN really, on any Wordpress site, same as it is on other eCommerce platforms. Let me repeat that. FREE. PLUGIN. Too bad small wineries are charged money for that. As any other payment gateways are, for the most part. I decided to forgo PP, for now at least, since PP keeps the money on its accounts and actual funds transfer from their bank to winery’s is a manual process, winery needs to log in and trigger the transfer, PP keeps the money until then (and earns interest on it, too boot). Asinine, IMO, in this age. Pretty much all other payment gateways do so automatically, with funds in your bank account next day or 2.

As for “frequency” of sales part. You really need to bone up on particulars. SAME EXACT FEES, whether one goes with PP, Stripe, Square. Per transaction. Nothing more, nothing less. One may be able to use other payment processors, and pay less per transaction, but then monthly minimum fees apply, so its a wash, in the end. And a way easier setup, I was up and running with Stripe in hours, biggest issue was them verifying things on their end since its a winery and they wanted to know we have age verification and such. Otherwise, create an account and be up and running in under an hour. Same with Square and PP. All we pay now is $12 per month for hosting and per transaction fees. Feel free to tell us how much you charge your customers.

As for keeping your info at PP, or any other payment gateway, and from a long time ITer and database specialist in particular, this is the last feature you should tout to anyone these days. I disabled that part of our Stripe setup and would recommend same to anyone else who wants to listen. Last thing I need, as a winery, is customer data breach. Once transaction is finished I don not want to know any billing data related to a customer, actually I do not see actual credit card number, as I set it up. To each his/her own, of course. Its nice that PP keeps customer data, but as a wine geek, my billing data are last things I want stored anywhere these days, and do limit it as much as I can, where I can. So, not really a “feature” to some, at the least.

I wish they all had Apple Pay like Nola’s did!!!

Isn’t Apple Pay nfc based payment. What terminal do u hold it to for payment?

Paypal is an unnecessary rip off by sticking an extra intermediary in between the buyer and the seller when no intermediary is necessary. Marginally better than Bitcoin for people who do not have credit cards, but only marginally. I have no idea how Payal knew your shipping address, but I can assure you, they did not know mine on the one winery that forced me to use Paypal.