Google Checkout UK ~ Canada ~ USA ~ Australia ~ New Zealand

After a very successful launch in the United States, Google Checkout is now available in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Singapore.

Merchants and online merchant stores in the United Kingdom and around the world are jumping at the opportunity to integrate their websites with Google Checkout, Google's new secure online payment page.

If you're looking for a discount, look no further! No coupon codes, online coupons or promotion codes are required to take advantage of this free offer. You can process all your online Checkout sales for free of charge until 2008, and there are no monthly, setup or gateway fees – Checkout is entirely free. In 2008, the payment processing charges kick-in, but the rates are very low it has to be said, quite competitive by industry standards. The deals are even better if you link the service with Google AdWords:



This is an attractive proposition for small business owners and also large corporations. This solution provides a viable alternative to ebay and PayPal payment buttons.

Buyer / Shopper
Google Checkout is a solution for both buyers and sellers in the UK and around the globe. To get familiar with the terminology and keep it nice and simple, you can think of buyers simply as users, end-users or shoppers and sellers as merchants or stores. As a buyer, you can shop online with confidence. Buyer protection is provided and the fraud protection policy covers you against unauthorised purchases. Read the full terms for more details. Your purchase history and your full credit card number is never shared with sellers. It is very handy to track order status and shipping in one place and there is no need to create multiple accounts and passwords. In summary, it is fast, safe and convenient.

Seller / Merchant
The rest of this web page primarily deals with the payment service through the eyes of a seller, merchant store or online shop.

US sellers have already embraced the new technology and Google Checkout for Canada is being rolled out with retailers at considerable speed. But this is not just a payment solution for the small guy. Big retailers like Toy "R" Us, RitzCamera.com and Buy.com have already integrated with this new payment solution and many other live examples are published on the website.

As you would expect with Google, it has been launched as a truly international solution, already available in the United States and the UK, with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and Singapore expected to follow. Growth has been exceptional in the USA and other countries are expected to come online in the near future, possibly including Brazil and Mexico; the list goes on. E-commerce industry experts believe the market share will grow rapidly.

This side of the pond, the UK is the first territory in Europe to go live and the business community in Ireland is watching and waiting for the next move. So far, the independent reviews of the new service are glowing.

AdWords
Google, the world's favourite search engine has been dressed up with new eye-catching ads which contain the Google Checkout badge as part of the advert. When you login, you have the option of placing the badge next to each AdWords ad linking to your website account.



We are referring to sponsored advertising, or PPC (pay per click) as it is known. It is very effective and these ads 'stand out' on the search engine results listings and look particularly colourful.

Google Checkout Integration
We are talking about the process of adding Google payment buttons to your website. Broadly speaking, you can think of this at two levels: