Google Checkout: Will it kill Amazon's 1-Click?
After nearly two years of anticipation, buzz and hype, Google's new payment service is finally on the market.
What does this mean for booksellers? Probably not much today. But 10 years from now, we'll probably all be doing business differently -- and we might look back on the advent of Google Checkout as a major turning point.
Until now, most of the pundits have been arguing whether Google Checkout will kill PayPal. It probably won't. The real question is, will Google Checkout undermine the big advantages Amazon has today?
Amazon has a virtual monopoly on online book sales, for three main reasons:
1) It's easy to find books on Amazon.
2) Nobody can beat Amazon's selection, thanks to its third-party sellers.
2) Checkout is easy and reliable at Amazon -- it only takes one click.
What if there were 10,000 online bookstores, all of them offering one-click checkout using Google? Could Google's search results make a better store than Amazon? Some people think so.
What do you think?
posted by Steve Weber at 6/29/2006
2 Comments:
I don't see Google Checkout as a threat to Amazon or a threat to PayPal. It seems more like it would be a threat to merchant accounts.
I considered signing up for it to sell my ebooks when I realized, "Oops they don't accept PayPal." My customers are eBay sellers who prefer to spend PayPal cash. So it won't do for me. And they don't have an affiliate program.
It seems to be geared more toward the traditional business who has an online presence.
I would love to be a fly on the wall at Google during strategizing sessions. Why are they doing this? What are their goals?
Is it gathering market research about spending habits as some have suggested? Or something else that no one has considered?
The speed at which the online marketplace changes is mind-boggling.
What an exciting time to be alive!
Yeah, I think the price-gouging that has gone on with merchant accounts is over. At least I hope so.
I think the most interesting thing with Google Checkout is how they'll rebate part of your processing fee if you're using Adwords.
It is mind-boggling when you think about all the data Google could be compiling on people -- what you look at online, what you buy, what you read, your bank transactions.
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