Google has been granted a financial services licence that permits it to operate Google Checkout as a "non-cash payment product".
While this launch is no suprise as it has been discussed on SearchEngineLand back in Feb 2007 when Google registered Google Payment Australia PTY. LTD but no other action had been made since then.
A recent article in the AustralianIT today has made public a new move for Google Checkout to operate within Australia.
According to a Google Checkout disclosure statement lodged with the ASIC, Google Payment Australia will be an e-wallet style service that allows buyers to store their credit/debit card details for easy purchases online from participating merchants. So it appears that Australian’s will soon be able to use Google Checkout as a alternative to Paypal.
Within the US/UK markets your Google Adwords campaigns also have the option of having a notification icon shown below their ads to show that people they are using Google Checkout. There is no word yet if this will be available within Australia but it could provide a greater incentive for people to switch from payment gateway such as eWay & Paypal to Google Checkout.
The expansion of Google Checkout into Australia will likely be welcomed as work around such as having a US/UK bank account allowed Australian users to utilise the service but proved expensive. Google had made it difficult to setup merchant accounts for Australian businesses but this may now change.
The launch of Google Checkout would match up well with its recent Google Apps store gadget powered by Google Docs. As Google works to expand its Google Apps product into Australia the new Google Docs store gadget is a perfect match for small business looking to save money by moving online.
If you are looking for a shopping cart solution we have found that Interspire offers similar features to Google Checkout and they also have a new hosted product BigCommerce which is designed for easy setup of online stores.
I will believe it when I see it.
Google have been advising potential customers ( merchants such as myself ) that Google checkout will be available in Australia soon, since the start of 2007.
Almost 3 years later and still no dice. Sorry but 3 years is not soon in anyones books and Google should be ashamed at the dragging of their feet in regards to introducing checkout for Australian merchants.
I believe they would have lost hunfreds or possibly thousands of merchants as potential customers because of their laziness.
Jeramy,
thank you for your feedback, and I agree that the delay has been something that has lost them thousands of potential merchants but there are other great solutions such as Interspire which offer similar features.
I assume you are affiliated with Interspire as they are not a payment processor similar to that of google Checkout, they are a site design company and shopping cart provider.
There are alternatives to Google Checkout, such as Paypal ( merchants are easily defrauded by scammers that know the Paypal loop-holes ) and Paymate ( limited international customer payment acceptance ).
Jeramy ive got no direct relationship but have a client who is using the Interspire shopping cart and their website is performing very well because of how well it ties into Google Analytics reporting. There are also other solutions to Interspire such as Xcart which I believe you are using on your site.
I encourage my clients to use any solution as long as it can be tied into a Web Analytics package, and we have had problems with clients using PayPal and tracking ROI.
why does it take Google so long to set up Checkout for Australia? I am just looking around for a few options for one of my clients and it looks like Google will miss out!