Direct Checkout is Now Live on Bonanza
One of Bonanza's most requested features is now live and ready for use, direct checkout! Beginning today, sellers who meet the criteria for this feature can now accept credit and debit cards for buyer purchases on Bonanza. Direct checkout will take Bonanza's checkout process from 5 pages and 3-5 minutes (mostly spent waiting for PayPal to load) to 2 pages and under one minute for return buyers. We expect that this increased ease of checkout will drive higher conversion rates, as well as an increase in return customers.
Direct checkout will help pave the way for fun initiatives like allowing shoppers to add an additional item to their order after checkout, or subscribe to getting regular items from sellers. Neither of these ideas will be implemented immediately, but are representative of the increased latitude we now have with direct checkout being live. Direct checkout will allow shoppers from around the world to use a Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover card when they are shopping on Bonanza from sellers who have enabled this payment method, without shoppers being redirected away from Bonanza.
Direct checkout is currently available for sellers who:
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Have an active Bonanza selling account with multiple transactions and good feedback
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Accept an alternative payment method (PayPal or Checkout by Amazon)
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Agree to the Direct Checkout Terms of Service
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Want to make more sales
At this time we can only offer this service to sellers whose business and bank account are based in the United States. To get started, go to your "Sell on Bonanza" page and select the "Edit Booth Options" tab followed by the "Payments & Purchases" tab.
During this initial rollout, Direct Checkout will be limited to a smaller subset of sellers with a longer history at Bonanza, but in the coming weeks, as we polish out any rough edges, we will be opening it up to more and more of our merchant base.
We have also created a Direct Checkout Q & A page that will answer most of your questions. Please add any other questions you may have to the blog comments or you can contact our multi-talented support team for assistance.
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65 responses to Direct Checkout is Now Live on Bonanza
Excellent, I have been approved! i have waited for the day that i can totally do away with eBay/paypal.
Yay!!
Wish it was available to me – I have 4 booths – but cannot use it – or Amazon – so still stuck with just Paypal to offer customers.
Out of several of the last few roll outs of new tools that Bonanza have offered sellers – I cannot use any of them. Disappointing when I have been here a long time.
I pay a higher membership subscription for 3 of those booths – so I want to make more sales – but it just doesn’t happen at the moment.
I hope it does work for other sellers. Looks like I will still be doing sales the hard way.
Hey JMB,
As we mention in the post, we are initially rolling it out to a small number of booths, but as we get that experience under our belt and build better risk assessment tools in the coming weeks we will be unveiling it to more and more stores. Hang in there, it will be coming to a booth near you soon
Don’t understand why sellers can’t use Direct Checkout without having to Accept an alternative payment method (PayPal or Checkout by Amazon)? Especially if they have been here for a long time and have a good reputation.
This question is addressed in the Q&A page that Mark linked to. In a nutshell, as of today, we don’t have as much experience in assessing risky buyers as Paypal and Amazon do. When we get a buyer that seems like they could be bad news, Paypal and Amazon are in a better position today than we are to evaluate whether to let that transaction go through. So we defer to them.
We don’t want there to be a situation where we are unable to approve a buyer for direct checkout, so you lose a sale. Thus the reason we are requiring alternative types of checkout to start. As we get more experience under our belt, we may remove this requirement.
i would like to see a direct deposit where payment goes from Bonanza and directly into my bank account instead of through paypal. Yardsellr used to do it that way. It could be checkout by Bonanza
Well you’re in luck because that is exactly how this works
There is no Paypal involved when you use Direct Checkout. It goes straight from the buyer to Bonanza, and from Bonanza to you.
@toyzfromthedarkside I totally agree…was thinking the same thing!
Ok, I see the option in my payment receiving options, and read most (but not all) of the fine print found through approx. 3 different links, and if I understand correctly:
1. Direct Payment uses Braintree, a division of Paypal
2. The Braintree agreement states they use Wells Fargo bank
3. I won’t receive the money the buyer sent for 5-10 days AFTER the item is “marked complete” or “scheduled to be delivered” according to tracking # info.
Questions:
1. There is an application process, which I presume (please correct me if I’m wrong) means there will be a credit check, no?
2. I’m still not sure about “seller protection” as far as disputes, etc. Please enlighten me.
I’d love to offer another payment option, but since I use a dropshipper (and I sometimes make large sales that I can’t fund and ship until I receive payment), and I have credit issues right now (still recovering from hectic circumstances in 2011), I won’t be taking advantage of this right now—but maybe in the future…so I’d greatly appreciate any answers to my 2 questions.
Hi Seraphinabird,
Good questions.
1. There is no credit check performed, though Braintree has its own internal checks and balances it uses to evaluate risk. We don’t have visibility into what their underlying screening process is, but it couldn’t involve a credit check unless you provide a SSN, which is optional on the application form.
2. Disputed transactions will go through our Order Resolution Center, as they do today. As today, we will rely on whatever evidence the buyer and seller can provide to demonstrate they acted in good faith. If you get a tracking number, and if you have a good history of satisfied buyers, then the benefit of the doubt will be in your court. But we have to evaluate every disputed transaction on a case-by-case basis, using the evidence that is provided to us from both parties.
Hope this helps.
I don’t understand why I was not approved for this. i have been a member for 4 years….I received an email tonight from Bonanza saying that “Direct checkout was now available on bonanza” however, there was no message which was strange…Why even send it to me?
I wasn’t approved either, had an error message something to the tune of “Region Incorrect”. To think that I have lived here all these many years and now I discover that I don’t know where I live. Oh Well, I will just stick with PayPal and Bonanza’s Direct Checkout will do just fine without me.
Apparently, I have been approved, but only my other booth, not the one i am in now….so if you see you have not been approved, check all of your booths….Not sure why they dont just show up on all the booths if one booth was approved.
Since each of your booths exists as its own entity, each is evaluated for a Bonanza Payment Account on its own history. As of this early launch, we are requiring booths to have at least 10 transactions on Bonanza to be eligible, as well as a good record of feedback and few refunds/chargebacks. The rules are pretty stringent at the moment, but as mentioned above, we are hoping to relax them as we build experience.
So Braintree’s pricing policy reads like Paypal, 2.9% plus $0.30. Then there’s Bonanza’s fee schedule which looks like 3.0% plus $0.30. So what’s the fee for accepting credit/debit card payments directly, 3.0% plus $0.30, where Bonz is getting 0.1% on top of Braintree’s 2.9% or is it the sum of the two fees, 5.9% plus $0.60?
The total you pay is 3.0% plus 0.30. The 0.1% difference between what Braintree charges and what we charge will be used for us to pay for chargebacks and such.
The more merchants we get signed up, the lower our processing rate with Braintree will become. As our processing rate gets lower, we’re hoping to pass additional savings on to our sellers.
I thought i read in another article that this was chosen because there was no fee to the seller, now I see there is a fee involved for the seller? 3% & .30 per tranaction?
With Braintree, there is no fee for distributing money into the sellers bank account (the other processors would have charged you 25c every time money got transferred to your bank account).
You (and us, and the rest of the world) still have to pay off the credit card companies for their role in processing transactions. Thus the 3%.
Reading the replies have thoroughly confused me, off to read Q&A page before I decide what to do
Abby, good question.. the FAQ page indicates total fees from Bonanza to be 3% + .30, which is pretty much the same as if you use PayPal or Amazon.. but there is no indication of a second fee paid to PayPal/Braintree. Sounds like a great deal if there’s no double-dipping.
PayPal accepts credit cards from buyers on my business account. Why give Bonanza control of my money?
Since we make essentially no money on this program, we’re ambivalent about whether you choose to use it. Every seller is welcome to make their own analysis and conclusions.
However, as mentioned in the Q&A, the best reason to consider using Direct Checkout is the reduction in friction between DC and Paypal. Paypal tends to take the buyer several pages and minutes to consummate their transaction. With DC, it’s two pages and less than one minute for returning buyers. The less trouble it is to check out, the higher your conversion tends to be.
Sad day to be Canadian
we have to ship the item even before we get the $$$, how can one do that if shipping is so high. Sending something out to Germany today, it’s costing $45.00, I’m supposed to take it out of my pocket??
Hey starshinin! Good to see you around these parts!
The reason Direct Checkout is setup this way is that there is a high likelihood that ill-intentioned sellers will sign up on Bonanza, sell fraudulent merchandise, and try to leave the buyer (or Bonanza) holding the bag. If they have the money in their bank account before the buyer has received their item, there is nothing to stop them from transferring that money away and leaving the buyer high and dry.
As we build a history with each merchant, we will be able to relax the time that money spends in escrow. But even long-established marketplaces like Etsy only distribute money to sellers’ accounts once weekly. I think that other sellers deal with this by keeping a reserve of cash from past transactions that is used to ship inventory until they get the next disbursement of funds from the transactions currently underway.
Hope this helps explain why it needs to be setup as it is.
Can we opt out of it? I just read where we won’t get the $$$ right away…and that’s just not right. Paypal only takes about 3 days to transfer…why would another branch of theirs take 2-3 times longer????
Unless you have specifically signed up for Direct Checkout, you won’t be participating in it. Thus there is no need to opt out.
Hmmm, hi Bill –
first: this new feature here is fantastic.
BUT – that Etsy distributes our money once weekly is not totally correct.
Say, I sell something on a Monday or Tuesday, after I have marked the item ‘shipped’ I can click on: send money immediately.
And that’s what they do. (Otherwise it’s always sent on Mondays.)
I would not like to wait until the customer has his/her merchandise.
Pay first, then get the ‘stuff’.
Mr. Bill, you know the reputations of us oldies here and how we work. I can’t afford to wait to get paid for the shipping, heck I can hardly pay my bills or buy food, guess I won’t be signing up, although I’m ‘authorized’ thru all the ‘checkout’ system….sigh
Ok I’m signed up. How hard or easy is it to do a partial refund? I charge flat rate shipping and sometimes need to credit the buyer a dollar or two. Thats easy to do on paypal…how does it work with this?
How do I refund a purchase made with a credit or debit card?
Visit your Booth Payment Account overview page to see the status of all credit or debit card transactions and to issue refunds. A link to this page can be found in the sidebar on your “My Bonanza” page under My Booth > Booth Management.
It’s important to note that canceling an offer does not automatically refund a credit card transaction if one has already successfully completed. Likewise, issuing a refund neither cancels an order nor relists items from that order. You can manage your orders from your “My Bonanza” page.
(so it sounds like you would need to issue the partial refund directly via your merchant CC account and also note the partial refund on Bonanza via the above flow)
If I would have to wait to get my money, there is absolutely no way I will be using this. I want cash in hand before I send anything. To expect anything different is crazy! Yet another feature that is useless to me. :(
Understandable. As Bill mentions above, in time we will be able to relax the rules for merchants who have a solid history so that your money spends less time in escrow.
how do i sign up for this than? I would like to use this instead of paypal
To get started, go to your “Sell on Bonanza” page and select the “Edit Booth Options” tab followed by the “Payments & Purchases” tab. (screen shot above of this page)
There are some other sites out there that require the seller wait on payment to make sure the buyer received & liked the item, and the tracking has to be uploaded in a certain amount of time, if not, they refund the buyer. If the buyer had a problem, the sites does not release the funds to the seller. and there were some cases I had to wait way over a week to have my funds released, which I didn’t like, so i don’t think i will be using this feature. Been there, done that.
Got it. The beauty of this is that it is completely optional and you can opt in/out at any time. Maybe sit back and see how things shake out and opt in in the future.
im still unclear on the charge and how to sign up? I really wish you had the phone service you used to have to get the right right information and get signed up with these new programs the right way. This direct service looks great but I have questions and need to be walked through signup cause im not understanding how to get started
To get started, go to your “Sell on Bonanza” page and select the “Edit Booth Options” tab followed by the “Payments & Purchases” tab. (screen shot above of this page)
@toyz as quoted from above:
“To get started, go to your “Sell on Bonanza” page and select the “Edit Booth Options” tab followed by the “Payments & Purchases” tab."
There is a link there with info about the program if you want more info.
Also, see the last paragraph of this post…there are links to the Q&A and to ask support questions.
Thanks seraphinabird
I HOPE LOTS OF PEOPLE SIGN UP FOR THIS…so eventually the wait time to get our funds goes down.
Yup, paypal makes sellers wait up to 21 days to get their funds when they first start, until they establish a good history with them (about 3-6 mos?).
Not sure about Amazon, but I think they have a waiting period as well.
So hopefully this BONANZA direct payment will allow us to get our funds faster (preferably immediately, like paypal) after one establishes a good reputation and history of being trustworthy.
That way I can use the funds the buyer sent me to pay for postage (and pay for the item when I use a dropshipper).
Hello all!
I am new on Bonanza and just started reading the boards.
LOL, took me time to edit all the importing.
LOVE the site so far, nice and clean!
I’m not sure I follow the Pay Pal and Amazon problems you are mentioning. I am paid at once on Pay Pal and Swipe. Amazon takes three days for me.
My question is …….. are you saying it takes longer for checkout as a buyer on Bonanza using Pay Pal and Amazon?
Thanks! Karen
“My question is …….. are you saying it takes longer for checkout as a buyer on Bonanza using Pay Pal and Amazon?”
A) Hi Karen, welcome! Checkout by Amazon and PayPal have a few more steps than direct checkout. Less steps to make a purchase could equate to more sales for you!
How do these parts of the DC agreement work together?
e. Bonanza will bear the risk of credit card fraud (i.e. fraudulent purchase arising from the theft and unauthorized use of a third party’s credit card information) occurring in connection with Payment Transactions.
a. We reserve the right to seek reimbursement from Registered Seller if we, in our sole discretion, provide a refund to Buyer if Registered Seller cannot promptly deliver the goods, or if we discover erroneous or duplicate transactions, RECEIVE A CHARGEBACK FROM BUYER’S CREDIT CARD ISSUER or reversal of payment for the amount of Buyer’s purchase from Registered Seller,
c. ANY CHARGEBACK FILED BY A BUYER against a Registered Seller will result in a fee of $30 being deducted from the Booth Payment Account, or via the other methods detailed in 5b.
It would depend on the scenario. Can you be more specific?
I too have received an empty email, stating direct checkout is now available. How do I know if I have been approved or not?
The empty email was due to a mistake that I made, sorry for that
All of the information above is what was supposed to go in the email. If you follow the steps noted above you will be able to confirm your direct checkout account.
You have to request it. Read the original Bonanza post and other posts in the thread to find out how to join the club.
A faster checkout for buyers sounds fantastic for everyone – but some of the terms are a bit scary for a seller – I’ll read it all over again, but in some ways it sounds like a buyer could rip off a seller rather easily, especially this:
“ANY CHARGEBACK FILED BY A BUYER against a Registered Seller will result in a fee of $30 being deducted from the Booth Payment Account, or via the other methods detailed in 5b.”
$30.00 if a buyer files a charge back? That’s pretty steep – did I miss something?
The cumulative cost of a charge back for Bonanza is actually higher than $ 30.00 (given the charges and the resources we have to direct to remedy charge backs).
I am hoping that this ‘charge back’ is if the seller did not in good fate try to sell and/or ship items that are sold. After looking though the terms I didn’t even see the $30 charge. Hope to hear an answer soon, I like the idea of the service although it seems to be a rough start, one must start somewhere.
I think I recall paypal had some sort of charge for such a thing as well but I’m not sure anymore.
Paypal does hold funds until a reputation is established, but if you use Paypal for shipping, you can defer the shipping cost until you get paid. At least, that’s how it’s handled with eBay sales. And regarding Amazon, I currently get my funds the next morning. In the beginning, however, I received the quoted shipping cost only the next morning. Made it difficult to offer free shipping but at least I wasn’t out of pocket for other transactions.
Hello Mark and or Bill, I need to comment on this new tool. My question comment is dealing with use of Tracking Numbers when marking a item shipped, Then attaching that to fund dispersal time. In Terms of Use, {If the Registered Seller does not provide tracking information, but marks the order as shipped, payment will be disbursed to the Seller’s Bank Checking Account 10-30 (ten to thirty) days after purchase} In my situation many of my Post Card, Vintage Magazines, Ephemera paper items sell for lower dollars and ship first class non parcel so Do Not as with Priority come with a tracking Number. Buying a tracking number would add another cost to a low dollar transaction that I or the buyer want to pay for. I would ask that tracking number not be required for the 2-5 day dispersal of funds after the item being marked Shipped and with normal delivery times of item. I hope I have explained this well……………Thank You
Thanks for your comment Fathertime. If you go to the terms of service page (linked above), we address this:
Well, I’ve decided the risk exceeds the potential rewards. I have deselected the direct checkout option on my booth options page, but credit cards are still showing as a payment option on my listings. I wonder how long it will take before that drops off?
The option should be disabled as soon as you disable it. We have a report into our programming team to address this. Thanks for letting us know.
I just got approved, and I can’t wait to take it for a test drive!
I assume if I buy shipping right from the Bonanza site with tracking for these orders that this is sufficient proof of shipping for payment?
Hi Jenrun, yes, that would definitely qualify as proof.
I just got a sale through Direct Checkout. Question, how do I get to my shop payment account? I looked through the blog and discussions here but was unable to find the info. Thanks.
Woo hoo! If you go to your “My Bonanza > My Booth > My Booth Payment Account” you will be able to see the status of the payment.
Thank you Mark. I made it there. I had to skip the “my booth” step and go My Bonanza and then the My Booth Payment Account link was on my left.
Signed up Sat 8/9 and had a sale from a buyer on 8/14 using it. Hope this is a sign of more sales. Thanks for implementing this alternative payment method.
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