Darren's Blog

When Google Checkout was launched in 2006 it’s unique pricing model brought online payment processing to a point where it was cost effective for small and large businesses alike.  It had a low transaction processing cost of 1.5% + £0.15 per transaction and rewarded AdWords customers by waiving the transaction charges on up to a total of 10 times their monthly ad spend.  For small businesses this meant that there was a cost effective method that allowed them to add card payments to their available payment methods.

On March 11th Google issued an email informing Checkout customers that the pricing structure would be changing effective 5th May.  Free transaction processing from AdWords has been removed and the simple transaction processing change has been replaced with a tiered model not too dissimilar to other providers ranging from 1.4% to 3.4%+£0.20.

These changes mean that transaction processing changes will increase for all customers who process less that £55,000 per month, in the case of those processing less than £6,000 the charges will double.  And that is before you take into account the removal of the free processing.  Google stated reasons for the pricing increases as this:

Google is committed to the continued growth and development of Checkout. These pricing changes are necessary in order for us to continue to enhance user features and functionality going forward.

I have always supported Google, their innovation has helped drive our industry forward and this has rarely been at the expense of their customers.  I understand that Google must set their prices in a way that allows their business to grow and move forwards, however,  I find it disappointing that in the current economic climate that Google have chosen to implement pricing changes that put further financial pressure on many small organisations who are already finding times hard.

Full information about the Google Checkout pricing model can be found on Google’s Checkout Fees page.