regarding 5% fee

[Shrek]

Dear Google

As I see it, In-Apps payment is just another (cooler, nicer) payment option for browser based applications. Am I right?

Then why is there sooo much of disparity between price for Google-Checkout option and Google-In-Apps option?

To me .. these two are just two different user experiences. Both of them achieve the same purpose, provide the same exact services, such as PCI compliance, security, fraud protection and other guarantees. 

Is the fees for In-Apps payment (@ 5% per transaction) higher because it costs lot more $s for Google to run this model? I doubt it. If anything, in my opinion, Google-Check model must cost more $s to run, because it involves multiple flavors such as, Email Invoices, 3 different kinds of shopping carts, Gadgets etc. Even if it costs little bit more $s for Google to run In-Apps Payment model, I don't think it should not really matter to Google, because it is GOOGLE.

I have watched one of the Vic Gundotra's Google IO videos, where it was claimed that flat 5% is dirt cheap. But when I compare it with my existing (pre-historic) proprietary Bank of America Gateway .. and your own Google Checkout pricing .. I don't see that In-App pricing is competitive. 

What am i missing here? Can you please clarify the motivation behind 5% pricing? Is Google, by any chance, under Google-Wallet re-organization, considering merging the pricing for In-App and Google-Checkout for the browser based applications? Do you think my request qualifies for Larry Page's initiative to "simplify" Google api for Developers? Is there someone in Google that I can discuss (negotiate) such things with? I have tried to contact Google Sales without any luck by using Contact Sales button. PS: we intend to become Google Apps for Enterprises user. 

Thanks for any pointer.

Following is the price-sheet for Google-Checkout that I have referred to in my notes.

Monthly Sales Through Google

Less than $3,000

$3,000 - $9,999.99

$10,000 - $99,999.99

$100,000 or more

Fees Per Transaction

2.9% + $0.30

2.5% + $0.30

2.2% + $0.30

1.9% + $0.30

[Matthew Endsley]

The 5% rate is much more favorable to micro transactions.

Take a $1.00 purchase:

Google wallet @ 5%: 1.00 - 0.05 = $0.95

Google checkout @ 0.30 + 2.9% = 1.00 - 0.029 - .30 = $0.671

You get 41% more revenue with the 5% pricing.  The difference adds up fast with any significant volume.

Matt

[Srikanth Pagadala]

Hi Matt, Google

Yes. I can see that side of the value.  5% is very favorable when used with Games and other smaller digital assets. In my case, our digital goods are pretty expensive. Each transaction will be of the order of $5K+. I'm inclined to use In-App model because of its cool buyer experience.

I know In-App pricing was designed for games, but I don't see any reason why other browser apps will not quickly start adopting it.

I'm sure that I'm not the first guy to come up with this idea. Even Google would have thought about it. I'm interested in hearing their position on this topic.

Thanks for your comments, Google.

Sriks

[Mihai Ionescu]

Hi Sriks, Matthew,

Thank you both for the great feedback and suggestions.

Mihai

[Srikanth Pagadala]

Hi Mihai

Would Google consider dual pricing model?

if ( transaction_amount < $1 OR what_ever_is_the_breakeven_amount)

    // apply 5% fees

else

   // apply checkout fees

[Mihai Ionescu]

Hi Sriks, Matthew,

The flexible dual pricing mode you've been asking for is here :-)

As you may have noticed we launched a new pricing scheme to address higher priced items:

In addition to the 5% we now have a 1.9% + fixed fee per transaction. The most favorable pricing will apply automatically.

See the Help Center link below for more details:

http://support.google.com/payments/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1385343&ctx=cb&src=cb&cbid=1qnq5734nhn02&cbrank=0 

Thanks,

Mihai

[Srikanth Pagadala]

Thanks for the update Mihai.This is a really good change. 

thanks for listening to the community.. appreciate it ..

Sriks