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Do you accept cash on your online store?

By Pranav Chavda ⋅ March 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

paid by cash

Oakland, CA based Retail Expansion Network recently launched a new service called Paid By Cash, a new service using which, e-retailers can now accept “cash” on their online stores.

The trick is, when you sign up with paid by cash, and let your customers know that you are now accepting cash – by displaying the paidbycash logo, all they need to do is drive down to a nearby store, pay cash for a virtual master-card number, drive back to the computer they where shopping on, use the brand new master card number on your e-retail store and buy.

Paid By Cash

Now, why would I shop online in the first place if I am supposed to physically go to a store? That’s something Retail expansion network has left for consumers and e-retailers to think for themselves. The only possible e-retailers who I think would benefit from this are the ones who offer truly unique stuff for sale, things one can not find offline. Ironically, some of the early users of the paidbycash service include e-retailers like CosmeticMall, 4Inkjets, GiftBaskets.com and Drugstore.com!

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Discussion

Comments for “Do you accept cash on your online store?”

  • > This is a tough concept to grasp if you're not among the 100 million americans not engaged in e-commerce (eg. the unbanked, the credit constrained, teens, security consious individuals). Heck, it took me a little convincing. My first question was: "then how can these people afford to go online in the first place?" But, interestingly enough, these people are going online, and even more, they are shopping online -- they're just not buying online. What are they doing then? They are using the totally dated money order process ($120B in money orders was done in the US last year according to the Fed Reserve). So, clearly they're already getting up and going down the street to the P.O. and paying too much and waiting too long for their money order to go through the mail, the mailroom, finance dept, and then to shipping. With this service, they pay less and their product will ship that day or the next. Like I said, you really have to step outside and look in. This isn't so much about convenience as it's about empowerment. The Internet isn't just for people with credit cards...
  • I think it may work if the right people take charge. I remember times when people hesitated to use PayPal... If this system is unified and you can use these prepaid cards for different merchants it can actually work, imo.
  • Exactly, Most of the stuff people buy online these days is the same stuff they'd buy offline, but won't because online is just more convenient - if you had to go to a store that already sells these things - to pay for them in order to buy those things online - well, it's almost a joke. This can only and only work if you are selling something that is not to be found ANYWHERE else but on your online shop.
  • It's apparently too much of a hassle. Placing myself in the shoes of a customer, chances are I'll probably end up not making a purchase unless it's there's a compelling reason to do so.
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