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[ravuya]

Also, according to our blog like a month ago.

Huh. Your RSS must be broken, or Bloglines is.

[kawsper]

Well, some indies use them so I'm not sure if they should be totally excluded, but you have to do a lot more work with them. For instance, I believe hpapillon used PayPal for her games (not sure if she still does), and she manually had to send out links to the full version of the game for everyone who paid, so if she was on vacation or away from the computer they often had to wait a day or two till she got around to it, which is pretty annoying to the buyer not to get it instantly when they buy the game. But it can be done, and if someone only plans on like a few sales a week and doesn't mind manually mailing out links to the full version to every person who buys the game PayPal is an option. But personally I don't like the idea of the player having to wait for me to get to my email before they get the game.

Then she is doing it wrong  . Paypal can send information back to the shop when the payment has been done, and if i remember correctly it can both be in POST-variables and GET-variables. And you can get information such as email, name and if you do it right also variables from your site.

[jeb]

We have been using ShareIt so far. http://www.shareit.com

They have two price models:
Model A: €2.95 + 5%
Model B: 14.9%, €2.50 minimum

...so they're on the more expensive side. Another downside is that they charge another 1% if you want to allow people to buy using free email accounts (such as hotmail, gmail, etc). However, they have very good features and the control panel is easy to use. Also, they act as the seller of the software so any complaints on the actual transaction will be targetted on them instead of the software vendor. Not sure how the other e-commerce companies handles this.

There was a discussion about ShareIt and Plimus over at IG, check it out here: http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=10974 (note: the thread got weird after a Plimus representative revealed private account details, but you can still find some good information there).

[pyabo]

Never understood why more people don't just get their own merchant accounts... Saving 6-7% on every purchase is going to add up quickly.

[ravuya]

I dunno about that. Seems to me it would be a good idea to let someone else deal with copy protection, credit card processing and other nasty legal stuff like refunds. If losing a percentage means i can make another game instead of dealing with business stuff, that seems a profitable trade.

[jack_norton]

Merchant account is good for some aspects (the money saved) but in the long run I'm not sure is worth it. What if there's a problem while you're on holiday and you can't process sales for 1 week? if you're serious, 1 week can cost you 1k$ or more of sales.
Unless you don't plan to stay away from your pc for more than 4h for the rest of your life  :D

[frosty]

I use BMT Micro. 

I initially went with SWReg because they have a good template system, but then they started putting some very misleading upsell links on the sale confirmation pages. 

BMT doesn't let you edit the pages directly but they were *very* responsive and patient with all of my requests to alter the design and remove some fields.

However, they had about 6 hours of downtime a couple weeks ago and never sent out an explanation.  So, I agree that having an alternate processor is important.  As soon as I can justify the time, I'll probably build an automatic cut-over script.

One minor thing I don't like is that you can't create easy-to-read discount codes.  They are all a random jumble of letters and numbers.

[Doncommie]

As a customer attempting to buy from ShareIt I have found it atrocious. They seem to be unable to process Paypal payments and failed to complete them twice, both times requiring a substantial delay of 6-12 hours before they informed me the payment was "not confirmed". I have now resorted to my debit card which has helpfully informed me that it will take four to twenty four hours to process. I never had these problems with BMT Micro or Plimus.

[JammingJim]

Another decent sounding example as discussed on indiegamer:

http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=14305

is FastSpring:

http://www.fastspring.com/index.php

I haven't tried them but they seem like a good new player in the scene and worth keeping an eye on.

[poetic]

Just a few info I collected:

- Kagi: the listed pricing here is wrong: 2.5%+1$ is only the Kagi fee + on top of that is the credit card fee: e.g. Visa US: 2.75% +0.3$ = 5.25% + 1.3$
See: http://www.kagi.com/kagisolutions/pricing.php
- merchant accounts: I don't know about US, but in EU you get merchant accounts with really bad starting fees: 5% + 0.3, plus rules about a 10% reserve, etc. You can get lower once you build trust etc. You are just so much better of with PayPal if you want low fees.
- FastSpring: seems to have really good customer service (for you AND for your customers). Rate: 8.9% or 5.9% + 0.95$. I heard a lot of folks from the microISV community use them and are very happy.
- eSellrate: DRM, in-application checkout, used in MAC world
- BMTmicro: heard a lot of good about them, no personal experience
- PayPal can do a lot for you once you take the time to set it up

[paperdragongames]

I just published my first game using iPortis (www.iportis.com).  I wanted to sell my game for a low price ($6) and they seemed to have the best deal for a low cost game (their percentage is added on to $.50 instead of $1.00).  They have been really nice and helpful getting me set up, and even did some custom programming for me.  I wanted to have a refer a friend program for my game where you could enter the email of an already registered friend to get a discount and they helped me set it up.  I thought that was really nice especially since I'm a no name.  I've only just started using them, so can't give any long term impressions, but so far so good.

[floatstarpx]

Hello all,

I just wanted to share a particularly bad experience we've just had with Plimus. I wouldn't recommend anyone to use them for downloadable indie games.

We set up our account, and we were selling our game for $3. This was fairly straight forward, although you have to do a lot of mucking about to make the confirmation e-mails & final screens show the user your product download URL. I tested in "test" mode, and all seemed well.

Then, I decided to test buying our game in "real" mode. Differently to "test" mode - no download URL was given to me.. instead I got an e-mail saying they would have to phone me to validate my payment. 20 minutes later, they sent me the download URL anyway. I thought - 20 minutes, OK, not really a major problem...and maybe the phone call thing was an empty threat.

...but then two people I knew ordered the game.. they both got the same e-mail saying that they would be phoned to verify their order. I assumed they'd just get a similar 20 minute wait, and then a download code.
I put in another order myself at this point - just to double check.
15 hours later, and none of us had received a phone call nor an order confirmation. None of us could download the game. Luckily, I knew the two people who had ordered it - so it wasn't a huge problem...but if these were customers I couldn't easily contact, it would be very annoying.
I immediately removed the "buy now" link from our site, to avoid more customers getting stuck in this 15+ hour wait (and linked to a portal that is selling our game instead, so the game was still available).
After 20 minutes on the phone to Plimus (I went on their "live support", and they decided to phone me based off this), they verified all 3 orders (mine and the two others).
I was slightly relieved, and assumed all was well.
2 hours later, I get an e-mail from one of the guys who bought the game saying that the link sent from plimus (they provide the hosting for your game) was giving him a 403 error. I tried my confirmation too, and I was also getting a 403.

We did a few google searches on plimus, and found many many more people with the same problem. It's ridiculous to phone people to "verify their payment", especially over a £2/$3 game. It's even worse when after they've waited half a day, you send them a link which doesn't even work!

We have now switched to fastspring, and closed our account with plimus. My advice for those considering Plimus is JUST AVOID. Do some of your own research before you make your mind up, however..!

[theweirdn8]

thanks for the help bro

[qmvo73hoy]

Just use fastspring.

[Jay Margalus]

If you're already running your site on Wordpress, try WP E-Commerce out.  It's an e-commerce platform that integrates with Wordpress and your choice of payment gateway (PayPal, Google, Authorize.net, etc...).  It also does download and unique link management for purchases.  We use it for our personal store to sell our game (though most purchases go through Steam, GamersGate, Impulse).

It can be a bit clunky at times, but hey, if you're only paying the standard PayPal charges per transaction, how much can you complain?

[FastSpringCEO]

On this well respected industry survey, FastSpring is tied for the #1 ranking when compared to all other e-commerce services:
http://successfulsoftware.net/2009/10/12/a-survey-of-ecommerce-providers-for-software-vendors/

[Booger]

Is there an ecommerce vendor that fits a Pay What You Want scheme?  (I think the only ones I encountered use PayPal or Facebook)  Is setting multiple price points for the same product even allowed (i.e. increments of $1, $2, $3, etc.)?

[AuthenticKaizen]

Is there an ecommerce vendor that fits a Pay What You Want scheme?  (I think the only ones I encountered use PayPal or Facebook)  Is setting multiple price points for the same product even allowed (i.e. increments of $1, $2, $3, etc.)?

paul eres uses fastspring and his game immortal defense has a pay what you want pricing scheme.

[moi]

I think most of the main services do this nowadays.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Is there an ecommerce vendor that fits a Pay What You Want scheme?  (I think the only ones I encountered use PayPal or Facebook)  Is setting multiple price points for the same product even allowed (i.e. increments of $1, $2, $3, etc.)?

yes; you can set this up with fastspring. immortal defense and sleep is death are both pay what you want and both use fastspring.