Google released a Google Checkout gadget for incorporation into Google Sites which provides instantaneous e-commerce abilities to any Google Sites website. I've been meaning to give it a test and did so this past weekend setting up an e-commerce site for selling painted miniatures. Setup was straight forward and rather easy. Step one was to receive a merchant account at Google Checkout. Step one was to populate a spreadsheet with title info, product info, quantity, selling price, and a url link to a product photo. Step three was to embed the gadget into a website. There were a couple of lessons along the way which I documented. Google Checkout can be used within Sites to sell virtually anything from products to services. Google takes a small percentage (1.9% - 2.9%) based upon sales volume along with a $0.30 fee per transaction. The final result is a clean looking website with product picture on the left, description in the middle, and pricing on the right. The shopping cart is displayed on the top. I tested the website in various browsers and on a mobile phone browser with good results. |
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