Facebook is coming after eBay's (EBAY) PayPal and Google Checkout and it's hiring-up to do it.

The guy who used to run Google Checkout, Prashant Fuloria, left Google (GOOG) after six years last month and now works for Facebook. He is responsible for the "Pay With Facebook" product, reports Inside Facebook.

Though Mark Zuckerberg has only suggested it's a long-term goal, it's looking more like "Pay WIth Facebook" will compete not just with the for-social-networks-only payment systems from startups Zong, Boku, Social Gold and Slide, but also with the Web-wide biggies PayPal, Amazon and Google Checkout.

We have two main reasons Facebook stands a better than fighting chance against those established players:

Facebook Connect's success with publishers. Small and large publishers alike tell us allowing users to login to their sites through Facebook Connect has wildly increased user-interaction. Some Web publishers have told us user registrations and comments multiplied almost immediately. Facebook Connect proves that when users are offered a one-click alternative to a series of forms to fill out, they'll take it. "Pay With Facebook" would offer this same alternative at e-commerce sites.
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The US Postal Service processed 2.8 billion fewer pieces of mail in the month of May than it did in the same time period a year ago. The steepest decline was in advertising mail, down 24%. First class mail was down 16%. The 19.9% decline in overall volume yielded a 15.3% decrease in revenue. Combined with a decrease in expenses of just 6.7%, the end result was a net loss of $677 million. That brings the fiscal year to date loss to $3.4 billion, putting the USPS on track lose around $6 billion by the time the fiscal year ends on September 30.

The loss comes despite unprecedented reductions in employee workhours. City carriers' hours were down 10% from May 2008, while hours for "inside" staff at post offices and processing centers were down 16%.

It should be noted that the postal service is required by Congress to set aside $5.4 billion this fiscal year to "pre-fund" future retiree health benefits. No other business or agency is required to do this. That $5.4 billion is included in the expected $6 billion deficit. All of which means that despite the sharp decline in mail volume, the USPS would otherwise be seeing only a modest net loss this year, or even a profit if it weren't for the "pre-funding" requirement. We've covered this congressional shell game in the past, and the Inspector General's office has found that even if the pre-funding requirement is considered legitimate, the USPS is being overcharged by $3.3 billion a year- read their report here.

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PayPal have published the results of their second annual Checkout Abandonment Survey, looking at why website buyers don't complete purchases. Just like last year's survey, an excessive shipping fee was the number one reason for shoppers walking away. It's clear that if sellers are able to offer shipping-inclusive prices, this is something that buyers like, however counter-intuitive that might be for those of us who typically sell more than one item at a time. And even if your site charges separate shipping, making that cost transparent at the beginning of the checkout flow – or earlier – is essential.

There's some suggestion, though, that buyers are getting more savvy with their online shopping: the second most popular reason for abandonment was that buyers wanted to comparison shop, and 25% cited leaving the site to look for a coupon or discount voucher. Sellers should be using this behaviour to their advantage: if you're not currently listing website coupons on voucher sites, you're probably missing out on some valuable free advertising, and a fair number of sales.

But there's some reassurance: a third of shoppers who abandoned their carts later returned to the same site to purchase.

Sellers should consider:

making it easy for shoppers to bookmark their site and specific items they're interested in,
using social bookmarking tools as well as traditional browser bookmarks/favourites
extending the life of shopping cart cookies so that buyers who return later can find the items they'd already added to their cart,
and offering a wish-list facility for longer-term use.

PayPal are running a video presentation later today to discuss their findings further.

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Close to half (45%) of online shoppers have abandoned their carts multiple times in the past three weeks due to high shipping costs, security concerns and lack of convenience, according to a new survey released by PayPal and conducted by comScore.

High shipping costs was the most commonly given reason for cart abandonment with the average cost of abandoning U.S. shopping carts reaching $109. The survey found that providing shipping costs upfront might have led to 40 percent to complete the purchase.

To help reduce shopping cart abandonment, PayPal has introduced an "Instant Update API," that allows merchants to show order details earlier in the process including shipping options, insurance choices and tax totals.


Eddie Davis"To get shoppers to buy, it's critical merchants make the checkout experience easy and costs transparent," said Eddie Davis, senior director of SMB merchant services, PayPal.

The survey also found indications that the economy still has shoppers wary about clicking the purchase button. More than one-third of respondents abandoned checkout because they did not plan for all of the expenses; while more than 25 percent left a site to search for a coupon. The good news is one-third of shoppers later returned to the same site to make a purchase.

"Merchants who don't welcome back abandoners with open arms are leaving hundreds of dollars per shopper on the table," added Davis.

"Merchants need to remember the items that customers abandon and make it easy for them to buy when they return. Sweetening the deal with free shipping, coupons and special discounts is also a great way to encourage online shoppers to complete their purchases."

Breakdown on Why Shoppers Abandon:
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PayPal launched a "Do Stuff for Money" campaign that lets people ask others to "do stuff for money." Users go to paypal.com/DoStuffForMoney and send a personalized offer to a friend, family-member or colleague to do something for a set fee. The offer can be sent via Facebook or email. The recipient of the offer can accept, decline or ignore the offer. Decisions are posted on the recipient's Facebook wall. If the recipient accepts the offer, the sender can pay them instantly using PayPal's Send Money feature.

On Friday, PayPal announced that users could now send money via PayPal to friends and family in the US for free.

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SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--In an apparent bid to attract new sellers, troubled e-commerce giant eBay Inc. (EBAY) said Tuesday it will waive some listing fees for people who want to auction goods on the company's marketplaces platform.

San Jose, Calif.-based eBay, which is struggling to compete with Web retailers such as Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), said sellers would be able to list five products for auction every 30 days without having to pay up-front listing fees.

But the move could prove ineffective because the new pricing structure may actually cost sellers more in commission fees than under the previous pricing structure, depending on the auction starting price and final selling price.

EBay has in the past year come under intense criticism from small sellers who have grown disenchanted with fee changes that made it easier and cheaper for bigger merchants to list products in large quantities.

Critics have argued those changes, part of the company's ongoing turnaround strategy, have transformed eBay from a quirky online auction market into a high-volume fixed-price retail site.

The company said it hoped Tuesday's changes would attract new sellers to try the site without upfront costs.

"By eliminating the upfront costs of selling on eBay, we hope this new structure will encourage all sellers - new, occasional or experienced - to use the offering as a cost-effective way to sell on our site and earn a little extra cash," said Lorrie Norrington, presiden ...