It saddens us to inform you that on November 20, 2013, our old friend Google Checkout will cease to exist.  And while we will always cherish the fond memories we’ve shared, now’s not the time to wallow in bereavement.

Move on we must and step forward we shall to bid our old friend adieu while also welcoming a new one into our lives. Everyone… your attention please (drum roll sounds). It is with great pleasure that we formally introduce Stripe, 3dcart’s newest partner.

Stripe is a premier online payment solution that’s both easy to use and affordable. There are no setup fees, no monthly fees and no hidden costs of any kind. Stripe simply charges 2.9% -- plus 30 cents -- for each successful transaction. It’s also important to note that merchants will never pay a penny to Stripe unless they themselves get paid.

In addition to cost the benefits mentioned above, online store owners have access to a few enhanced features that help separate Stripe from the crowd.  With Stripe, customers will never leave the pages of your online store to complete a purchase. Users are also given the option to store credit card information as an encrypted alias, which allows shoppers to complete future purchases without having to re-enter payment information.

Another feature you’re sure to love gives merchants the ability to offer full or partial refunds directly from 3dcart’s Store Manager. So if one of your customers’ demands their money back, you can easily transfer it to their account -- assuming they've chosen to store their payment information -- without having to engage in third-party mediation or access a virtual terminal.

Getting started with Stripe only takes a few minutes (literally, a few minutes), and its beautifully designed interface creates an incredible user experience you and your customers are sure to love.

Stripe already powers commerce for thousands of sites around the world, and their users include both small and large companies, rapidly growing start-ups, side projects and everything in between.

If you would like to learn more about 3dcart’s new partnership with Stripe, we invite you to visit our dedicated landing page.

One last thing… and this is more housekeeping than anything else. You may want to consider removing Google Checkout from your store(s) ASAP and replace it with Stripe. We also recommend that you create a dedicated blog post informing your customers about the switch. This will help make the transition seamless and headache free.

Now before we close remember, on November 20 Google Checkout will be laid to rest, and it’s important that you have an alternate payment solution installed and configured well before that time. Stripe is our recommendation, but you are more than welcome to choose from our growing list of more than 100 payment processing solutions.

If you have any questions, please post them in the comment field below.

Thanks for reading everyone, and happy selling.