.. at least if you use carrier based rates. It's obvious that Google cannot/will not read your rates from the store, so it has to go to the back up -- flat rate -- method. I have had three orders using Google Checkout since activating it, and I have lost money on all three on shipping charges. The only way you cannot lose money if you use carrier-based rates is to set your backup method so high that when a customer checks out it looks like you're gouging them. Either way the shipping rates don't match if they do an estimate at the Shopping Cart page.


And I very much do not like that Google Checkout requires a customer to fill out all information, including credit card information BEFORE displaying shipping rates. It's totally unprofessional.

Couldn't the shipping calculation be completed BEFORE the handoff to google?

It seems that if at the cart level or first checkout page the shipping info could be gathered and the method decided by the customer, it could all be handed to google in one go without any delay?

You can not pass in the shipping address to Google Checkout. The customer must enter/select the shipping address from within Google Checkout. Then Google "calls" the store to ask how much to charge for shipping, handling, and taxes.


Google Checkout is more than just a payment method, it replaces the entire store checkout process. This is true for any store that implements Google Checkout (i.e. BVC5, a hosted ecommerce package, OS Commerce, etc). That is why the Google Checkout button appears on the "View Cart" page.



This can be frustrating for BVC5 merchants that are used to customizing the checkout process to suite their needs. If you choose to use Google Checkout, then you give up control over the checkout process. On the other hand Google Checkout is cheap for the merchant and may increase the conversion rate.