I’ve started to recommend Google Checkout to a number of small businesses. I have 3 criteria for making the recommendation:

1. The merchant does little to no in-house email marketing (promotional, monthly newsletter, community building [thanks, Dave], etc.)
2. The merchant makes little to no money through upsells
3. The merchant has little to no repeat business

Ok, I guess there’s a 4th criteria…thinking short term and only about top line revenue growth. Ok. Ok. You know my opinion on this one.

Even with the $50K? $100K? in free AdWords clicks Google Checkout is throwing around, I still can’t make sense of this for an internet retailer 400 (or 2000 if there was such a list) merchant. Unless Checkout passes back the email address of the customer for 80%+ of the purchases, has amazing upsell functionality (which I know is in the works), and offers a short term contract, I just don’t think it makes sense.

However, as consumer adoption increases (with more promotions like the $10 of any purchase of $30 or more) and merchants are pressured to show top line revenue growth in line with the industry average, I have a feeling that more and more large merchants will take the plunge. And a free month of AdWords clicks plus free credit card processing is a hefty incentive.

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