“It was a strong quarter for us certainly across almost every metric,” says PayPal CEO Dan Schulman. “What’s happened is the world has accelerated from physical to digital across almost every industry. If you look at health care it’s all about telemedicine right now. If you look at education it’s about remote learning. If you look at the retail industry it is now about online almost over offline or physical locations in store. If you look at the restaurant business you really can’t be in business.”
Schulman says that it is imperative for businesses to move toward a digital-first strategy. “If all you’re doing is trying to serve customers at your location given social distancing and the number of people coming out (you won’t survive),” he said. “You have to be about takeout and delivery. Across every industry, we’re seeing this surge towards a digital-first strategy. All of the tools and products and services that we offer are probably more relevant and important across multiple industries than they’ve ever been before.”
PayPal CEO: Across Every Industry, We’re Seeing a Surge Towards a Digital-First Strategy
PayPal is looking to get into cryptocurrency, opening the door for its 365 million customers.
Cryptocurrency is one of the hottest trends in the tech and financial industries, with Bitcoin’s value soaring and companies of all sizes looking to cash in. Facebook’s Libra is one of the biggest efforts at widespread cryptocurrency adoption. PayPal had initially joined the Libra Association, before withdrawing last year to pursue its own goals.
It seems that PayPal’s efforts may be close to fruition. It was previously reported by the International Business Times that PayPal is planning on allowing users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies via PayPal and Venmo. Now the IBT is reporting that, in a letter to the European Commission, PayPal has confirmed “that in addition to monitoring cryptocurrency’s evolution, it is also developing cryptocurrency capabilities in its products. The company, however, did not specify what these initiatives are.”
PayPal’s involvement in the cryptocurrency space could be a big boon to the industry, especially if it is able to lower the barrier-to-entry for non-tech users.
Google Cloud scored a major victory, signing a multi-year contract with PayPal, while also opening a new cloud region in Salt Lake City.
The new cloud region is the company’s 22nd worldwide, and will help Google better serve companies in the Western U.S. Especially as the company strives to gain ground against Amazon and Microsoft, having a cloud region that better serves that area will be a critical factor in convincing West Coast companies to move to Google.
“We’re committed to building the most secure, high-performance and scalable public cloud, and we continue to make critical infrastructure investments that deliver our cloud services closer to customers that need them the most,” said Jennifer Chason, Director, Google Cloud Enterprise – Western States & Southern California.
Due in large part to the new cloud region, PayPal has signed a multi-year contract to move key portions of its payment infrastructure to Google Cloud. The new region will provide low latency to PayPal’s own data center, and will help pave the way for PayPal to be able to migrate additional resources to Google Cloud.
“When it comes to processing a financial transaction, security and speed count. We are always looking for ways to better serve our customers, and we believe Google Cloud’s offering is the right fit when it comes to providing security, quality and velocity,” said PayPal Vice President, Employee Technology & Experiences and Data Centers, Dan Torunian. “Expanding our relationship with Google Cloud gives us access to new features and capabilities that help us manage seasonal surges in payment transactions and reduce regional expansion costs and complexities.”
PayPal has announced its acquisition of Honey Science Corporation, a price comparison platform that helps shoppers save money.
Honey was founded in 2012 and provides promo codes, discounts and online coupons to customers. Customers can even add items to their list and be notified if the price drops. The company’s addition will help PayPal further simplify the online shopping experience and be a valuable tool for PayPal’s network of merchants.
“The acquisition supports PayPal and Honey’s shared mission to simplify and personalize shopping experiences for consumers while driving conversion and increasing consumer engagement and sales for merchants. The combination will help accelerate growth across both companies. Honey will accelerate its growth by driving adoption among PayPal and Venmo’s more than 275 million active consumer accounts and sourcing exclusive offers from PayPal’s extensive network of 24 million merchant accounts. Honey will enable PayPal to reach consumers at the beginning of their shopping journeys and will enhance PayPal’s ability to help merchants acquire and convert consumers by delivering offers that are personalized, timely, and optimized across channels.”
Amid increasing competition from Apple Pay, Google Pay and other digital wallet systems, PayPal also hopes the acquisition will help it drive user engagement.
“Honey is amongst the most transformative acquisitions in PayPal’s history. It provides a broad portfolio of services to simplify the consumer shopping experience, while at the same time making it more affordable and rewarding,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal. “The combination of Honey’s complementary consumer products with our platform will significantly enhance our ability to drive engagement and play a more meaningful role in the daily lives of our consumers. As a partner of choice for our merchants, this is another way that we can help them build and strengthen their customer relationships, provide personalized offers, and drive incremental sales. The combination of Honey and PayPal adds another significant and meaningful dimension to our two-sided platform.”
The real secret to Venmo is that it’s not just a payment transaction, it’s really a social experience, says PayPal CEO Dan Schulman. “It really is tying into this desire in the millennial generation to tie into your social network,” noted Schulman. “It’s really a social experience. You do a payment, you tag it, you put an emoji next to it, you share it with your friends, and they see what you’re doing. It’s exploded.”
Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, discussed PayPal’s fast-growing social payment platform Venmo in an interview on CNBC:
The Real Secret to Venmo is the Social Experience
Venmo grew at 80 percent year-over-year in terms of its volume process. This year we will process over a $100 billion on the Venmo platform. The real secret to Venmo is that it’s not just a payment transaction. It really is tying into this desire in the millennial generation to tie into your social network. It’s really a social experience. You do a payment, you tag it, you put an emoji next to it, you share it with your friends, and they see what you’re doing. It’s exploded.
We’re adding more and more services to that like enabling you to use Venmo to buy things at merchants, to take money off instantaneously, and to have a debit card associated with your Vemma account. That’s allowing us to also monetize Venmo. We’re really seeing a tremendous turn in our ability to take that business model and turned it into a very profitable one for us over the medium to long term.
We exited last year at an approximately $200 million run rate for Venmo. That’s practically up from nothing twelve months ago. It’s obviously hitting an inflection point in terms of its revenues. But in terms of profitability people shouldn’t expect it to be profitable in the next one to two quarters. My view on Venmo is it’s an incredibly precious asset for us. We ought to keep investing in it, adding more services to it, continue to monetize it, and see the revenue start to scale quite nicely. Eventually, that will lead to profitability, but I wouldn’t predict exactly what quarter we will turn profitable on that.
Peer to Peer Payments Are Exploding
I don’t think it’s unfair at all that the banks partnered to create Zelle. That’s the way of the world that companies are coming together and sharing platforms. We share our platform with other banks and financial institutions as well. P2P or peer-to-peer payments is exploding in the market. It’s a multi-hundred billion dollar marketplace. This will definitely not be a winner-take-all.
The difference between a Venmo and a Zelle is pretty stark. On average a Zelle transaction is $250. The average Venmo transaction is about $50. The average Zelle transaction happens about once a month. Venmo happens four or five times a week. It’s a very different market and I think both will both will grow. We’re seeing all-time record net new actives coming into Venmo. The amount we’re processing is accelerating. I think the two will live side by side and it won’t be a winner-take-all.
This is a $100 Trillion Market
Asia is one of our fastest growing regions in the world. It has been for quite some time. That’s the thing about digital payments. It’s a great industry. It could be you know a $100 trillion market. That’s the total addressable market we’re playing in. We may have one to two percent share of that market today. Every region of the world is one that we can expand in, but every region of the world today, almost equally, is growing at a double-digit pace for us. I’m quite pleased with our progress in Asia but I think we can do so much more there still.
India is one very large opportunity and we’re gaining traction there. We launched domestically in India about a year ago and I’m really pleased with the traction we’re getting. You look at Japan, Indonesia, China, and they’re all great opportunities for us including other markets there.
American fintech company Brex has just launched a new corporate credit card designed specifically to assist startups.
The news of this unique credit card also comes on the heels of Brex’s recently concluded Series B funding round. The company was able to raise $57 million courtesy ofinvestors like PayPal co-founders Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, Facebook’s Yuri Milner, VC Ribbit Capital, and the Y Combinator Continuity.
Brex is the brainchild of young engineers cum entrepreneurs Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franchesci. The two are known for founding Pagar.me, a Brazilian payments processor, when they were still in their teens.
Backed by the “PayPal Mafia” Brex is set to solve the problem many startups face today – the ability to obtain a credit card without a personal guarantee. Full story here – https://t.co/23UMLxbGek via @Forbes@JeffKauflin
Brex wants to rebuild B2B financial products, and one key step to doing that is to start with a corporate credit card service. The company provides tech startups and various companies with instant approval of credit cards. What’s more, these have higher than expected credit limits and users don’t require any kind of personal guarantees.
The San Francisco-based company basically underwrites businesses and foregoes credit history in lieu of factors like its investors and the equity the company holds, its cash balance and spending habits. Brex offers the first five cards of the startup free of charge. Any additional cards after that will cost $5 monthly.
Brex credit cards offerseveral distinct features, like the capacity to capture receipts using your smart device and matching them to the card holder’s credit statement. The card can also be integrated with accounting software like Expensify, NetSuite, and QuickBooks.
Dubugras and Franchesci reportedly spent the previous year talking with customers about developing a product that could successfully navigate the regulatory and financial challenges that usually prevent early-stage startups from getting credit card approval.
According to Brex CEO Dubugras, “startups that have raised millions and are poised for hyper-growth can’t get slowed down hassling with banks requiring personal guarantees and offering meager credit limits.”
Unfortunately, traditional credit models look at how much a company can pay back annually based on revenue. This practice automatically disqualifies startups. But Brex has gotten around that problem by focusing on the cash that the investors have given the startup.
Google’s rebranding of Google Pay this year was done to make twofold transactions go more smoothly. Now, the company is integrating PayPal into the mix. This will enable PayPal users to pay bills and make purchases without having to log in or out of Google services.
The integration between Google and PayPal will go live later this year. It will cover any services and apps using Google Pay, like Gmail, the Google Store, and YouTube and will also work with peer-to-peer transfers.
The two companies working together is not new. PayPal has already been apayment option for Google Play since 2014 and in online and in-store transactions that are handled by Google Pay since 2017. Google is also working with other payment partners like Braintree, Cybersource, Mastercard, Stripe, and Visa.
The expanded relationship between Google and PayPal will undoubtedly benefit the two companies. For the former, it will mean a reduction of users leaving the site just to complete a transaction, a move that more often than not results in abandoned purchases. This will also give buyers more payment alternatives, ensuring that more sales are completed. As for PayPal, the union will also give its members an incentive to use its services to buy things, thereby leading to higher transaction revenue.
This partnership also underlines the changes and challenges happening to online payments. A large number of consumers are already willing and ready to pay for services and items online. The problem is that with so many payment options and shops, it’s difficult to keep consumer interest. The challenge now for app publishers, shop owners and platform owners is how to keep people engaged in the product and not migrate to another site.
The solution is to introduce services where payment transactions are already enabled at the point that they’re needed with minimum fuss. This means no jumping to another site or app, no logging in several times or taking additional steps just to finalize a payment.
PayPal filed a patent last week that revealed that it is considering speeding up its cryptocurrency transactions. Based on the recently released application, the payments processing company came up with a new system for faster trades involving digital currencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin, among others.
In PayPal’s filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office, the application was for an “expedited virtual currency transaction system.”
Virtual currencies, such as Bitcoin, have dramatically transformed fund transfer and payment because of minimal processing fees, unlike exorbitant charges collected by financial institutions for international wire transfers.
Without a central repository for these cryptocurrencies, transactions involving Bitcoin have to be confirmed first before being processed. Because of the time delay, users often select another payment method to proceed with the transaction instead. This has been a consistent problem that has plagued Bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
In its March 1 filing, PayPal said, “In many transaction situations, a 10-minute wait time will be too long for payers and/or payees, and those payers and/or payees will instead choose to perform the transaction using traditional payment methods rather than virtual currency.”
“Issues like this have slowed the adoption of virtual currencies despite their advantages. Thus, there is a need for an expedited virtual currency transaction system,” PayPal stated in its application.
PayPal’s patent explains the creation of several secondary wallets with their respective private keys corresponding to “predefined amounts” transferred from the first user’s primary wallet. Fund transfer will be faster since the second user receives the secondary wallet’s private keys with the pre-set value equivalent to the transaction amount.
PayPal has always been optimistic about cryptocurrencies. Two years ago, the global payments giant filed a patent for a platform that would accept the decentralized virtual currencies. In the February 2018 interview with The Wall Street Journal, PayPal’s CFO John Rainey remained upbeat on cryptocurrencies’ acceptability as a payment method.
“The technology, there is real merit to it. I do think, though, it will be years down the road before we see the kind of ubiquity and acceptance that make it a form of currency that is used every day,” Rainey told WSJ.
Every customer wants a swift and smooth payment transaction, with little fuss. This holds true regardless of whether they’re buying from a major enterprise or a small business. That goal is certainly possible with PayPal Here’s two new payment card readers.
PayPal recently launched a Chip and Swipe reader and a Chip and Tap reader, both of which will help users and small companies easily conduct credit card transactions anywhere.
The Chip and Swipe reader is an improved version of the company’s previous swipe-style reader. It now comes with support for debit and credit cards with EMV chip technology. Meanwhile, the Chip and Tap reader can process contactless payment options from NFC-supported devices and also accepts EMV-supported cards. The device also comes with a portable charging stand.
Both payment readers can easily process transaction choices like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay.
PayPal’s newreaders have been designed with portability in mind. The two devices are about the size of a deck of cards, making it possible for small retailers and entrepreneurs to do business in any location—a country fair, the neighborhood cafe—without worrying about wires or having to carry bulky hardware. They can easily connect to any mobile device using Bluetooth technology. The readers also have a user-friendly interface and can now be used for extended periods, thanks to their rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
PayPal is offering the Chip and Swipe reader for $24.99 and the Chip and Tap reader for $59.99. Both devices will work seamlessly with the PayPal Here. The app is available via the Apple App Store and Google Play.
In astatement, PayPal In-Store’s Chief Chris Gardner stated that the company understands the “challenges small businesses face—including protection from fraudulent transactions and the costs of equipment to run their business—and constantly work to develop products and services that allow them to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.” Their new and affordable card payment readers are their newest endeavor to help small business.
Gardner also pointed out that small and medium businesses also look for a “one-stop shop” for all their commerce and payment services. After all, these companies don’t have the time to deal with various vendors to manage all these financial activities. PayPal is determined to be the company to handle these demands. Merchants can use PayPal for their online transactions, PayPal Here for their physical processes, and PayPal Working Capital to help finance their expansion.
Even in business, some partnerships are just not meant to last. Despite working closely together for more than a decade, eBay recently announced that it would be ditching long-time partner PayPal as its primary payments processor by 2020.
In a post on its company website, eBay announced on Wednesday that it hassigned an agreement with Adyen, to replace PayPal. Ayden is an Amsterdam-based global payment company and one of PayPal’s rivals.
eBay acquired PayPal in October of 2002 for $1.5 billion. At the time, the two services seemed to be well-paired with eBay controlling the lion share of the online auction market while PayPal was the top player in online payment processing. However, by July of 2015, the two returned to being standalone businesses.
While Adyen will eventually be easing out PayPal from its current role, eBay assures that PayPal will remain one of the payment options that buyers can choose upon checkout. eBay further revealed it has an “Operating Agreement with PayPal, which remains in place through mid-2020.”
According to the auction giant, the shift to Adyen will bring in multiple benefits to both sellers and buyers. The cited benefits to sellers include lower costs and a simplified pricing structure, easier tracking of transactions and payment information as well as greater sales conversion due to the expanded payment options.
Buyers, on the other hand, will now have more payment options upon checkout. eBay likewise promised a more streamlined checkout experience.
Working together with eBay is a big win for Adyen especially considering the company’s relatively small size. Adyen posted a net revenue of $178 million in 2016. In comparison, rival PayPal posted almost $11 billion in revenue for the same period.
Understandably, eBay’s announcement negatively affected PayPal shares with itsprice plummeting by as much as 10 percent on Wednesday’s trading. However, it is unclear how much the Adyen deal will affect its bottom line. At the moment, PayPal’s market value is around $102 billion, more than twice Ebay’s value of $42 billion. In addition, PayPal seems to be doing fine and has recently reported a59 percent rise in profit for the fourth quarter of 2017.
Facebook is making it easier for users to send and receive money. Online payment giant PayPal announced that Facebook users can now make peer-to-peer payments via Messenger by using their PayPal accounts.
The agreement between Facebook and PayPal will also make it easier for the social network’s users to fund online purchases or send money even if they cannot provide credit or debit card information. The peer-to-peer payment started going live on October 20, 2017, but is currently only available for users within the United States. At the moment, it is not yet clear if the service will be made available for users located in other parts of the globe in the future.
The new feature can be accessed in the same manner as setting up a credit card or debit card payment method by simply tapping on the plus icon to access the Payments option. Users will then be presented with two methods to choose from—cards or PayPal. Choosing PayPal will link you to Facebook Payments, which doesn’t require credit card or debit card information.
PayPal’s entry as one of the social media platform’s payment option is expected to boost Facebook’s status as an eCommerce hub. Online transactions within the social media platform are already on the rise with around 450 million active users per month.
The online payment system is continuing its thrust to be the payment system of choice for online transactions. Recently, PayPal also partnered with the popular messaging app Skype, making it possible for users to send money even in the middle of a chat, a useful feature for those living a mobile lifestyle.
With the new Skype Send Money feature in place, the “I’m on the phone” excuse for not paying someone quickly becomes obsolete. The popular online messaging app just entered into a partnership with PayPal making it possible for people to send money to each other even in the middle of a chat.
Skype launched its Send Money feature yesterday just last week, allowing its users to make peer-to-peer payments. The feature, which is activated by a mere swipe to the right and tap on the Send Money option, is only available in 22 countries at the moment.
Aside from the U.S. and Canada, most of the countries where the Skype Send Money feature works are located in Europe. These list of countries include Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and U.K. Skype is making payment extra convenient by allowing users in these regions to send funds even in the middle of a conversation.
For the feature to be activated, the latest version of the Skype mobile app needs to be installed on the sender’s phone, Tech Crunch reported. The receiving party, on the other hand, may use any version of Skype and still receive the funds. Of course, the receiver must have a PayPal account for the transfer to work.
Skype and PayPal will not charge for the transfer if the funds come from the user’s PayPal balance or from a U.S. debit card. On the other hand, transfers funded by a credit card will be slapped with a 3.4 percent transaction cost plus a fee of 30 cents.
PayPal has been busy positioning itself to retain its market share amidst emerging threats to its business like Apple Pay and Zelle, a service offered by U.S. banks that works like Venmo. The U.S. based online payment system even partnered with rivals Apple, Visa and MasterCard to make financial transactions for its users as seamless as possible. The recent partnership with Skype will allow it to have access to the latter’s 300 million active users, a sizable potential boost to its client base.
Reporter Dan Primackreports that tech mogul and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel is joining the Trump transition team:
Peter Thiel has agreed to join Donald Trump’s presidential transition team, according to multiple sources close to the situation.
Thiel, a venture capitalist and hedge fund manager who also serves on the board of directors at Facebook, has been Trump’s most prominent Silicon Valley supporter, even speaking on his behalf at the Republican National Convention.
There were some interesting reactions to the Thiel appointment on Twitter:
What an amazing stretch of time for @peterthiel.. First he takes on Gawker.. and wins. Then he took on Silicon Valley.. and won.
PayPal has a new offering called PayPal Commerce in closed beta. It’s described as an ifrastructure enabling retailers to deliver open, distributed commerce experiences that “only PayPal and Braintree together can deliver.” It gives partners services to create contextual commerce experiences and tools for retailers to reach and engage consumers via email, social shares, blogs, articles, ads, in-page, and-in-app.
The offering makes use of PayPal’s acquisition of Modest six months ago. Harper Reed writes on the Braintree blog:
For our partners, PayPal Commerce supplies core API building blocks used in the development of their own innovative commercial applications for their users. Our earlier efforts in this area include last summer’s announcement that Braintree was powering payments for Pinterest’s launch of Buyable Pins. Later in the year, we followed up with the integration of Braintree’s sophisticated tokenization offering into Facebook Messenger for the launch of its transportation services with Uber.
For consumers – continuing on from PayPal’s origins – PayPal Commerce also aims to make buying online more convenient and seamless for its 179 million active users and beyond.
You can request to join the beta and get more information about PayPal Commerce here.
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority could launch an investigation into a PayPal ad that many parents say spoils the Santa secret.
The ad, which first aired on Sunday during The X Factor, features two kids worrying about not getting any Christmas presents.
“I don’t think we;’re getting any Christmas presents this year,” says one child to his brother. “Have you noticed how mom and dad have been around so much lately? Normally, this time of year, they’re out shopping.”
The point of the ad is that the parents have used PayPal to do all of their shopping online. But upset parents have argued that the ad makes it appear as though parents are the reason kids receive presents Christmas morning, not Santa Claus.
The Guardian reports that the UK’s ad watchdog has received over 230 complaints about the ad.
Parents aren’t just mad about the ad itself, but also about it’s airing time. Apparently, it aired before 9pm – when kids are still awake and watching TV.
PayPal has been quick to address the controversy, saying it thought everyone knew that both Santa and kids’ parents deliver presents on Christmas.
“We just want to take a moment to say we’re sorry that some people have been upset by our new UK Christmas TV advert,” said a spokeswoman for PayPal. “Our ad aims to take a fun look at those Christmas presents kids know come from their parents, and not in any way say Father Christmas doesn’t also deliver presents to them.”
PayPal UK has pledged to make sure its ad runs after 9pm.
The PayPal Here Chip Card Reader has been around in the UK and Australia for about two years, and on September 30, it will be available in the U.S. The device works with iOS and Android and accepts chip card transactions, magnetic stripe, and contactless NFC transactions from Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, and others.
“It is important that merchants understand the consequences of the EMV liability shift of fraud losses,” says Brad Brodigan, Vice President and General Manager, Retail at PayPal. “To help our small business customers prepare, we have been providing updates on the process since earlier this year and educating businesses on what the liability shift means for them. Beginning this Thursday, October 1, merchants who do not accept chip cards will be liable for point of sale fraud when their customers use chip cards, unless they upgrade to an EMV terminal.”
“Beyond the need to accept chip card payments, merchants should view the liability shift as an opportunity to upgrade and modernize their Point of Sale systems with the latest technology that enables them to sell online, on mobile and in-person all with the same account,” adds Brodigan. “Future-proofing with a solution that already accepts multiple forms of payment is key to being prepared for new technologies – like contactless payments.”
Merchants can order the device here. It’s $149 or $49 with the rebate offer they’re offering for merchants that process at least $3,000 within three months of activating it.
PayPal has just launched its own peer-to-peer payment service to compete with the likes of Square Cash and Google Wallet.
It’s called PayPal.me, and it’s a custom URL that’s linked to your PayPal account.
Users can send their custom URL to friends and family as an easy way to request money.
“PayPal.Me is a free, simple, and personal way to request money from anyone across the globe. It’s a link you can personalize with your name and send to groups of friends, family and colleagues for a quick, hassle-free way to pay you back quickly. It’s an instant, safe, unique link that works on any device no matter where you’re talking to people – in a text, email, instant messenger, social media post, blog, or on the web,” says PayPal.
You can head on over to PayPal.me right now to snag your own custom URL. I got PayPal.me/joshwolford, so if you go right now you might be able to grab your name without incident (depending on how common your name is).
Here’s what it looks like when someone clicks on your custom URL:
The service launches today in 18 countries: U.S., Germany, UK, Australia, Canada, Russia, Turkey, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Austria. PayPal says this will help put a dent in the $51 billion in IOUs floating around in friend and family debt. I don’t know about all that, but it is definitely an easier way to use PayPal.
PayPal just launched a new online invoicing product, which utilizes the functionality of the existing PayPal invoicing and adds features to help merchants bill more efficiently and get paid faster.
There are new invoice template options, partial payment functionality, the ability to record cash or check payments, the ability to CC others on an email invoice, the ability to share invoice links to customers directly, and the ability to save a PDF of the invoice for your records.
There are three new template options: Quantity (for breaking out the quantity sold), Hours (for billing by an hourly rate), and Amount only (when quantity or hours don’t apply).
With partial payments, you can enable partial payments and minimum payment amounts. This way a customer can pay a deposit up front for example. An invoice will have a partially paid status until it’s been completely paid.
“Our new invoicing product adds to the list of value-add products/services PayPal extends to merchants, in addition to things like PayPal Working Capital (extending credit to merchants to help them stock inventories and scale) and PayPal Here (enabling merchants to have a mobile POS that accepts all types of payments from mag stripe to EMV to NFC),” a spokesperson for PayPal tells WebProNews.
“As always, we’ll continue to support our existing invoicing features to help businesses send, track and manage customized invoices and get paid quickly and efficiently,” the company says.
According to the company, 2.5 million businesses sent PayPal invoices last year.
PayPal announced the launch of One Touch for Web, enabling users to pay for things around the web without user IDs and passwords after their first login. The feature was first launched on mobile devices back in August.
Since the mobile launch, merchants including Airbnb, Boxed, Jane.com, Lyft, Munchery, and YPlan have added One Touch to their services.
“Not only did consumers love the experience, but we heard from many of our merchants that One Touch led to an immediate increase in sales, average order values, customer adoption and loyalty,” said Bill Ready, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Merchant and Next-Generation Commerce at PayPal. “For example, Yplan reported a double digit increase in conversions since using One Touch, and StubHub reported a double digit increase in total sales and transactions through PayPal on iOS with One Touch since enabling One Touch for mobile last fall. And because One Touch enables consumers to pay without entering any payment information even at signup, it helps to increase customer adoption.”
“With the extension of One Touch for mobile and web browsers, merchants can now offer their customers this same great buying experience across the Web, enabling more seamless and secure shopping,” he added. “Most PayPal merchants will automatically have One Touch enabled for their customers, without needing to do any integration. Consumers that choose to pay via One Touch will soon be able to securely checkout across millions of PayPal enabled websites in a single touch, without having to re-enter their login information. And since we’ve extended the product beyond native mobile, One Touch will soon be available to PayPal’s 165M customer accounts regardless of whether they have the PayPal mobile app.”
The change has already begun rolling out in the U.S. It will expand internationally over the coming months, the company says.
PayPal released this infographic illustrating the time and effort One Touch saves:
According to Reuters, PayPal hopes the feature will reduce the “$4 trillion in merchandise abandoned in retailers’ online shopping carts every year due to complicated checkout procedures.”
Shopping cart abandonment is indeed still a major issue for online businesses, and things have only gotten worse. Unfortunately, PayPal’s solution will do little to influence one of the biggest reasons people abandon their carts, and that’s shipping costs.
Last fall, UPS and comScore partnered on a study, which found that as many as 81% of online shoppers in the U.S. indicated free shipping played a major role in their experience. 9 out of ten shoppers said they abandon shopping carts, while 6 out of 10 said they’ve done so after finding out that shipping costs made the price higher than expected. Half said they abandoned carts because their order value wasn’t large enough to qualify for free shipping.
Other reasons included people not being ready to purchase, but wanting to save the cart for later or wanting to get an idea of the cost for comparison, getting distracted and forgetting to complete a purchase, and preferred payment options not being offered.
PayPal announced that Burger King customers will soon be able to pay for their meals using PayPal thanks to a collaboration between PayPal and Tillster and one between Tillster and Burger King. This is in the U.S.
“Tillster worked with Burger King Corporation to develop the Burger King app (available for iOS and Android), which offers customers increased convenience and savings,” PayPal chief product officer Hill Ferguson says. “With the Burger King App, guests can receive exclusive offers and discounts at BK restaurants, find their closest BK restaurant, and browse the menu and nutritional information.”
“We will be rolling [it] out later this quarter across the United States to all locations,” Ferguson adds. “BK restaurant guests will be able to securely pay with PayPal by simply launching the app and when they select to pay with PayPal they will be prompted with a four digit pin to pay.”
We seem to be officially entering the era of paying for fast food with non-traditional means. Taco Bell launched a new mobile app last week to much fanfare, enabling users to order and pay using their smartphones.
PayPal also announced that it’s been working with GoDaddy on its new Online Store to offer businesses ways to build e-commerce websites.
Marc Andreessen announced he is resigning from eBay’s board of directors as the company prepares to split into two separate entities: eBay and PayPal.
Andreessen has been on the board for six years. He joined in September of 2008. He said that now is the right time to step down with the split-up on the way.
eBay President and CEO John Donahoe said: “Marc has been an extraordinary board member, and we greatly appreciate the leadership, insight and expertise he has provided over the past six years. He has provided invaluable support to me, the board and the entire company.”
“It’s been an absolute privilege to serve with John, Pierre, and team, and I could not be more proud of what we’ve accomplished,” Andreessen said. “I have complete confidence in John and the board to lead eBay and PayPal through the process of embarking on independent paths in 2015. I wish eBay, and both of its successor companies, all the best, and look forward to following the future of eBay and PayPal closely in the years to come.”
The board decided that splitting up eBay and PayPal would best position both units to “capitalize on their respective growth opportunities in the rapidly changing global commerce and payments landscape.”
Donahoe and CFO Bob Swan will lead the separation of each business with oversight from the board. eBay’s new CEO will become Devin Wenig, who is currently president of eBay Marketplaces. Dan Schulman is PayPal’s president, and is in charge of finding a CEO for the standalone company.
