Why should your business have PayPal at the checkout?
Do you have a business that conducts online transactions? Find out why you should have PayPal at the checkout.
It was not so long ago that only small merchants or peer-to-peer platforms would offer PayPal as a checkout option. The big hitters had offered their customers Visa or Mastercard as the sole payment option.
While everyone acknowledged that PayPal was an excellent service, it did not have the same kudos. PayPal and eBay were the sites that went hand-in-hand. However, that is not the case anymore, and now people expect to be able to use their PayPal account wherever they want. Hopefully, that will include the checkout at your store.
How PayPal started out
PayPal was initially set up to allow people to make online purchases in the days when cash was king, and online encryption and cyber security were virtually non-existent. No one in their right mind would risk sharing their card details over the internet.
PayPal was one of the earliest of FinTech companies
PayPal was essentially one of the earliest FinTech companies that changed how we interact with money and payments. PayPal does not ask for anyone to share financial information, and an email address is all that was required. Between 2002 and 2015, PayPal was owned by eBay and was the only payment option for the site.
eBay and PayPal are no longer one business
Since the brands have unshackled from each other, eBay has offered alternative payment methods for customers. PayPal has also seen significant developments in what it provides to its customers. However, the fact remains that users of PayPal only have to provide the merchant with their email address, which makes people feel very secure when making purchases online.
This payment is now accepted across almost all eCommerce platforms, from travel agents to fashion retailers and PayPal betting sites — where it allows betters to deposit and receive payouts instantly. For many people, it is their preferred payment option due to its simplicity and security.
Active PayPal users have doubled in the last five years
According to verified sources, there are 429 million active Paypal users worldwide. This has more than doubled in the last five years. There were 200 million in 2017.
If that is not a compelling enough reason to accept this payment method at checkout, then maybe recent innovations the platform has introduced will persuade you. For example, PayPal has launched two alternative services that give users more time to pay rather than the money coming immediately out of their account.
Buy now, pay later
PayPal Credit offers customers interest-free credit for a fixed period. They do not get a physical card, but it is available wherever PayPal is accepted. They also provide customers with a split payment scheme. This allows customers to make equal payments over a period that is agreed upon upfront. The merchant gets paid in full when the purchase is made.
No hanging around for the cash
PayPal settles payments incredibly quickly. For the merchant, this means that you are not waiting for days on end for the credit card company to settle. The official time to pay is one to three days. However, generally speaking, it is much faster than this and can often be instantaneous. Whatever size company you are, cash flow is incredibly important. Anything that your business can do to improve liquidity is always worth doing.
Not only an online option
It is not only online merchants that can benefit from taking PayPal at the checkout. There are also options available for sellers in the physical world. For years micro-sellers and artisans have taken payments using their PayPal accounts when people have not had cash. The buyer and seller would share email addresses, and the money would be transferred to complete the sale.
Now PayPal offers a QR code to make this even more accessible. The QR code is printed on point of sale by the till. The buyer scans the code, which opens the app, and the payment happens instantly.
PayPal is not just about taking payments
Other benefits of taking PayPal are the opportunities to access business funding if required via PayPal Working Capital and a sophisticated suite of business reporting and admin tools.
