As we heard over the past few months, PayPal is ramping up its payments options for large and small merchants. The payments giant debuted an in-store payments platform for large retailers; PayPal Here, a card swiper that attaches to a mobile phone for small businesses; and hinted at a brand new PayPal wallet. Today, PayPal is rebranding its services for small businesses as PayPal Payments, which suite of business products with three tiers of capabilities to give US small businesses multiple payment options that work for them.
Peter Karpas, North American Vice President of Customer Engagement at PayPal, tell us that this is next evolution of PayPal’s payments product for small businesses. “As the lines between online, offline and mobile are blurring, we are doing a comprehensive revamp of our products, allowing small businesses to get paid however they do business.”
Previously, PayPal’s suite of product for small business were named “website payments,” and offered standard, pro and nonprofit plans but focused on web payments. Now, PayPal is moving beyond this by offering offline, mobile, and other payments options bundled with web payments. The company has dropped the word “website” from its US product names to represent the company’s move away from the online payments platform to a multi-platform, multi-channel offering.
PayPal says every tier offers an integrated suite of products that makes it easy to take payments from mobile devices and in-person, as well as online. Each tier includes the ability to implement online payments via PayPal, in-person, offline payments via PayPal Here, mobile payments via PayPal’s checkout services for the web and apps, as well as invoicing. The suite also includes a debit card, which gives merchants access to cash in their PayPal account, with 1% cash back when they sign for purchases.
There are four tiers, including standard, pro, advanced and nonprofit plans, based on features available. Nonprofits have a discounted per transaction rate (2.2 percent vs 2.9 percent for all other plans). All the rates include online payments support, PayPal Here, the ability to accept checks, global payments, telephone support and more.
Advanced holds a $5 monthly fee, and Pro has a $30 monthly fee. The standard rate does not include the ability to complete payments without customers leaving the website. The Pro rate gives merchants the ability to accept credit cards via the phone, fax and mail. And Pro users can design their own checkout pages.
For PayPal, this is a move toward exposing small businesses, especially those who mainly use its web products, to some of the other payments platforms the company has been launching, including mobile checkout and PayPal Here.
