PayPal announced today that it’s launching “Tap to Pay” for merchants with an iPhone through the Venmo and Zettle apps in the U.S. PayPal, which owns both Venmo and Zettle, says the feature will allow businesses to accept contactless card and digital wallet payments directly on their iPhones with no additional cost or hardware. The launch comes eight months after PayPal introduced the feature for merchants with Android phones.
In addition to being able to accept payments from cards or digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay, Tap to Pay allows merchants to add taxes, accept tips, send receipts and issue refunds without any additional hardware. Funds from sales are quickly put into a business’s Venmo or PayPal Zettle account, the company says. PayPal charges 2.29% + 9¢ for every sale through the tap-to-pay method across Zettle and Venmo.
With Tap to Pay on iPhone, Venmo business profile users will be able to reach for customers by accepting payments from buyers even if they don’t have a Venmo account. Merchants can manage both their Venmo and card payment transactions directly within the Venmo app.
The official launch of the feature comes a few months after PayPal began been testing it through an early access program.
The launch of the new feature comes two years after PayPal rival Stripe became Apple’s first payment partner for Tap to Pay. A year later, Stripe enabled businesses to carry out Tap to Pay transactions on NFC-equipped Android devices, as well. Stripe charges $0.10 per transaction for Tap to Pay purchases using its Stripe payment gateway, with additional charges for card and digital wallet payments.
As consumers are increasingly going cashless, PayPal says Tap to Pay on iPhone will help millions of small businesses adapt to the shift in consumer behavior, as it removes the need to for merchants to purchase card readers.