With more than 22 million merchants using its services, it is interesting to know what makes PayPal strong. And to find out if it is the best option for you as a primary payment processor for your business.
Ecommerce growth in recent times has opened up opportunities for online payment processors. You see lots of merchants having between 3 to 5 payment options for their customers.
Even though the traditional payment processing still remains relevant today, PayPal seems to be everywhere.
Before we delve into the specifics, let’s do a bit on PayPal background.
About PayPal
PayPal is the payment processing company that seems to be everywhere. An impressive 302+ million active customer accounts with 22 million merchant accounts makes PayPal one of the biggest.
PayPal makes the accounts set up very easy for its merchants. This is one payment processor that requires little or no assistance from the customer support team.
So why has PayPal continued to grow to the point of dominating the online payment processing industry?
You will find a lot of answers to that question from this PayPal review. But first, let’s look at some of those benefits that merchants stand to gain from using PayPal.
Amazing Benefits of PayPal to Merchants
1 – PayPal is Super Easy to Set Up
If you have had to set up an online payment processor in the recent past, you would agree that it was mainly a technical job. It took quite some time, expertise, and a little bit of money to get you up and running.
Fast forward to the year 2020 and you want to set up PayPal for your business! You would have noticed the difference between setting up payment processing in the past and setting up with PayPal.
That’s because PayPal makes it so easy that no technical skill is required for set up. And you could have your PayPal merchant account set up and running almost instantly.
2 – Great Developer Tools
Although the PayPal developer tool doesn’t come amongst the top two positions (for Stripe and Braintree), it integrates nicely with Braintree which is actually a PayPal-owned company.
In recent times, PayPal has made serious investments into its developer tools. So we see great improvements in the tools and on the right way they can be used.
You could also create a Braintree account and easily integrate PayPal into it.
3 – PayPal is Transparent
If there’s anything I’ve grown to admire about PayPal, it is its transparency.
Its terms and conditions are clearly spelled out, with nothing hidden or undisclosed to merchants.
You do not need to sign any contract or binding agreement. Plus you are free to walk out of the business relationship without any termination fees.
The terms are so clear that PayPal leaves out any grey areas or room for speculations.
4 – PayPal Lets You Decide
How about giving you the option to decide how you want to use PayPal? Do you want it to be the exclusive payment processor for your store, or as a payment option?
PayPal gives you that privilege to decide if it should handle all your payments or otherwise.
5 – PayPal Scales with Your Business
No matter the size of your business, PayPal has the ability to meet your needs.
It becomes quite exciting when you know that PayPal works with you as your business expands.
You are offered tools that enable you to sell your products anywhere in the world.
6 – Ongoing Development of Business Tools
PayPal keeps pushing out business tools that help to enhance productivity. In this era where businesses are more prone to changes, working with a change leader is essential.
Some of these new tools developed by Paypal include LoanBuilder.
It is basically a short-term loan facility that is made available to all PayPal merchants. It is open to merchants who require short-term loans while having a PayPal score of 550 and above.
Another of its new tools for merchants is the Checkout on Instagram. This tool lets US merchants sell their products directly to their customers through Instagram.
The PayPal Instant Transfer to Banks lets US consumers instantly transfer PayPal balances to their bank accounts. This is also open to PayPal merchants letting them transfer their PayPal balance to bank accounts of their preference.
Some other new tools available to all merchants are New Tax Features, Recurring Invoices, and PayPal Invoicing API.
7 – Wide Integration Options and Add-ons
Merchants do not need to worry about their shopping carts working smoothly with PayPal.
That’s because PayPal integrates nicely with most e-commerce platforms available.
Some popular PayPal integrations include Shopify, Bigcommerce, Wix, WooCommerce, and WordPress.
Other applications include Magento, CS-Cart, Squarespace, Volusion, Ecwid, Jimdo, and many others.
Accounting applications like QuickBooks Online and Xero can be easily integrated with PayPal.
PayPal has so much to offer your business as you would find out next.
PayPal Products and Services
PayPal is a payment processor that integrates easily into your online and offline stores.
To start using PayPal, you are required to set up a business account that is free.
Then afterward, you decide on which products and services to use for your business.
Here are products and services options for merchants on PayPal Online payments.
I – PayPal Checkout
It is the basic solution to go for if you already own an online store. It fits in nicely into stores that accept credit cards for payments. The PayPal Checkout also integrates with e-commerce providers without much fuss.
At the setup phase, you might need to work with a developer if you don’t possess technical skills. From then on it becomes a piece of cake to handle.
However, maintenance and upkeep are done by PayPal, letting you focus on your core business.
Some features that come with PayPal Checkout are PCI Compliance, contextual Checkout buttons, and localized payment methods.
II – PayPal Payments Standard
This product is an upgrade to the PayPal Checkout solution. It contains all the features of PayPal Checkout with the exception of the smart Checkout buttons.
The PayPal Payments Standard is designed to give merchants more control and customization options with payment processing – meaning that the merchants get more involved with the setup and management of their payment processing.
Most of the integrations available in PayPal Checkout can also be found in this solution.
The PayPal Payments Standard is PCI compliant and also features customizable payment buttons.
It takes about 15 minutes to implement the PayPal Payments Standard with just copy and paste of the required codes.
The payment buttons allow you to create online stores where you can easily sell any number of items, while the button builder lets you customize the look and feel of your store’s buttons.
You can also customize different aspects of the checkout process like allowing customers to jump to a product, or proceed to a cart.
The button builder can also be used by non-profit organizations to create donation buttons.
III – PayPal Payments Pro
The PayPal Payments Pro offers the highest level of control to merchants. But this solution comes with a price – cost and technical wise.
For the cost, merchants have to cough out $30 every month for using the PayPal Payments Pro. There is also a special need for technical skills to get the PayPal Payments Pro set up and running.
This solution includes the Hosted Checkout Page that lets you keep customers on your site throughout the checkout process.
You can customize the design of your checkout to enable you to improve the user experience of your customers. You will be, however, expected to carry out self-assessment and quarterly scans for the PCI compliance’s sake.
The Virtual Terminal also comes bundled, and it lets you accept payments over the phone. All you have to do is key in the card numbers from the window of your browser.
You can also include recurring billing tools through an add-on that will cost you $10 monthly.
IV – PayPal Here
This allows merchants to receive payments from PayPal’s mobile processing app.
It’s a cool feature that lets you receive deposited funds from online sales all in one PayPal account, without subscription or software fees.
V – POS System Integration
If your POS needs are greater than your offers, you can integrate PayPal into third-party POS solutions.
Though you may be required to pay subscription fees for the software, PayPal doesn’t charge you extra. All you’ve got to do is pay for transaction fees and the hardware.
VI – Online Invoicing
Business people, freelancers, and consultants can bill clients with PayPal’s online invoicing. The rates are practically the same as regular web transactions.
The invoicing also allows you to set up installment payments, and create custom billing apps.
VII – Marketing Solutions
This solution can be accessed in all of PayPal’s online processing options.
It’s a great analytics tool for merchants to obtain data and learn about PayPal users. It comes with checkout and lets you know how users interact with your website.
VIII – PayPal Mass Payouts
This lets you send out money to different people at one time. Users can use a spreadsheet or the PayPal API for the payments.
The benefits of Mass Payouts are cheaper rates compared to standard rates, plus you also save time.
Funding Options for PayPal
In most cases, money received from a PayPal transaction hits your account immediately. You can then decide on how you want to spend the funds. You could pay for products in a PayPal supported store or transfer to your bank account.
PayPal also offers its Business Debit MasterCard to businesses. With this card, you have fast access to cash in your PayPal account. You don’t even need to transfer the funds in your PayPal account.
You can also spend your balance in any store or withdraw from any ATM that accepts MasterCard, Maestro, or Cirrus.
In case you decide on moving your money to your bank account, there’s a 1% fee on transfer volume – which is capped at $10.
There are transfer limits set at $5,000 per $15,000 transaction a month for merchants.
Are you in need of fast cash? Then apply for PayPal Working Capital. You can get a cash advance while PayPal deducts this sum in small parts from your transactions.
PayPal Transaction Fees
PayPal is pretty much transparent about its fee structure. The company includes all the fees and rates for its services on its website.
This review offers a concise version of PayPal fees and rates.
The transaction fees apply to all merchants regardless of the plan you’re on.
I – Online sales attract a fee of 2.9% plus $0.30 for every transaction.
II – Transaction fees for all swiped/dipped/tapped mobile and in-store payments are 2.7%.
III – For all transactions that are keyed-in mobile and in-store, you are required to pay 3.5% plus $0.15.
IV – All virtual transactions attract fees of 3.1% plus $0.30 on every payment made.
V – Mass Payouts attract a 2% transaction fee for using the online form, or $0.25 per payout when you use PayPal API.
VI – Other fees include $20 for any chargeback, 1.5% for the cross border fee, and 1% transfer fee. Also, when a merchant issues a refund, PayPal charges you 2.9% plus $0.30 for each refund.
Conclusion
It has become standard practice for all businesses to have an online presence.
Soon all merchants will have their stores on the internet. Allowing merchants to sell their products and services from anywhere in the world.
One important component of any online store is the payment processor used, while there are a lot of payment processors to choose from, we singled out PayPal for this review.
PayPal allows merchants to choose from using it as an exclusive payment processor or as an alternative.
PayPal is a transparent company that hides nothing from potential users of its services. The sign-up process is free and quite painless for merchants.
There is little or no need for technical skills when setting up a PayPal business account for your store
This review provides you with benefits and different products that PayPal offers to its merchants.
With these details, you can make an informed decision to use PayPal or opt for an alternative.
If you choose to run with PayPal, you can get started right away.
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