Thursday, July 8, 2021
Pricing details include $29 for a merchant's first Zettle card reader and $79 for additional devices. PayPal Zettle transactions are priced at 2.29 percent plus 9 cents. QR code payments are priced at 1.9 percent plus 10 cents. In a press release, PayPal said the pricing was "at launch" and subject to change.
News of PayPal Zettle comes on the heels of notice of planned fee hikes for online payments. Online merchants using PayPal currently pay 2.9 percent plus 30 cents to accept PayPal digital products; beginning in August 2021, the price will jump to 3.49 percent plus 49 cents. PayPal will begin charging 2.59 percent plus 49 cents for online payments using traditional credit and debit in August; merchants who opt for chargeback protection will 2.99 percent plus 49 cents. Today, PayPal charges online merchants the same rate (2.9 percent plus 30 cents) regardless of payment instrument.
PayPal's business has boomed since the pandemic began, as more consumers flock online. The company reported that it processed $285 million in payments during the first quarter this year, a 49 percent increase over the first quarter of 2020.
PayPal Zettle leverages the company's 2019 acquisition of iZettle, a Swedish financial technology firm that had developed a miniature card reader that works with any smartphone or tablet, and was positioned to compete with Square. At the time of the acquisition, iZettle had a presence in 12 European and Latin American countries. With a price tag of $2.2 billion, iZettle was PayPal's largest acquisition ever.
The U.S. version of Zettle offers small businesses an integrated solution that supports a range of payment options – PayPal accounts, credit and debit cards, Venmo QR Codes, digital wallets and access to PayPal loans – for in-person and online sales. It also includes tools for managing sales and inventory, invoicing, and accessing reports through a merchant's PayPal business account. The company said merchant funding will occur "typically within one day."
PayPal Zettle also offers interoperability through PayPal's partner network, allowing merchants to link PayPal Zettle accounts with a merchant's preferred ecommerce, accounting and POS providers. Integrations already are in place with a range of companies, the company said, including BigCommerce, Lightspeed, QuickBooks Online and SalesVu.
"Consumers want seamless and integrated digital experiences no matter where they shop," said Jim Magats, senior vice presidentfor omni payments at PayPal. "As a result, small businesses need access to omnichannel payment and commerce tools to help them effectively compete and meet their customers wherever they are – in-person, online or in-between."
"As merchants adapt their businesses to start selling across more channels, the complexity of managing operations becomes a primary point of friction," said Mark Rosales, vice president of business development and payments at BigCommerce. "PayPal Zettle's complete point-of-sale integration with BigCommerce empowers our merchants to operate in a truly omnichannel ecosystem, connecting their digital operations with their offline business in a simplified way."
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