Since its launch in 1998, PayPal has grown faster than almost any other company in history in terms of both customer base and revenue. Over 100,000 people sign up for PayPal’s service every day, more than $1,000 goes through the PayPal financial engine every second, and thousands of individuals and businesses from across the globe come to PayPal looking for a solution to meet their online payment needs. PayPal is now available in over 100 countries and 17 currencies, with even broader expansion planned for the future. PayPal is the world’s fastest growing global currency exchange, and it is clear that PayPal is creating the new standard in online payments.
Yet despite these huge numbers, many people still think of PayPal primarily as the service they use to pay for items they buy on eBay. Awareness of PayPal as a robust, feature-rich payment service is surprisingly low, which can be partially attributed to the fact that many of PayPal’s most powerful options are relatively new. This article is intended to not only provide technical integration assistance to developers, but also raise awareness of the full spectrum of the PayPal platform in the global community that PayPal serves.
Inside these pages, I have pulled together a look at the various PayPal options available. PayPal’s system has experienced rapid growth over the years, with new acronyms, protocols, and features cropping up on a fairly regular basis. As a result, it can be difficult for someone working with PayPal for the first time to select the solution that will best solve the problem he or she is addressing. Indeed, there is often more than one approach to take that will solve the problem at hand.
In this introductory article, we’ll take a broad view at the options that PayPal offers, and how to select the right solution for your needs. We’ll also take a look at the variety of resources available for developers who wish to integrate PayPal, as well as some third-party products and services that can help you complete your project on time and under budget. But before we get there, we’ll start things off by taking a look at some of PayPal’s core benefits to merchants and consumers.
Yet despite these huge numbers, many people still think of PayPal primarily as the service they use to pay for items they buy on eBay. Awareness of PayPal as a robust, feature-rich payment service is surprisingly low, which can be partially attributed to the fact that many of PayPal’s most powerful options are relatively new. This article is intended to not only provide technical integration assistance to developers, but also raise awareness of the full spectrum of the PayPal platform in the global community that PayPal serves.
Inside these pages, I have pulled together a look at the various PayPal options available. PayPal’s system has experienced rapid growth over the years, with new acronyms, protocols, and features cropping up on a fairly regular basis. As a result, it can be difficult for someone working with PayPal for the first time to select the solution that will best solve the problem he or she is addressing. Indeed, there is often more than one approach to take that will solve the problem at hand.
In this introductory article, we’ll take a broad view at the options that PayPal offers, and how to select the right solution for your needs. We’ll also take a look at the variety of resources available for developers who wish to integrate PayPal, as well as some third-party products and services that can help you complete your project on time and under budget. But before we get there, we’ll start things off by taking a look at some of PayPal’s core benefits to merchants and consumers.
The PayPal Advantage
For the thousands of businesses opening an online storefront, PayPal is becoming less of a nice-to-have payment option and more of a must-have. The reasons described in the sections that follow are a few examples of why PayPal’s value proposition to merchants is so compelling, and why both small and large businesses are turning to PayPal not only as a payment option, but also as a stand-alone payment solution.
Increased Sales
PayPal research shows that the more payment options you provide to customers, the more sales you will make. In fact, online merchants that add PayPal as a payment option see an average sales increase of 14%. The reason is simple: buyers love to use PayPal. With over 130 million accounts, there is a massive core group of loyal consumers that like to spend money online. PayPal users spent over $30 billion online in 2006, which represents more than 10% of all U.S. e-commerce.
Credibility
PayPal lends credibility to small businesses. By offering a payment service where customers don’t have to submit their credit card number over the Internet, merchants can instill confidence in users who are hesitant to buy from a site that they may have never visited or even heard of before. The strength of the PayPal brand has made a difference in helping many new businesses get off the ground and establish themselves in a massive global online marketplace.
PayPal lends credibility to small businesses. By offering a payment service where customers don’t have to submit their credit card number over the Internet, merchants can instill confidence in users who are hesitant to buy from a site that they may have never visited or even heard of before. The strength of the PayPal brand has made a difference in helping many new businesses get off the ground and establish themselves in a massive global online marketplace.
Security
PayPal offers a high level of security, which is increasingly important in a world where, in the United States alone, over 20 million identities will be stolen this year. Approximately 70% of all spoof email in the world is related to eBay or PayPal, most with the intention of stealing your personal information. This is why PayPal is committed to combating the legions of online criminals who constantly invent new strategies to steal credit cards, Social Security Numbers, and passwords. Online fraud and identity theft is itself a growing industry, which is why Pay-Pal’s security and fraud protection techniques—widely regarded as the best in the world—continue to be one of the most valued cornerstones of the company and a key value for merchants.
The Checkout Experience
Let’s face it, the checkout process on many e-commerce sites is painful. Every new site you buy something from, it’s the same procedure over and over again: Create an account. Create a new password. Enter billing information. Enter shipping information. Confirm everything, and then hope you can remember the password if you ever need to visit the site again. I’m amazed at how many high-volume websites completely drop the ball when it comes to the checkout process, and as a result suffer from reduced buyer conversion and lost sales. With PayPal, the process is simplified. It’s as simple as remembering your email address and password, something that people are used to doing on a daily basis on numerous websites across the Internet. With a few clicks, buyers can complete a transaction using the information stored in their PayPal account. Buyers get to skip the “wallet grab”— the physical reach for the wallet (or purse) to retrieve the physical payment card is actually a significant barrier that prevents many casual web shoppers from actually following through with a purchase.
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