PayPal Pay Later
Following yesterday’s rumors of Amazon’s upcoming new payment system (of course no comments from Amazon), PayPal launched this morning a new feature that could drive significant sales for online retailers. PayPal Pay Later allows approved U.S. online retailers to offer their buyers (PayPal and guest users) to make purchases with no payments for 90 days when they use PayPal Express Checkout at checkout.
From PayPal’s press release:
Financing options and deferred payments have been proven to deliver increased sales and higher selling prices for merchants. According to a study conducted by Northstar Research Partners commissioned by PayPal, 56 percent of PayPal users are more likely to purchase from a retail site if a PayPal deferred payment option is available.
You can sign-up here for this new service.
This is going to take some wind out of I4Commerce’s BillMeLater product as I expect PayPal Pay Later to be easy to offer for both online retailers of all sizes. More importantly, I am expecting (hoping for) a similar product from Google Checkout and promotional financing that will eventually match the appealing “pay nothing for 24 months” deals offered by Bricks-and-Mortar retailers around the holidays (unfortunately you have to complete an application that rivals War and Peace to take advantage of them — huge opportunity for driving more consumers online).