With the online shopping season about to start, PayPal is lending a hand to millions of consumers by announcing the expansion of its payments platform, whereby the processor will refund return shipping costs to consumers on select online purchases.
Essential e-commerce tool
PayPal Return Shipping on Us is officially launching in the United States after experiencing a successful testing period in Australia, France, Italy and Spain. The service already exists in over 40 countries, and it will hugely benefit merchants as well as consumers.
‘‘If you own an online store, the thought of covering return shipping costs not only sounds expensive but makes it hard to forecast your holiday revenue stream,’’ said Joanna Lambert, vice president of consumer product and engineering, PayPal.
‘‘Options like refunds on return shipping costs, formerly considered a perk or promotional tool offered by retailers, are now integral to getting a consumer to click that buy button online,’’ continued Lambert.
‘Supporting our merchants’
The service is coming at a critical point for PayPal’s ten million US merchants, with consumer holiday Black Friday right around the corner.
As well as this, a PayPal survey has found that e-commerce spending is expected to skyrocket to $50bn in 2015, with nearly 50 per cent of American shoppers viewing free return shipping as essential when purchasing goods online.
‘‘Return Shipping on Us can save consumers money, and give them more confidence when they shop knowing they will not incur return shipping costs if their purchase was not quite right,’’ added Lambert.
This announcement follows on from news that PayPal is set to release a card reader in the US that works with EMV, Apple Pay and Android Pay, helping in store merchants process a range of payments.
‘‘By providing this option, we are also supporting our merchants who are not already providing this type of service a potential lucrative revenue driver that can help grow their customer base to shoppers that may not have purchased from them previously, out of concern over shipping costs.’’
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