New PayPal Pilot Program Helps Sellers Go Multichannel

PayPal is running a new pilot program called PayPal One Touch Seller Signup that helps sellers go multichannel and helps marketplaces as well. It comes as PayPal weans itself from its dependence on eBay, which is launching its own managed payments.

Bill Ready, PayPal Chief Operating Officer, discussed the program during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. “Merchants are not choosing one platform on which to sell, they are choosing many, and PayPal becomes the aggregation point to connect to each of those platforms,” he said.

Ready explained the program’s value proposition to both sellers and marketplaces. “With PayPal One Touch Seller Signup, as merchants are discovering more and more new platforms out there, one of the most difficult things for that small business is the sign-up and vetting process. The marketplace has to figure out, is that business trustworthy or not, are they fraudulent? We’re able to alleviate those pain points – not only for the seller to sign up, but also for the marketplace to know they’re bringing on a trustworthy seller on to their platform.”

A spokesperson said the pilot program launched recently to help make it easier for merchants and small businesses to begin selling in new marketplaces and other selling forums. (Note that PayPal already offers consumers “One Touch” sign-up that lets them store their PayPal log-in information on their device.)

While she couldn’t share details about the One Touch program for merchants, the spokesperson told us that PayPal is helping to connect businesses – especially small businesses – to all of the best places to sell, from social media sites to marketplaces. Merchants who use PayPal to sell across multiple channels are growing at nearly three times the rate of those that sell on only one marketplace, she added.

It’s noteworthy that PayPal said merchants are selling through social media sites in addition to marketplaces, signaling sites like Facebook could become more significant sources of sales for sellers.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.