PayPal Opens iPhone Tap to Pay for Venmo Business Users

PayPal has expanded its Tap to Pay on iPhone offering in the U.S. The company said in a Thursday (March 7) press release that the service is now available for all U.S. Venmo business profile and PayPal Zettle users, letting them accept contactless card and digital wallet payments on their iPhones with no additional cost or hardware. “Consumers are increasingly going cashless,” PayPal said in the release. “As a result, accepting card and digital wallet payments in person is increasingly table stakes for small businesses, but until recently, businesses have had to purchase and manage card readers to do so.” The service lets Venmo business profiles and PayPal Zettle users in the U.S. accept payments, add taxes, accept tips, send receipts and issue refunds. “In addition, funds from sales will settle quickly into a business’s Venmo or PayPal Zettle account, helping to streamline operations and manage cash flow,” the company said, while letting Venmo business profile users to expand their customer base and accept payments from buyers even if the customers doesn’t have a Venmo account. PayPal’s comments about consumers’ growing dislike for cash is borne out by PYMNTS Intelligence research, which shows 24% of U.S. adult consumers trading cash for digital alternatives, while 3 in 5 consumers, including 70% of millennials, can envision a future when all payments will be digital. The company’s new tap to pay offering follows January’s rollout of several new products, including its “Fastlane” service, which allows one-click checkouts as guests save their data with the company. In a video accompanying the announcement, PayPal CEO Alex Chriss noted that “little interruptions,” such as password prompts or slow response times, can disrupt shopping. “No wonder that half the time,” said Chriss, “as close as [consumers] are to making the purchase, they just quit … it’s a frustrating ‘gap’ for merchants.” PayPal said these enhanced checkouts bypass the pain points of updating credit card and shipping data. Members integrating passkeys can log in with face or fingerprint and checkout with one tap, reducing latency by 50% and making checkout twice as fast. “We have massively accelerated the checkout process,” said Chriss. He noted that because the company can recognize 70% of guests who are PayPal users or shop at the platform’s merchants, the company can reduce guest checkout times by 40%.