Looking at a larger playing field, which opens new inroads into the ‘ecosystem’ around payments supporting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), PayPal, which hitherto remained ‘simply a feature on an online website that helped small businesses sell online’+, has decided to transform itself into a large-format service provider for the growth needs of SMEs.
Announcing the move, which was launched on May1, Amit Mathradas, GM and Head of Small Business, said the ‘solution intended to streamline the access to PayPal’s ecosystem of services and solutions for SMEs focussed on growing their businesses’. The profile upgrade will lead to a service palette that offers more than just payments.
So far, PayPal has been instrumental in helping nearly 115,000 businesses globally, to gain access to working capital totalling to nearly 3 billion US dollars, in under four years.
We’re providing the tools that help [SMBs] grow, and it’s one of the reasons we’ve rapidly moved away from being that yellow button, to truly being a growth partner to go beyond just payments,” he said, adding that PayPal is looking at the broader “ecosystem” around payments in which small businesses operate.
In addition, PayPal, will continue to work with several leading SME service providers who already enlisted with firms of varied dimensions – from cloud accounting firms to e-Commerce platforms and more. PayPal shall leverage this trusted referral point, as the mainstay service provider who has access to the tools critical for growth and expansion of SMEs.
Launched initially in the USA, the service pack is aptly titled, ‘Business-in-a-Box’, and provides front-end and back-office support processes including online sales, accounting, applying for loans, payment acceptance, other record maintenance services. The accounting services, Xero, is also included in the service package as much as the WooCommerce product, which enables the setting up of an e-Commerce shop.
Rising to a constant market demand from its customer base of nearly 16 million merchants, PayPal has responded to their needs, which primarily revolves around payment acceptance, covering all modes, even that of Apple and Android Pay. The other area which the company addressed for the sake of the traders is the ease of accessing financial services that go beyond payments.
Business-in-a-Box will be a giant step forward for USA’s SME establishments today, as they can now access the credibility and image values for curation and recommendation processes for efficient business growth handling.
To integrate with their solutions, PayPal has already come up with a promotion plan that offers bonus offers and thrust-area disciplines – payroll tools, working capital, and more.
The profile upgrade and associations will also enable PayPal to underwrite loans for their SME clients, that have not been able to seek such financing from traditional banks.
Business In A Box is so well-designed that the customers will find it easy to access an entire eco-system that will enable them to grow locally, nationally and even globally at a much faster pace than before.
