Find out what PayPal Commerce Platform is and how does it work
PayPal is one of the many fintech enterprises that has risen to the challenge of e-commerce’s growing popularity. Its Commerce Platform is a customized payment solution for online marketplaces and crowdfunding platforms. This global system connects 277 million active users including 22 million merchants internationally. Unveiled in June 2019, the platform empowered both SMEs and business giants like Facebook and Instagram to unify their checkout options in a single back-end system.
About the Commerce Platform
The platform is a B2B product meaning the exchange of products, services or information (aka e-commerce) here takes place between businesses, rather than between businesses and consumers. This solution was initially known as PayPal for Partners. It gives developers a single location to find the tools, documentation, and resources they need to build innovative customized applications. The offered payment processing tool is a combination of REST APIs and tailored PayPal products.
Currently, the PayPal Commerce Platform is a limited-release solution. It is available to select partners for approved use cases. For more information, you should reach out to your PayPal account manager.
Features of the PayPal Commerce Platform
The platform provides:
- Fraud protection and risk management. Advanced risk and fraud tools are powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
- REST APIs built on modern, standards-based technologies such as OAuth and JSON.
- PayPal Mobile SDKs. Software development kits are available in various programming languages. Customers don’t have to leave the app’s environment to make payments. They can click a PayPal button or scan a credit card using a provided card.io technology.
- Smart Payment Buttons. PayPal presents the most relevant payment types to your shoppers automatically, including methods like Venmo, PayPal Credit, credit card payments, iDEAL, Bancontact, Sofort, and other local payment types.
- Customized transactions. Set payout timing, collect transaction fees, set transaction fees by payment type, create unique pricing structures, accept over 100 multiple currencies, tailor payment flows, reconcile funds from multiple sources to make a single payout, pre-authorized payments (vaulting).
- Compliance. All PayPal-hosted payment solutions are PCI compliant so using them makes reporting easier. Other global regulations the platform complies with, include Know Your Customer (KYC), PSD2, AML, OFAC Sanctions.
- Seamless integration gives access to APIs, SDKs, webhooks, code samples, and implementation tools, as well as sets up your sandbox.
Benefits
There are several reasons why PayPal Commerce Platform stands out among similar payment solutions.
- Consumer trust. In 2018, more than 9.9 billion payments were made through PayPal. 54% of shoppers are more willing to buy from a business if it accepts PayPal payments. It is a trusted service. Therefore, the presence of this name at your website can instantly add a sense of credibility and safety, no matter how new the business is.
- Global reach. Businesses can greatly improve their scalability with the help of connections established by PayPal in 200+ countries all over the world. The service can translate product titles, convert online prices and make sure all payments are localized. Moreover, your online rankings are much higher when you’re using a globally recognized payment platform. You’ll see better traffic and increased marketing results.
- All-in-one. The platform provides entrepreneurs with all possible financial tools ranging from checkout systems to credit payment plans for consumers. Their virtual checkout process handles everything needed for international trade, from taxes and duties to currency conversions.
- Less hassle. The platform’s solution, “Payflow Link,” makes it simple for ecommerce stores to comply with regulations. In addition, this solution takes care of fraud protection, data security, and risk management.
- Flexibility. You can customize the service package according to your business type, needs, region, partnerships, etc.
Availability
The PayPal Commerce Platform initially became available in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with the nearest plans to expand to more than 40 markets. Today, it’s already present in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia.
The PayPal Commerce Platform supports a variety of common business types, including:
- Physical goods;
- Services;
- E-commerce hosting services, such as payment processing and shopping cart hosting;
- Crowdfunding for personal projects or nonprofit ventures.
How PayPal Commerce Platform works
To process payments for your sellers on your platform, your sellers must be onboard with PayPal. They either log in to or sign up for a PayPal account and grant you permission to process payments on their behalf.
To onboard sellers before they can receive payments, you can use “connected path upfront onboarding”. To onboard sellers after they receive a payment, you can use “connected path progressive onboarding”.
Customizing your platform will require you to answer a few questions about how you run your business and how you’d like to interact with your sellers.
Your answers will help PayPal prepare demo core features like onboarding and checkout and sample reports. Check them out to make sure this is the right solution for you. You can save and share these demos, or reconfigure your solution.
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