PayPal Announces Website Payments Pro, a New Payment Product for Small Businesses

Website Payments Pro features three new functions; merchants can offer shoppers more choice in how they pay for items.

San Jose, Calif. (PRWEB) June 20, 2005 -- PayPal today launched PayPal Website Payments Pro, a new product suite for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Website Payments Pro features three new functions: Express Checkout, Direct Payment API and Virtual Terminal. With these functions, merchants can offer shoppers more choice in how they pay for items -- with their PayPal accounts, their credit cards, or by phone, fax or mail -- all through PayPal, a single provider.

Express Checkout helps buyers with PayPal accounts pay for items in just three clicks on a merchants Web site. The buyer initiates and approves PayPal payment earlier in the checkout process, and shipping and billing information is sent immediately from PayPal to the merchant Web site.

said Stephanie Tilenius, vice president and general manager of PayPals merchant services business. Were excited about the launch of this product, not only because it meets the needs of our existing customers, but also because it extends the value of using PayPal to the SMB market.

For buyers who dont have PayPal accounts, Direct Payment API lets merchants accept credit card transactions just as they would with traditional merchant accounts. The buyers simply enter their credit card details directly on the merchant website. Payments are processed through the PayPal system on the back end, and PayPal remains invisible to the buyers.

Website Payments Pro also includes Virtual Terminal, a new feature that supports phone, fax and mail orders by providing merchants with an online interface to manually enter credit card transactions through the PayPal system.

The launch of Website Payments Pro is a direct result of feedback from our customers, who were looking for more flexibility when integrating PayPal and more control over the checkout process," said Stephanie Tilenius, vice president and general manager of PayPals merchant services business. Were excited about the launch of this product, not only because it meets the needs of our existing customers, but also because it extends the value of using PayPal to the SMB market."

Website Payments Pro is PayPals first non-hosted payment suite, which meets an important requirement for SMBs. PayPal customers are directed to the PayPal site momentarily to log in and confirm payment, and then are automatically redirected to the merchant website to complete checkout. As a result, merchants have more control over the buyer checkout process. For example, merchants can include their own branding on every step of the checkout process and direct buyers back to their websites to continue shopping after payments are completed.

With Website Payments Pro, I am able to offer more payment options to my customers and let them pay in the way they are most comfortable -- via PayPal, a credit card payment on my website, or by phone," said Diana Bostany, owner of designer jewelry Web site dianabostany.com, which has already integrated Website Payments Pro. Ive found that my regular PayPal customers are actually buying more with Express Checkout. I think that they appreciate the fact that the online shopping and checkout process is much faster using Express Checkout than it was before."

For merchants that do not have their own custom shopping carts, Website Payments Pro is integrated with third-party shopping carts including CityMax, CoolCart Pro, eMartCart, iBuilder, Mals E-commerce, My eBiz, 1ShoppingCart and StoreFront by LaGarde.

Pricing for Website Payments Pro includes a low fee of $20 per month and a per-transaction rate of 2.2 to 2.9 percent plus 30 cents. As an introductory offer, PayPal will waive the $20 monthly fee until late 2005. Pricing for all of PayPals other products remain the same, at 1.9 to 2.9 percent per transaction, with no monthly fees.

PayPal also repackaged its current product line into four distinct product suites – PayPal Website Payments Standard, PayPal Website Payments Pro, PayPal Email Payments, and PayPal as an Additional Payment Option. The new product bundles, found in the Merchant Tools" tab on the PayPal Web site, make it easier for merchants to find the right payment products for their specific businesses needs.

Visit PayPal's merchant information section for more information about Website Payments Pro and PayPals other business solutions, or call 866-837-1901.

Visit PayPal Merchants to learn more about how PayPal works and PayPal Merchant Services for merchant case studies.

About PayPal:
Founded in 1998, PayPal, an eBay company, enables any individual or business with an email address to send and receive payments online securely, easily and quickly. PayPals service builds on the existing financial infrastructure of bank accounts and credit cards and uses one of the worlds most advanced proprietary fraud prevention systems to create a safe, global, real-time payment solution. PayPal has nearly 72 million accounts and is available to users in 56 markets around the world. More information about the company can be found at https://www.paypal.com.

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