PayPal has announced a new software tool, ‘PayPal Commerce’, which allows merchants to insert a ‘buy’ button across various different platforms including social media, blogs, emails and adverts through various dedicated APIs.
The new tool is a result of PayPal’s purchase of Modest in 2015, a company that had a similar piece of kit for emails and apps. Following six months of development, PayPay Commercial is now in closed beta testing, adapting the Modest technology for the larger PayPal market.
The theory behind the software is that research has shown customers to be more engaged when they have the option to purchase across multiple touch points. The more a merchant’s buy button is in front of a customer, the higher a conversion rate.
Harper Reed, the co-founder of Modest, said “PayPal Commerce is the infrastructure that will enable retailers to deliver open, distributed commerce experiences that only PayPal and Braintree together can deliver. It provides services for partners to create a wide variety of contextual commerce experiences, and tools for retailers to reach and engage consumers beyond the boundaries of their Web storefronts.â€
PayPal Commerce is a follow up to an initial piece of software built by Braintree, the payments processing arm of PayPal, which struck a deal with Pinterest to introduce ‘buyable pins’.
The main rival of PayPal Commerce is Relay, a similar tool developed by Stripe that is already in use with major brands including Adidas, Saks Fifth Avenue and Best Buy utilising it to make sales on social media platforms such as Twitter. However it is anticipated that PayPal’s established customer base will make it the preferred option for small business owners.
As the tool is only in a closed beta stage currently with the aim of ensuring a stable tool that performs well, no pricing model has been announced.
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