PayPal wants this to be the year it grows closer with merchants and small businesses.
The payments company launched what it’s calling “Business in a Box” for new small businesses — a specially tailored set of tools designed to make opening an SMB as quick and painless as possible. The new product follows the launch of new merchant capabilities offered through its lauded P2P app, Venmo.
The “Business in a Box” service offers all of the essentials one would need to put together an online business, according to PayPal, whether it is just getting started, or seeking to move an established offline business into the modern digital era (similar to Stripe Atlas, launched last month).
The service, which is accessed through a merchant’s PayPal Business account, allows clients the same range of accounting and financial management tools one would expect from similar suites, as well as help with the design and creation of an online store, real-time cash flow, and so on.
Users of the service will also have access to more capital through PayPal’s offering, which allows clients to apply for a business loan, according to a company statement. The loans will be funded by PayPal Working Capital, which has facilitated about $3 billion in loans to approximately 115,000 businesses, since its launch in 2013.
The company is hoping the new service will also contribute to PayPal’s merchant growth, which increased in 2017, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said Wednesday, on the company’s earnings call.
Schulman noted on the call:
We have made meaningful progress in advancing merchant adoption of PayPal in the quarter. At the end of March, the number of active merchant accounts on our platform increased to 16 million. The size of our merchant base is a formidable competitive advantage, and is extraordinarily difficult for others to replicate.
Take a look at the service below: