At the end of January, eBay announced plans to team up with payment processor platform Ayden and move away from its exclusive deal with PayPal. The online marketplace said it wanted to act as the intermediary for payments and give customers the experience of completing their purchases within the platform rather than leaving the site to pay via PayPal.
PayPal will still remain a payment option on the site, but in the meantime, it’s fighting to remain a major force in an increasingly competitive market—and offering small businesses the chance to access their money immediately could be an impressive weapon in their arsenal.
Payment delays ‘hinder small businesses’
PayPal processes over 10 million payments per day and is currently used by 19.5 million businesses, the vast majority of which are small businesses.
Their new Funds Now facility is aimed at winning the hearts of those small businesses by offering instant access to their takings, promising to give select businesses “access to their completed sales within seconds by eliminating holds, delays and reserves so they can spend their funds immediately.”
The company says the move is in response to the common complaint they heard during their research in the past year: small businesses are finding it’s too difficult and too slow to get access to the funds from their completed sales.
“In the world of payments, funding delays of seven to 21 days for small businesses have been far too common. Those funding delays hinder the ability of small businesses to invest back into their businesses, pay their bills, and serve their customers,” says PayPal.
Funds Now
“With Funds Now, we aspire to set a new expectation in payments – that immediate access to funds should be the norm rather than the exception for small businesses in good standing,” says PayPal.
Currently, Funds Now is rolling out to select businesses across the US, UK and Australia and it has already been extended to more than one million businesses at no extra cost, but what does it really offer?
PayPal says that money from your completed sales will be available to Funds Now users in their PayPal balance within seconds, even during a dispute, at no extra cost to them. However, it warns that in rare cases, delays may still occur in order to protect customer accounts, e.g. if it suspects you’ve received a payment from a fraudulent buyer.
When you make a sale via any marketplace, website, PayPal Here, or invoicing via PayPal, the money from your completed sales will be sent directly to your PayPal balance within seconds. From there, you can transfer the money to your bank with PayPal’s flexible withdrawal options or start using it instantly from your PayPal balance.
To be considered, your business must have more than 6 months of PayPal business account sales history, a strong selling history with successful PayPal transactions and confirmed account information to keep your account secure.
If you’re interested in signing up for Funds Now, you can login on this link to find out if you have access to this service yet.
Do you use PayPal on a regular basis? Pandle can help you integrate PayPal within your bookkeeping software. Find out how here.