PayPal this week laid out its vision for the future of its digital wallet platform and its PayPal and Venmo apps. During its third-quarter earnings call on Monday, the company said it plans to roll out substantial changes to its mobile apps over the next year to integrate a range of new features, including enhanced direct deposit, check cashing, budgeting tools, bill pay, crypto support, subscription management, buy now\/pay later functionality and all of Honey\u2019s shopping tools.
\nWhile PayPal had spoken in the past about bringing Honey\u2019s capabilities into PayPal, CEO Dan Schulman detailed the integrations PayPal has in store for the deal-finding platform it bought last year for $4 billion, as well as a timetable for both this and the other app updates it has in store.
\nThe Honey acquisition had brought 17 million monthly active users to PayPal. These users turned to Honey\u2019s browser extension and mobile app to find the best savings on items they want to buy, track prices and more.<\/p>\n
But today, the Honey experience still remains separate from PayPal itself. That\u2019s something the company wants to change next year.
\nAccording to Schulman, the company\u2019s apps will be updated to include Honey\u2019s shopping tools, like its Wish List feature that allows you to track items you want to buy, price monitoring tools that alert you to savings and price drops, plus its deals, coupons and rewards. These tools will become part of PayPal\u2019s checkout solution itself.
\nThat means the company will be able to track the customer from the initial deal-hunting phase where they\u2019re indicating their interest in a certain product, target them with savings and offers, then guide them through its checkout experience all in one place.
\nPayPal will also provide \u201canonymous demand data\u201d to merchants based on consumer engagement with Honey\u2019s tools to help them drive sales, the company said.
\nWhat\u2019s more, PayPal put timeline on the Honey integrations and the other updates it plans to roll out over the course of the next year.
\nBill Pay will start to roll out this month, PayPal said, with a large redesign of the digital wallet experience expected for the first half of 2021. Much of the new functionality will be arriving in the second quarter and the second half of the year, with a goal of having the majority of the changes rolled out by the end of next year.
\nThis also includes PayPal\u2019s plans for cryptocurrencies, announced at the end of October. The company aims to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin at first, initially in the U.S.<\/p>\n
PayPal to let you buy and sell cryptocurrencies in the US<\/p>\n
Speaking to investors during the earnings call, Schulman also noted when PayPal plans to bring crypto to more users and geographies. He said the ability to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies will first arrive in the U.S., then will roll out to international markets and the Venmo app in the first half of next year. (Currently, PayPal is offering U.S. users to join a waitlist for the new crypto features in-app).<\/p>\n
Image Credits: PayPal<\/p>\n
This change will allow PayPal\u2019s users to shop using cryptocurrencies across the company\u2019s 28 million merchants without requiring additional integrations on merchants\u2019 part. The company explained this is due to how it will handle the settlement process, where users will be able to instantaneously transfer crypto into fiat currency at a set rate when checking out with PayPal merchants.
\n\u201cThis solution will not involve any additional integrations, volatility risk or incremental transaction fees for either consumers or merchants, and will fundamentally bolster the utility of cryptocurrencies,\u201d said Schulman. \u201cThis is just the beginning of the opportunities we see as we work hand in hand with regulators to accept new forms of digital currencies,\u201d he added.
\nPayPal also recently joined the \u201cbuy now, pay later\u201d race with its new \u201cPay in 4\u201d installment program that lets consumers split purchases into four payments. This debuted in France ahead of its late August U.S. launch and has since rolled out to the U.K. (as Pay in 3). This too, will become more integrated into the company\u2019s apps in the months ahead.<\/p>\n
PayPal joins the \u2018buy now, pay later\u2019 race with new \u2018Pay in 4\u2019 installment program<\/p>\n
Venmo \u2014 which the company expects to reach $900 million in revenues next year \u2014 will see the expansion of business profiles, and will gain crypto capabilities, more basic financial tools and shopping tools, as well as a revamp of the \u201cPay with Venmo\u201d checkout experience.
\nSchulman referred to the company\u2019s plans to overhaul its Venmo and PayPal apps as a \u201cfundamental transformation,\u201d due to how much new functionality they will include as the changes roll out over the next year as well as the new user experience \u2014 basically, a redesign \u2014 that will allow people to move easily from one experience to the next instead of having to change apps or use a desktop browser, for example.
\nPayPal\u2019s earnings hadn\u2019t excited Wall Street investors this week, sending the stock down on its lack of 2021 guidance. But the year ahead for PayPal\u2019s digital wallet apps looks to be an interesting one.<\/p>\n
PayPal\u2019s earnings don\u2019t excite Wall Street, but bring good news for consumer fintech<\/p>\n
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