PayPal and the future

Introducing new features in the coming months.

[andy_boyd]

In a News.com article, PayPal revealed that they are developing new features designed to attract new sellers and to keep their existing customer base. They have been listening to requests and feedback from their users, and acting on it, or so it would seem.

The main thing mentioned was the way the built in PayPal cart works, by opening up in a new window and taking the customer away from the seller's site. There are work arounds, but for the average user it is too complicated. PayPal and their customers seem to realize that the current shopping cart is detrimental to the online buying experience.

PayPal top-brass, Matthew Bannick, who joined from eBay after the aquisition, stated that PayPal "is working to make the payment flow more seamless for buyers and online merchants" and he personally "hopes to deliver a solution in a matter of months."

Could this mean we would then have a built-in option to make the windows open as they are now, or have the cart self-contained in the current window? That would definitely help IMHO. What aother new features could they be introducing? Any ideas?

( Quotes throughout this post have been taken from the CNET News.com article located at [news.com.com...] )

[woop01]

Sounds a little more useful than the new requirement that we sell on Ebay once every three weeks to keep our 1.5% back on debit card purchases.

[Essex_boy]

At what cost boyo at what cost.

I dont see them keeping their fees level for much longer if they are going to be spending so much on new projects.

Could be wrong but....

[andy_boyd]

In the words of Aaron McPherson, a research manager at IDC's Financial Insights group: "PayPal should continue to lead, unless its competitors give Web merchants a less expensive way to process credit cards." But more importantly he thinks that if that happens, then it's "the end of PayPal."

You could be right Essex_boy, R&D doesn't come cheap, so they'll have to fund it from somewhere. I'd make a guess that PayPal will offset their development costs by introducing more conditions, ie. buy off eBay once every 3 weeks or lose your cashback benefit. More of that to come IMO.

[Essex_boy]

Yeah thought as much oh well such is life.

I think and this is only a thought that they may introduce sign up fees, it keeps the charges down and Id take a stab and say its almost certainly the most profitable way to go.

Who would object to $7.50 per month? X 0000ths of customers = a healthly profit.

We'll just have to wait and see.