There is one peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app millennials seem to prefer more than any other, and it is Venmo if the number of payments processed is to be believed. Now PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL) is expanding the capability of Venmo users by allowing them to make purchases from the more than two million merchants on the PayPal platform.
PayPal owns Venmo through its acquisition of Braintree. So bringing the millions of monthly Venmo users and million of merchants on the PayPal platform together was a smart move.
For tens of thousands of small businesses using PayPal, this move means instant access to an app used almost exclusively by a particular demographic: millennials. You can now accept payment from this group without any additional integration work on your part.
In addressing the benefit for merchants, Bill Ready, Chief Operating Officer at PayPal, said on the company’s Stories page, “For merchants, the ability to offer Venmo as a payment option at checkout is very appealing. With Venmo, merchants can reach a new audience of shoppers, many whom skew millennial and engage with Venmo multiple times throughout the day.”
Venmo Now Lets Users Pay Online
If you are a Venmo user, you can make payments on the mobile web and in an app without having to take your credit card out of your wallet. And you can still enjoy the buy now and split later features when you go out to eat, share and discover the latest purchase by your friends, and fully keep track of your transactions with encrypted technology.
The Growth of Venmo
The power of Venmo is evident in its rapid growth as it is expected to surpass $25 billion in transactions in 2017. A recent survey by LendEDU revealed of the 65 percent of millennials that use payment apps, 68 percent said they used Venmo most often. This comes in much higher than the 22 percent who said they used their bank’s mobile payment app more often.
The trend has resulted in large and influential U.S. merchants expanding existing or beginning new processing relationships with PayPal, according to Ready. As a small business owner, you should also take advantage of this new integration by establishing or increasing your PayPal merchant platform. This will give you yet another opportunity to accept payments and attract more customers.
Small businesses can now start offering Venmo as a mobile payment option through the PayPal and Braintree platforms.
Image: Venmo