PayPal Rolls Out Venmo Payments to its US Retailers
Venmo, a PayPal owned money transfer service, announced this week that the service can now be used to make payments on more than 2 million U.S. retailers’ mobile websites. Some of the retailers that will begin to accept Venmo payments include Wal-Mart, Target, lululemon athletica, and Forever 21. The new feature isn't available for desktop as of yet. CNET reports that by the end of the year, Venmo will start allowing users to withdraw their balances to their bank accounts instantly for 25 cents per transaction.
Total Retail's Take: Venmo has been testing the payment service since early last year with a few retailers. The rollout to all users could help grow Venmo's user base from primarily millennials to a much more diverse audience. Venmo is also hoping to take its unique social commerce approach to a new level, offering customers the option to show which retailers they make purchases from on their social feed. "We think social commerce scales into every age range, and we want to offer it to everyone," Ben Mills, Venmo's head of product, said in an interview with CNet. And the benefit to the participating retailers is that the more payment options you offer consumers, the more likely you are to get to them to convert.
