Tag Archives: pypl

Amazon, Apple, Google Not Serious Threat To PayPal: Analyst

PayPal ( PYPL ), now untied from its prior owner eBay ( EBAY ), does not face a serious competitive threat in the near future, an analyst said Wednesday. At the Electronic Payments Summit in New York, panelists were “generally bullish” on the San Jose, Calif.-based company’s chances at holding on to its market share, according to a research note from Jefferies analyst Jason Kupferberg. The analyst cites the company’s installed base of 185 million consumers and 13 million merchants. “This represents a competitive advantage, which is reinforced by new products such as One Touch and Venmo,” Kupferberg wrote. “While some large merchants are still somewhat ambivalent about the benefits of PayPal, one panelist highlighted a 14% online sales increase for a big merchant once they implemented PayPal.” Kupferberg also wrote that large merchants are generally reluctant to have more than two checkout buttons or digital wallets available for shoppers because returns “diminish beyond that number.” Competitors in payments , such as e-commerce leader  Amazon.com ( AMZN ) and digital cash register and payments processor Square ( SQ ), have been aiming for a greater foothold in payments. Amazon has been at it for some time, but with little to show for it, according to Wedbush analyst Gil Luria. For its part, Square announced last week that it was adding Web checkout capabilities to its array of features, which is likely a direct challenge to PayPal’s payments platform. Also at the payments summit, Kupferberg wrote that 10% mobile wallet penetration of U.S. in-store payments could be five years away. Firms such as Apple ( AAPL ) and Alphabet ( GOOGL ) unit Google, among others, have developed such technology . PayPal stock was up more than 1%, near 39, in midday trading on the stock market today . PayPal is an IBD Leaderboard stock and has an IBD Composite Rating of 93, where 99 is the highest. Shares are below a 40.03 entry but just above an earlier entry at 38.62.

New Amazon Payments Unit Ups Ante Vs. Rivals PayPal, Square

Mighty e-commerce firm Amazon.com ( AMZN ) is launching its payments service on several platforms that cater to small and midsize businesses, the company said Monday. Called the Global Partner Program , the new business will allow firms that build e-tail storefronts on the platforms Amazon is partnering with to integrate the “Pay With Amazon” feature. Pay With Amazon aims to reduce any friction when checking out online. By logging in with Amazon, shoppers don’t have to enter a 16-digit credit card number and other billing details. Rival payments firms such as  PayPal ( PYPL ) have been working on reducing friction at checkout for years. Partners in Amazon’s Global Partner Program include Japan-based FutureShop, France-based PrestaShop and Canada-based  Shopify ( SHOP ). Amazon stock fell nearly 1%, to 593.19, on the stock market today . The company has an IBD Composite Rating of 77, where 99 is the highest. Amazon stock is forming a cup base, with a buy point of 696.54, after touching a seven-month low of 474 in early February. The new payments program “could help Amazon reach a much larger audience of merchants,” Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Robert W. Baird, told IBD via email. “However, I believe there are still channel conflicts that may exist with allowing Amazon to see transaction data. In fact, Shopify and others already have relationships with payment platforms such as PayPal and Stripe. As such, it may still be an uphill battle for Amazon payments to gain a lot more traction with merchants. “That said, Amazon does have a lot of customers who may wish to use Amazon payments, and the plus side for merchants would be higher transaction volumes.” Wedbush analyst Gil Luria says Amazon has struggled for years to make headway in the payments business against firms such as PayPal. Apple ( AAPL ) and Google, a unit of Alphabet ( GOOGL ), also have entered the payments sector with digital wallet technologies that revolve around use of cellphones for payments transactions. The Amazon announcement is hot on the heels of similar moves by PayPal and  Square ( SQ ). On Wednesday,  Square said it planned to add Web checkout capabilities to its payment processing product — a direct challenge to much larger competitor PayPal, which has more than 13 million merchants vs. Square’s 2 million. Also Wednesday, PayPal’s Braintree unit — which boasts that it processes payments for startups such as Airbnb, Jet.com and Uber — announced that it was partnering with several all-in-one e-commerce platforms, such as BigCommerce.

Amazon, PayPal, Square Fight For Small-Business Payments

Amazon.com ( AMZN ), PayPal ( PYPL ) and Square ( SQ ) are locked in a battle to win business from small and midsize businesses, according to recent announcements and a Bloomberg report. PayPal subsidiary Braintree is adding a service, Braintree Auth, that will allow merchants using all-in-one Web store builders such as BigCommerce to integrate Braintree more easily, the company wrote in a blog post Thursday . “Braintree shares our vision of enabling great e-commerce experiences for retailers all over the world,” said Troy Cox, senior product director at BigCommerce, which offers an all-in-one e-commerce Web platform. “With the launch of Braintree Auth, merchants have greater flexibility and more options to efficiently and securely run their businesses.” PayPal stock was up nearly 2%, above 39, in afternoon trading on the stock market today . The company is an IBD Leaderboard stock and has an IBD Composite Rating of 92, where 99 is the highest. The stock is below a 40.03 entry, trading just above an earlier entry at 38.62. Square stock was down 5.5% Friday afternoon, near 14.50. The company has a 59 CR, which measures key metrics such as earnings and sales growth. Though Braintree has been collaborating with partners such as BigCommerce for about a year , the announcement comes a day after Square said it was , for the first time, enabling anyone with a website to use Square to process a payment. Both Auth and Square aim their new website technologies at small and midsize companies. Such companies are Square’s core market; the company has about 2 million merchants. PayPal has more than 13 million merchants. According to Bloomberg , e-commerce leader Amazon has been succeeding in attracting small and midsize businesses to Amazon Payments, the platform it re-launched in 2013. “There’s a market for selling your soul to the devil,” Wedbush analyst Gil Luria told Bloomberg. “When you accept Amazon Payments, you get access to the coveted Amazon customers. The trade-off is you are opening your kimono to your biggest competitor.” Bloomberg says large retailers are unlikely to sign on because they do not want to give Amazon any such access to their customers and data.