eBay announces Apple Pay acceptance as part of payments revamp
eBay on Tuesday inked some key partnerships in the payments space following a move to bring its payments intermediary service in-house. The e-commerce player said that it will begin accepting Apple Pay on its Marketplace platform this fall, and that it's also teamed up with Square Capital for seller financing.
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The move to accept Apple Pay goes along with eBay's new approach to payments after it decided to cut ties with long-standing partner and former subsidiary PayPal. Dutch fintech company Adyen is set to become eBay's primary payments processor after the current PayPal deal expires in mid-2020, as eBay looks to bring more transactions to its in-house Marketplace platform.
With today's announcement, eBay said it's "on track to start managing payments on a limited scale in the US early this fall," at which time buyers will start to see Apple Pay as a purchase option from sellers participating in the initial rollout. The company plans to expand Apple Pay acceptance to more geographies over time.
As for the Square Capital news, eBay said it will soon allow its sellers in the US to access funding from Square's financing arm. The setup will see Square gaining access to the financial data of eBay sellers, which it uses to determine appropriate sized loan offers and payment plans.
Debuted in 2014, Square Capital originally launched as a financing program for merchants actively using Square's platform. It promised reliable loans without the hassle of a lengthy application process or expensive fees. In 2016, Square for the first time made the lending service available to small businesses outside of the Square ecosystem through a partnership with Upserve.
The program has been a significant revenue source for the Jack Dorsey-founded company. Much of its success is tied to the fact that Square has the power to peak into a company's sales and financial stability, which means it only lends to those businesses most capable of returning the cash.
The perk for eBay now is that it can offer sellers on its marketplace a seamless lending option when they want to grow their business. The companies will start sending out application invites to eBay sellers in the third quarter.
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