PayPal has only recently launched its B2B payments services through a few partnerships aimed at facilitating invoice payments. Now, the company is taking a solo approach to the space with the rollout of a new service aimed squarely at freelancers and B2B sellers.
Reports on Wednesday (Aug. 24) said PayPal has rolled out PayPal.Me, a peer-to-peer payments tool that targets B2B sellers and freelancers in India, as well as consumer sellers. The solution is available in India and supports cross-border payments.
“At PayPal, we are focused on enabling digital payments in a safe and secure environment,” said Anupam Pahuja, country manager and managing director at PayPal India. “PayPal.Me offers a quicker and on-the-go facility for the freelancer segment to receive payments.”
The executive cited research conducted by PayPal that found that safe payments take priority over other payments for freelancers.
PayPal.Me enables sellers to create a personalized account to receive cross-border payments into existing PayPal accounts. Sellers can then send a personalized link to their clients to pay.
The service enters the market the same day that PayPal announced another offering to SMEs dealing with cross-border transactions.
Separate reports said PayPal has cut foreign exchange commissions for SME exporters by 40 percent. That commission is the markup charged to businesses for a cross-border transaction. The discount was also rolled out in India.
“We have given our percent discount on the total fees,” explained Pahuja at a company event. “What that does is … for a small merchant, this will translate to about 30–40 percent discount.”
He added that PayPal is looking to strengthen its presence among SMEs that export outside of India.