PayPal Expands Relationship With Facebook And Messenger

PayPal announced Monday (Oct. 24) it is expanding its relationship with Facebook and Facebook Messenger in an attempt to help make mobile commerce smarter, simpler and more secure for both consumers and merchants.

In a blog post, Bill Ready, EVP and chief operating officer at PayPal, said mobile commerce continues to evolve, providing opportunities for next-generation shopping experiences that are more “ frictionless and relevant than ever before.”

PayPal said, in the U.S., it will start to roll out as a payment option across more of Facebook’s commerce experiences, including Messenger commerce. By doing that, PayPal said it will be easy for for PayPal customers to link their PayPal accounts to Facebook and Messenger at PayPal checkout. What’s more, PayPal customers in the U.S. will also be able to get notifications in Messenger, first starting with making it easier to manage receipts for PayPal transactions neatly in one place.

For merchants, this will provide them a more direct opportunity to build relationships with the 192 million people around the world with active PayPal accounts. PayPal‘s mobile-optimized experience, when combined with relevant, in-context commerce experiences, will help offer a compelling and frictionless commerce experience, PayPal said.

“These new capabilities deepen our partnership with Facebook. Braintree partnered with Facebook and Uber last December to allow consumers to hail and pay for an Uber from Messenger. And as Messenger starts to roll out native payments, our merchants will also be able to accept PayPal payments directly in their bots. We’ve also helped merchants purchase Facebook ads, helped consumers buy headsets and content from Oculus and continue to help PayPal-enabled businesses sell products directly from the Shop section of their Facebook Page,” said Ready.

Ready went on to note its focus on partnering with innovative companies to create better experiences for merchants and consumers remains strong. Over the last few months, PayPal said it has announced deals with Visa, Mastercard, Telcel, Claro, Vodafone and Alibaba in its bid to drive broader customer choice in payments through partnership. “This collaboration continues to showcase our march to be a customer champion. We will continue to execute on our vision of offering PayPal in more places where people shop online, in-app and in-store, by partnering with companies who share our desire to create meaningful products that benefit both consumers and merchants,” said Ready.