Vistaprint Teams With PayPal To Advance QR Code Adoption

Marketing and design firm Vistaprint is partnering with digital money transfer company PayPal to advance the adoption of QR codes for contactless payments.

“From the onset of the pandemic, it became clear that small businesses would face challenges unlike any in recent history. However, if we’ve learned anything from our small business partners it’s that their resilience is grounded in their ability to remain flexible in how they run their businesses to meet evolving consumer needs,” Emily Whittaker, president of Vistaprint, North America, said in a Wednesday (Jan. 27) press release.

Whittaker said that by partnering with PayPal, Vistaprint can develop solutions to give small businesses the ability to “make the necessary pivots” for customer safety and streamlined operations for long-term success beyond the pandemic.

Vistaprint surveyed 500 small business merchants and foodservice operators and discovered that 52 percent of respondents adopted QR codes for payments due to the pandemic and plan to continue post-pandemic. Some 42 percent said the move to contactless payments was important to their customers.

A PayPal-commissioned PYMNTS report also showed that shoppers want more touch-free payment options.

“Small businesses have been impacted in an unprecedented way during the Covid-19 pandemic and they have sought new, innovative and perhaps most importantly touch-free ways to keep their physical doors open,” said Nitin Prahbu, Vice President of Consumer In-Store at PayPal. “PayPal has always been a small business champion and with our PayPal QR Code technology, this is another way we are helping these businesses transact in a safer manner.”

Small businesses can get customizable products like tabletop signage, business cards, stickers, decals, magnets, banners and more. These new small business solutions are being launched in the U.S. initially with plans to expand across key markets in North America and Europe throughout 2021.

The QR Code —  shorthand for “quick response” — is a barcode that was first designed in 1994 but didn’t catch on as a repository of information. In October, PayPal and Venmo teamed up to offer a credit card that features users’ QR codes.

In a PYMNTS interview, Jeremy Jonker, senior vice president, head of consumer in-store and digital commerce at PayPal, said the company launched a May pilot that explored the use of QR codes in 28 markets worldwide.