eBay announced today that US buyers can pay on eBay with Venmo at checkout as it rolls out in the coming week. eBay said it aligned with the “evolving preferences of today’s digital natives.”
Venmo is owned by PayPal and eBay said 28% of Venmo users are Gen Zers and Millennials within the 18 to 29 age bracket. It also noted that over 60% of eBay volume (it didn’t say if that was dollar or unit volume) comes from mobile devices, making Venmo’s mobile platform “ideal for digitally savvy shoppers looking for a simple and fast checkout process.”
PayPal’s help page about Venmo explains, “Venmo is a social payment service to make and share payments with friends, family, and businesses in the United States. It’s like PayPal, but is unique in that, on Venmo, you can share and like payments through a social feed.”
As of August 17, buyers will no longer have the option to pay with American Express, eBay announced earlier this month, citing “unacceptably high fees American Express charges for processing credit card transactions.”
eBay announced the news about Venmo today on its corporate website.
I like venmo but does adding it as payment makes any difference. I have no sales for 3 days since that is taking place.
I cannot see any downside to adding Venmo as a payment option. I suspect that overall, I will gain more potential Venmo buyers than I will lose potential AmEx buyers.