eBay wants to intermediate payments

Online marketplace eBay announced today that it plans to intermediate payments on all eBay marketplaces in the coming years.

The company signed an agreement with global payments processor Adyen which makes Adyen the primary payments processing partner on the eBay platform.

Adyen is a Dutch-based global payment processor. The company processes payments for Internet heavyweights such as Netflix, Uber, Etsy, Groupon, LinkedIn or Booking.com already.

eBay's main goal is to manage payments directly. The company notes that the transition will take years but that payments intermediation will launch "on a small scale in North America in the second half of 2018". eBay plans to expand this in 2019 and migrate the majority of Marketplace customers to the new "payments experience" in 2021.

PayPal, eBay's current primary payments processor, will become one option when it comes to making payments on the platform. eBay notes that PayPal will remain an option to pay at checkout until at least July 2023 as both companies signed an agreement.

As a customer, PayPal may appear to be an on-the-platform payments experience already but ever since eBay and PayPal parted ways, eBay is not control of payment processing as PayPal handles that end of the transaction.

eBay points out that the move to intermediate payments has benefits to sellers and buyers. The company promises that most sellers may expect a reduction in payment processing costs, a new central place to manage all of their business, and a greater buyer reach and improved conversion. Buyers on the other hand get another payment option at checkout and an integrated checkout experience.

Sellers should expect "to provide eBay with some additional payments-related data and transition to a new relationship with eBay that includes integrated payments", so eBay.

Closing Words

eBay's move to intermediate payments gives the company more control over its marketplace and moves it in this regard to a similar level of control that Amazon has on its marketplace.

PayPal appears to be on its way out. While that won't happen in the next year, 2023 might see eBay dropping PayPal from its marketplace altoghether in favor of the fully integrated payments solution. (via gHacks)

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