Ebay-owned online payments service PayPal will announce later this month that it will open its global payments platform to third-party developers.
“We believe that providing a global payments platform will open up countless opportunities for developers to innovate and create new revenue streams,” it said.
Its new developer platform strategy will see PayPal introduce new suites of services that will allow deeper access into the core functionality of its payments platform, so that developers can build new online payment solutions for goods and services.
Reportedly this means online shoppers will be able to make parallel payments and pay for items from several merchants in one single transaction, with PayPal automatically directing payments to merchants who actually provided the items.
So-called ‘chained payments’ will also become possible, so that individual merchants that form part of a transactional value chain, receive online funds for goods and services supplied and bought as a bundle.
“Our new set of APIs will offer unlimited possibilities to easily monetise ideas, by providing security and connectivity to the world’s financial systems” PayPal said in one of its official blogs. The company said it will be announcing full details on July 23.
In a CBR Online report published yesterday, based on a survey for Oracle, a high level of frustration was revealed among online shoppers over sign-on issues and the slowness and complexity of some online transactions. These moves by PayPal could help resolve some of the issues, as it was found during the survey that some consumers reportedly will now not use a online shopping site unless PayPal is seen to be available on the site.