PayPal Launches Cash For Registers Program

PayPal has a question for small business owners. Is your cash register holding you back?

If a successful sale means scurrying back behind the counter to ring it up on an ancient register, it’s a sign that merchants may be missing out on some big opportunities to profit from today’s savvy, mobile-device-wielding consumers. Merchants could also find themselves trapped in archaic, time-consuming methods of tallying up sales, forcing them to spend more time balancing the books than providing rewarding customer experiences.

PayPal, eBay’s payment processing subsidiary, aims to free small businesses from the constraints of old-school cash registers and point-of-sale (POS) systems—or kill the cash register, some would argue—with a new program called Cash For Registers.

21st Century Payment Processing

PayPal teamed with select POS providers and industry partners to help small businesses and shop owners modernize their payment systems. The payment processing program aims not only to put sleek new powerful hardware behind the counter, but also to increase sales and leverage some of the same tech that big retailers use to hook customers and earn their repeat business.

“Now small businesses can upgrade their cash registers and leverage powerful selling tools to help them run their business and sell more. By registering for the program, small business owners can upgrade to a modern point-of-sale system by choosing either PayPal Here or one of our pre-integrated partners: ShopKeep POS or Vend, and coming soon, Erply,” Carolyn Groobey, vice president of Global Products for PayPal, wrote in a blog post announcing the official rollout of the Cash For Registers program.

The three-step process involves signing up for any of the aforementioned POS software platforms and purchasing a minimum of $450 of eligible hardware. Lastly, participants need only redeem the offer and wait out the validation period, typically two business days. Shops have until September 30, 2013 to sign up.

To sweeten the deal, PayPal is helping merchants keep more of the cash that they earn. “As part of the program, PayPal is waiving fees from now until January 31, 2014 for up to $20,000 worth of eligible transactions each month,” wrote Groobey.

For small business owners, no longer does the cash register stand between them and their customer’s shopping preferences. “Consumers are driving a new revolution when it comes to shopping and spending money because of technology. Whether shopping or dinning with a mobile phone, tablet or the Web—the consumer has a thirst to use new technology to save time and money,” a PayPal spokesperson told Small Business Computing in an email exchange.

“By working with PayPal we help SMBs stay competitive by upgrading their systems to take digital payments and leverage the intelligence of mobile devices that their consumers use every day,” added the spokesperson.

Cash For Registers represents PayPal’s ongoing efforts to help small businesses flex some big retailing muscle in a competitive market. “PayPal’s vision is to solve real pain points and create new opportunities for our customers—consumers, merchants and developers. PayPal Here is one great way for small merchants to accept payments of all types and compete in the new omni-channel retail environment and attract new customers,” remarked the PayPal spokesperson.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Small Business Computing and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

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