Using PayPal to buy nappies

20/11/2009

PayPal will sign up every single Australian merchant now selling anything online within the next couple of years, if the new managing director meets his goals.

“In Australia 27 per cent of online shoppers prefer to pay with PayPal, according to Nielsen, more than Visa or Mastercard or any other method and only in the UK do you see rates like that,” said Frerke-Malte Feller, managing director of PayPal Australia.

“We have good merchant take up here as well but we want more of course. I want to sign up every Australian online merchant and that is what we are aiming for.”

Feller said he was impressed with the range of government services available online in Australia but retail does lag behind the UK, the USA, Germany and other mature online markets.

“It is in personal daily needs shopping that Europe and some other overseas markets are really much more advanced than Australia; clothing, nappies, etcetera.”

About three per cent of retail spending is online in Australia, whereas in the USA and the UK it is between six and eight per cent.

Australian online shoppers spend about US$1000 per year online, much less than consumers in many overseas markets.

PayPal has more than five million active accounts in Australia.

Source: The Sheet