PayPal Launches ‘Tap to Pay’ on iPhone for U.S. Businesses with Venmo and Zettle

Today, PayPal announced that it will be introducing “Tap to Pay” for American retailers that have an iPhone and use the Venmo and Zettle applications. The capability would enable businesses to accept contactless card and digital wallet payments directly on their iPhones without any additional cost or hardware, according to PayPal, the company that owns both Venmo and Zettle. Eight months have passed since PayPal first made this feature available to retailers who use Android phones.

Tap to Pay enables businesses to take payments via cards and digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. It also helps them calculate taxes, take tips, send receipts, and give refunds—all without the need for extra hardware. The company claims that money from sales is promptly deposited into a company’s Venmo or PayPal Zettle account. PayPal charges 2.29% + 9¢ for each sale made using Zettle and Venmo’s tap-to-pay feature.

Tap to Pay on iPhone allows Venmo business profile users to reach customers by accepting payments from buyers, even if they don’t have a Venmo account. Merchants can manage both Venmo and card payment transactions directly in the Venmo app.

The official release of this feature comes several months after PayPal began testing it as part of its early access program.

The introduction of this new feature comes two years after PayPal rival Stripe became the first payment partner for Apple’s Tap to Pay. A year later, Stripe enabled businesses to perform tap-to-pay transactions on his NFC-enabled Android device. Stripe charges $0.10 per transaction for tap-to-pay purchases through the Stripe payment gateway. Additional fees apply for card and digital wallet payments.

According to PayPal, millions of small companies will find it easier to adjust to the changing customer behavior as more and more people choose cashless transactions. This is because Tap to Pay on iPhone eliminates the need for retailers to purchase card readers.