Paymo Goes Live In 39 Markets Globally; Brings Billions Of Online Consumers Without Credit Cards Into ECommerce Marketplace For First Time

The More Than 70 Percent of the Online Population Who Don`t Have Credit Cards Will be Able to Shop Online and Charge Purchases Directly To Their Mobile Phone Bill

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Dec. 16, 2008 – Paymo, the trusted mobile payments network that allows consumers anywhere in the world to buy online and pay with their mobile phone, today announced that its innovative payments platform is now available in 39 markets around the world, allowing online merchants everywhere to sell to more than 3 billion mobile consumers worldwide.

Merchants located in any county, including the United States, can now accept Paymo in 39 markets around the globe. The company expects to start accepting payments from US consumers early in the first quarter of 2009. Paymo is currently available as a payment option for consumers in the following countries:

Australia Guatemala Qatar
Austria Hong Kong Russia
Bahrain Ireland Saudi Arabia
Canada Jordan Singapore
Chile Lebanon South Africa
Columbia Malaysia Spain
Cyprus Morocco Sweden
Czech Republic Netherlands Switzerland
Denmark Norway Syria
Ecuador Oman United Arab Emirates
Egypt Palestine United Kingdom France Panama Vietnam
Greece Peru Yemen

More than 70 percent of the world’s online population does not have a credit card, and until now these people have largely been locked out of the online shopping experience. Paymo opens up the world of online commerce to include the more than 3 billion consumers globally who own a mobile phone. With Paymo, users only need to enter their mobile phone number to initiate a transaction and confirm the purchase via a text message. The purchase will be billed directly to their mobile phone.

In today`s challenging global economic environment we can.t afford to exclude 70 percent of consumers from participating in the online marketplace,. said Paul McGuire, CEO and co-founder of Paymo. With Paymo, online merchants can open their sites to new consumers and revenue opportunities. Consumers who don`t have or who don`t want to use their credit cards online, now have a safe and secure way to shop online, without the need for sign-ins, usernames, or passwords..

Using Paymo
For consumers, Paymo makes it easy to pay online for items such as games, avatars, virtual world goods, and applications for social networks or mobile devices by simplifying the purchase process.

For merchants, incorporating Paymo into their website is a simple process that opens their business to new consumers from around the world with a few simple clicks.

Paymo eliminates the need for log-ins and passwords, remembering credit card numbers or setting up separate accounts to facilitate online transactions that are linked to a bank account or credit card. With Paymo, all consumers need is a mobile phone to shop online and add purchases directly to their mobile phone bill. And, because Paymo won.t work without the user confirming the receipt of a text message, Paymo is safer than traditional methods for online shopping.

The Team
The Paymo management team has a combination of industry experience and knowledge of local markets that make them uniquely qualified to revolutionize the mobile payments space. CEO and co-founder McGuire is a serial entrepreneur with over 20 years of senior management experience. Prior to cofounding Paymo, McGuire co-founded mBlox, the world’s leading Mobile Transaction Network and led the company’s sales and marketing organizations through significant growth while guiding the company’s expansion into the European market and their M&A efforts acquiring six international companies.

The company`s Chief Financial Officer and co-founder, Margaret Mackenzie, has an extensive background in corporate and venture finance, and early stage company and financial services management. Prior to co-founding Paymo Mackenzie was the Chief Financial Officer for mBlox, Inc. responsible for international finance, corporate development, human resources and legal and administrative functions.

Alexandre Gonthier serves as Paymo`s chief technology officer and joined the company from private equity firm 3i where he was Entrepreneur in Residence, focused on opportunities in the payments, mobile, internet and software sectors globally. Prior to 3i, Gonthier co-founded Valista (formerly iPIN), global leader in Internet and mobile payments software. Alexandre was CEO of iPIN after having served as CTO at inception.

For more information about Paymo, please visit www.paymo.com.

About Paymo
Paymo is the trusted mobile payments network that allows consumers anywhere in the world to buy online and pay with their mobile phone. More than 70 percent of the world’s online population has no credit card, but over 3 billion consumers own a mobile phone. Paymo opens the world of online commerce to these people, offering them the ability to buy online and pay using their mobile phone. Paymo simplifies and streamlines the e-commerce process for digital items such as virtual goods, video games, and applications for social networks and mobile devices. Paymo provides a trusted global payment system for online purchases that is fast, easy and secure. The company is led by executives with vast industry and international experience. The company.s payment solution is available globally and is currently live in 39 markets.

Contact:
SutherlandGold Group
George O.Brien
Paymo@sutherlandgold.com
415-848-7167

Recently I switched a Volusion hosted ecommerce store from credit card processing with Paypal Payments Pro to the Paymentech platform via my ISO. (3D Merchant is not an ISO, but your blog author is an agent with multiple payment processing solutions to choose from, including Paymentech.)

I chose Paypal years ago when the store first started. It was just a ‘buy now’ button. Then it became a full fledged store, and I upgraded from regular paypal to Paypal Payments Pro. With Volusion, I bought the Volusion branded security certificate and used in the integrated Paypal checkout. This means customers would pay with a credit card just like on any other web site. Shoppers normally never know who a company’s processor is. They just get a receipt from the business they bought from. I also kept the Paypal option. This means a customer could also check out with Paypal or with any credit card.

Paypal Summary:
Paypal regular- customers checkout on the paypal web site.
Paypal Payments Pro- checkout just like any other store with your credit card, all on one page.
In either case, merchant fees are deducted from every transaction. Additionally, you have to login to Paypal, then request to transfer deposits from transactions to your bank. The transfer time to my bank account was about 2-3 business days, sometimes longer.
My typical transaction cost was 2.95% (excludes factoring in the monthly fee). This is not the same as effective rate covered below.

Processing via my ISO/paymentech
Credit cards- customers use a one page checkout. I’m using authorize.net as a gateway. I can login to authorize.net or Paymentech to view transaction information. The transfer time to my bank account with Paymentech is 2 days FIRM, add 1 day if Sunday is in the 2. Merchant fees are deducted once per month, which makes it much easier for reconcilation.
I’m paying pass through interchange now instead of being lumped into one big rate. For example, I hit the CPS Rewards rate of 1.9% most frequently. My worst interchange rate is 2.3%.

Customers who use this same scenario also need to add the merchant discount, per transaction fee, dues and assessments, and monthly statement fee. Paypal checkout is still offered; customer checkout is on the paypal web site. Customers rarely use it.

The old Paypal effective rate was 3.75% when I ran it just before switching and the new effective rate for my B2B stores which usually hit higher interchange rates because of corporate cards is probably going to be about 2.2%. The effective rate includes all fees- monthly statement, percent of transaction, per transaction fee and everything else.

Summary:
The old way (Paypal Pro) was cost efficient when the store first opened, but later became costly and I didn’t like that customers would see ‘paypal’ on their credit card statements when they paid via normal checkout. It was also a manual process when I wanted to partially refund a customer.
The new way (regular merchant account) , which includes authorize.net, has reduced bookkeeping and customer care time because of the superior transaction flexibility. In reality, those costs are probably much higher than what I am saving on the processing, but the hard cash savings is great too!

Old effective rate 3.75% vs new effective rate 2.2%. Your ecommerce effective rate will vary since the merchant discount, a fee over and above interchange, is usually tied to volume. Additionally the type of buyer correlates to the type of credit card used.

Click here to get a new merchant account or fill in our online form for a merchant account analysis.

I’ve owned a couple of ecommerce stores for several years. I chose Paypal years ago when the store first started. It was just a ‘buy now’ button. Then it became a full fledged store, and I upgraded from regular paypal to Paypal Payments Pro. With Volusion, I bought the Volusion branded security certificate and used in the integrated Paypal checkout. This means customers would pay with a credit card just like on any other web site. Shoppers normally never know who a company’s processor is. They just get a receipt from the business they bought from. I also kept the Paypal option. This means a customer could also check out with Paypal.

Summary:
Paypal regular- you checkout on the paypal web site
Paypal Payments Pro- you checkout just like any other store with your credit card.

In 2008, Paypal raised their monthly fee to $30, and rates went up as well. When I started I was at 2% flat rate every transaction. As everyone knows, Visa & MasterCard charge many rates, so the processor that offers one rate needs to charge enough to cover all the different rates for fees they will actually incur. Their hard cost. My stores are B2B. The average corporate card is 2.2%. Paypal was losing money on me. The rate structure has now changed. When you look at the rates, you’d have to be pretty saavy to understand the rates now.

Did you see the “Merchant Rate qualification required”. They do not answer the question what it takes to be qualified. They do not answer what your costs are if not qualified. As I recall, this is now in the fine print, but only after you sign up. My costs escalated so that my effective rate was 3.75% when last checked.

Not posting all rates and the details until after you fill out online forms is very common. Most businesses do not have the knowledge to know what questions to ask.

In conclusion, I recommend Paypal to businesses that are just starting out, but after you’ve been in business for at least 2 years, or have at least $100,000 in annual processing, you’ll want to start looking for other options. Our own minimums for doing business are much higher, and we welcome you to read our blog for lots of tips.

reference: My B2B ecommerce stores
CEOgolfshop.com CEOgolfshop.com“>Golf shirts and dress shirts by Bugatchi

Speedy Displays specializes inTrade show booths and banner stands

One last note: You can find lots of negative information about Paypal. If you run an honest successful business, I can’t imagine you ever having a problem. I never did. If you run a consumer site and have lots of chargebacks maybe you should look somewhere else, but whatever you do, make sure you are not locked into a long term contract.