Small business owners and solopreneurs, raise your hand if you’ve ever thought
PayPal doesn't offer the range of products you need. How about the idea that offering PayPal as a checkout option means your customers can’t pay with credit cards? Or, plain and simple, PayPal isn’t right for your size or type of business?
We’ve talked at length with small business owners across a range of industries and have unearthed a few common misconceptions about selling with PayPal, like the ones listed above. These myths may be holding
business owners back from using PayPal to its fullest capacity, so we want to share examples of real-life use cases of businesses using PayPal today.
What do an interior designer, a children’s clothes retailer, an artisanal mukluk maker, and a fashion photographer have in common? All these merchants, spanning a range of industries, use PayPal to power their businesses. We’re sharing their success stories below to help dispel common misconceptions that might be holding you back from selling with PayPal.
Maria Killam is an interior designer and prophet to other designers who want to learn her proprietary system of understanding neutral undertones. Throughout her 20-year career, she’s taught thousands of interior designers how to master the nuances of neutrals and has helped many more clients love their homes.
Right from day one, when Maria was consulting one-on-one, she used
PayPal’s invoicing services. “As soon as you set up an account with PayPal, you’re rolling,” said Maria. “People don’t realize how easy it is to send an invoice through PayPal. It’s such a simple way to make sure you get paid.”
Looking for a way to reach clients outside of her native Canada, Maria launched her blog, “
Colour Me Happy”, in 2008. Two years later, Maria hosted her first live event teaching color theory to interior designers and allowed clients to register and pay for enrolment using
PayPal via her website. Her audiences have now grown to include viewers in over 150 countries and she sells e-books, large paint color samples, and tickets to on-line trainings, webinars and live events.
“By using a combination of PayPal products –
invoicing and
Express Checkout – my clients can pay me in whatever time zone they live in and they can pay in a way that suits them best – MasterCard, American Express or Visa debit, bank account or PayPal balance,” said Maria.
After the birth of her daughter, Alyssa Kerbel found it difficult to find quality, basic children’s clothing, especially in neutral colors. Drawing on her decade long experience in the fashion industry, Alyssa set about designing a collection of eco-friendly and ethically-made fashion basics for infants and kids called Mini Mioche’s.
Mini Mioche’s website was simply a landing page for wholesaler inquires when launched in 2008. While consumer-facing online shops weren’t abundantly popular at the time, Alyssa found that other clothing brands were starting to open online stores and that she could make a greater profit by selling directly to customers. So in 2009, one year after their launch, Mini Mioche opened a consumer-facing online store – powered by Shopify, which offers a simple PayPal integration – and made their first international sale that same year. Two years later, Mini Mioche opened their first brick and mortar store.
In the past few years, Mini Mioche has seen their online sales grow more than 100 percent year-over-year, and their online sales surpass their retail store sales. Alyssa attributes this success to a number of factors and sees PayPal as a major contributor – in the past year, close to 50 percent of their online payments were processed by PayPal.
“With online shopping, convenience and efficiency is everything. The easier you make it for your customer to complete a purchase, the more likely they are to shop with you,” said Alyssa. “PayPal makes it so easy for the customer – buyers don’t have to enter their shipping or billing information and the customer knows their information is secure.”
With the burst of a flashbulb,
Manitobah Mukluks’ future changed forever. In 2006, nine years after entrepreneur Sean McCormick launched Manitobah Mukluks, Hollywood celebrities were photographed wearing their footwear and it set off an international craze. Hot on the heels of this milestone, Manitobah opened an online store to keep pace with customer demand.
Driven by the mission to give back to his community, Sean launched an artisan line of mukluks and moccasins called '
Storyboots’ in 2010. The Manitobah Storyboot Project features work by Aboriginal artists from across Turtle Island who create one-of-a-kind, hand-made mukluks and moccasins. All of the revenue generated from this project is directed back to the artists. This, along with Manitobah’s Aboriginal hiring policy, are some ways that Manitobah is able to share its success with others and build capacity in Aboriginal communities. Today, Manitobah is a PROFIT 500 company, Canada’s fastest-growing footwear brand and a global leader who translates their business excellence into a positive community impact.
“Without the Web, and an online payment partner like PayPal, we could easily be a niche, local product. Instead, the Manitobah online store brings together a global network of people who share our vision,” said Sean. “Our online store allows our customers to support an Aboriginal brand and artists which ultimately creates a positive impact in our communities.”
Nathan Elson Photography launched with a website in 2007 and used PayPal invoicing to get paid for his work. Within one year, Nathan was running his business full-time and by 2012, Nathan Elson Photography became the sole income for his family.
As his business grew, Nathan expanded his use of PayPal. “Today I use PayPal as a payment gateway for when people need to book sessions for head shots, or workshops, or put down retainers for larger projects. It allows clients to make payments easily and quickly while using a platform they know and trust to keep their credit card and personal information safe,” said Nathan.
Coming up on his eight-year anniversary, Nathan is currently building an e-commerce section of his website - using PayPal as the payment gateway - to sell more of Fine Art work.
At PayPal, we understand that small businesses are the life blood of our company and the backbone of the global economy. That’s why we offer a full-suite of easy-to-use products and services that allow merchants to start accepting payments - Visa, MasterCard, American Express, linked bank accounts, PayPal and more - from day one. We proudly power payments for more than 13 million businesses globally and continue to expand our product offerings to enable a faster and simpler way to manage and move money.