PayPal Stories Archive

Today, solopreneurs, casual sellers and businesses with less than ten employees make up over 80 per cent of the Canadian small business landscape*. It goes without saying that when your team is small you need to be nimble, and this often means conducting key business operations on the go.

 

At PayPal, we work closely with our 250,000 Canadian small business customers and millions more around the world. More and more what we’re hearing from our customers, like the team at RED Academy, is that they need to send invoices, manage finances and track the status of key information and metrics in real time. RED Academy, founded by a team of tech entrepreneurs and industry leaders who recognized the growing demand for designers, developers and tech-savvy marketers, is a professional development school with locations in Toronto and Vancouver.

 

Like many businesses we work with, RED Academy’s lean and nimble team needs mobile-enabled small business tools to suit their needs and the needs of their customers. With these entrepreneurs in mind, today we’re announcing an expanded suite of tools that offer small businesses the ability to conduct business from their mobile phone, as well as improved reporting and, mobile-enabled invoice payment solutions for their customers.

 

The new PayPal Business app, available on iOS and Android, gives entrepreneurs an easy way to manage their PayPal account activity wherever their business takes them. Now, PayPal Business account holders with the app can monitor sales activity, withdraw funds, issue refunds, set payment reminders, conveniently manage customer lists, import contacts, view customer history and send customized invoices, all while on the go. 

 

“Getting paid is a crucial component of doing business, but it’s easy to put off sending invoices. With the PayPal Business app we’re now able to immediately invoice and accept payments from our students while we are at events or classes,” said Sean Eikerman, Managing Director, North America, RED Academy. “The app also helps us to track our payments and I can easily set reminders for past due invoices, all from my mobile phone.”

 

Enhanced invoicing is a key theme in our recent product updates. Why? The answer is simple. Invoicing is one of PayPal’s top tools that drives significant value for our small business customers globally.

 

Consumers are increasingly dependent on their mobile phones, many shop, send money and pay invoices directly from their mobile device. To give you a sense of how big the shift to mobile is, in Canada mobile commerce spending is predicted to reach $11 billion in 2018*. Recognizing this, we have now optimized the invoice notification email and payment flow making it easier for shoppers to see invoice details and pay directly from their mobile phones. 

 

“As a technology and design school, we care deeply about user experience and design. We teach our students the importance of mobile-enabled solutions and brand consistency across every customer touchpoint,” said, said Sean Eikerman, Managing Director, North America, RED Academy. “PayPal’s recent updates include an improved mobile payment experience, and with PayPal our customers, even international students, can pay however suits them best.”

 

This is streamlined payment process, which will be more broadly available in the coming weeks, is made possible through PayPal’s One Touch checkout experience. With One Touch there is no need to enter usernames and passwords once opted in, let alone shipping or payment details – an especially challenging task on a smaller device.

 

Arguably, the least exciting part of running and managing a small business is reporting, but it’s one of the top requests we get from small businesses who want to more efficiently run and manage their operations.

 

PayPal’s new reporting capabilities gives business account holders access to detailed reporting and customizable reports to help them manage common activities such as, staying on top of sales and transactions and basic bookkeeping interactions with accountants and banks.

Being a customer champion and a better partner is our number one focus at PayPal. We want to help our small business customers efficiently run day-to-day operations by delivering solutions that help entrepreneurs on their path to success. Learn more about our small business solutions today.