Could PayPal QR codes be the missing link in your online payments?

While the first contactless payment cards arrived in 2007, it might be 2020 that history books record as the biggest change to how we shop. Numerous new ways to shop that aid social distancing and avoid handling physical money have sprung up, but one of the more significant yet underrated in PayPal’s QR codes.

It should be big, Paypal is one of the most active payment systems in the world, but the simplicity of the system is perhaps the reason it is overlooked. Each account on Paypal can generate a QR code via the website. Then, anyone scanning the QR code using the PayPal app can send money to that account.

And that is it. So simple, so secure. It’s aimed mostly at the bricks&mortar small businesses who can either print out the QR Code or display it on a monitor and with transactions free until mid-September, it should certainly help them out, but how can eCommerce and internet shops make use of this? We’ve thought of three, which we have highlighted below.

How online retailers can make the most of PayPal QR codes


Custom baskets



If you’ve ever had a customer on the phone and wanted to make them an offer but your online check-out system doesn’t let you just manually charge them, now you could send them to a webpage or send them an email where they can send you a precise amount, meeting you halfway.

Emailed invoices



If your product isn’t as simple as one-click-buy, and you need to send an email invoice, then why not attach the QR code as a method of payment. A few seconds after reading it, that money could be in your PayPal account.

The Back-up plan



Can you ever have too many back-up plans? Recent events suggest that you can’t, so here’s one. This offers a less than perfect check-out system, with the responsibility of entering the invoiceable amount and providing additional details on to the customer, and might require a few minutes writing confirmation emails, copy and paste-ing details from the PayPal website, but it is surely better than no checkout at all. It’s one PNG file as well, so your web admin should be able to post it up as a simple separate page or even as a blog post. You could even use it as a stop-gap measure during a website update.

There are a few drawbacks and whilst they aren’t trivial, they aren’t major either. Firstly, there’s the integration. If you don’t already have a PayPal account you might need to read up on their terms and conditions. Make sure the receipt emails contain the information you’d need to service the order

Then there is the human element. It puts a lot of responsibility onto your customer. They have to type in the correct amount to send you and make sure their delivery details are correct.

Finally, there is the trackability of the transaction. You’d want to make sure there is an action on your website to confirm the sale so that it can be tracked properly in Google Analytics and Google Ads.

It would be sensible to look into the first steps at least for your business, and to generate the code and see where it can fit into your checkout processes. You can generate a code for your PayPal account here.

For more information about how you can use pay per click to support your eCommerce site, get in touch with the team at AdPilot today and enquire about our FREE audit.