PayPal Holdings
kicked off the year with a slate of changes meant to redefine its position in the payments business. Color the stock market unimpressed.
President and CEO Alex Chriss, who took the helm of the company on Sept. 27, detailed six initiatives Thursday afternoon. “PayPal is on a mission to revolutionize commerce, globally, and today we are starting the next chapter,” he said in a statement.
Here is a quick look at what PayPal is planning:
- A revamped checkout process, letting customers log in with their face or fingerprint.
- Fastlane, a one-click guest checkout system.
- Smart Receipts, which will let customers track their purchases and uses artificial intelligence to determine what they might want to buy next.
- A platform using customer insights that will allow merchants to customize offers for shoppers.
- A PayPal app refresh through CashPass, which will give customers personalized cash back offers. Beginning in March, PayPal will launch CashPass with partners so consumers can snag offers from a range of companies from Best Buy to Ticketmaster to Walmart.
- Enhanced Venmo profiles for businesses that will include subscribe buttons, profile rankings, and the ability to offer promotions.
The initiatives will begin rolling out in the U.S. throughout this year, according to the release.
These are welcome changes for PayPal. The stock has fallen sharply over the last two years, given economic challenges and competition from Apple’s
Apple
Pay, Block, and other payments businesses.
Margins have gotten squeezed as PayPal’s unbranded payment-processing business, Braintree, has offered solid growth but lower profits. Growth in its branded checkout business, also known as the PayPal checkout button, has been tepid.
All of this has left Wall Street wondering how the company can best compete in an increasingly competitive environment.
It appeared Wall Street initially was left unimpressed with PayPal’s changes. The stock fell 3.7% to $60.71 on Thursday.
Write to Emily Dattilo at emily.dattilo@dowjones.com
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