eBay accepts Venmo payments
eBay is adding a new payment method after recently deciding to drop another one.
The e-commerce marketplace is integrating the Venmo digital payment platform. This decision follows its recent announcement that as of Aug. 17, it will no longer accept American Express cards as a payment option.
In a corporate blog post, eBay said it is moving to introduce “new, popular and modern payment options” that align with the “evolving preferences” of “digital natives,” and cited Venmo’s popularity among Gen Z and millennial consumers and its base of more than 90 million users.
As a result, buyers can now pay for purchases with their Venmo balance or a bank account, debit or credit card linked to their Venmo account. The ability to pay with Venmo will be available to U.S. buyers on eBay.com and the eBay app in the coming week.
Once buyers have linked their Venmo account to their eBay account, they can go through checkout without manually entering their payment details in subsequent transactions.
After completing a purchase with Venmo, buyers can choose to share the payment in the Venmo feed. Eligible payments are covered by Venmo’s purchase protection offering in the event there’s an issue with their purchase. Sellers don’t need to do anything on their account to offer Venmo as a payment method.
Other eBay payment methods include major credit and debit cards, digital wallets, and buy now, pay later offerings in select markets. The e-tailer is moving to accept Venmo as the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and National Retail Federation (NRF) have both expressed continuing general concerns about fees credit card companies charge retailers.
These concerns exist even with Visa and Mastercard reaching an estimated $30 billion settlement with U.S. retailers regarding credit and debit card fees in March 2024 (the companies did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement).
Both RILA and NRF stated that the settlement should not interfere with Congress' passing of the proposed Credit Card Competition Act, which would "bring true competition to a broken market," said RILA. The proposed act specifically exempts American Express, which issued a statement expressing disappointment in eBay’s decision.
Interestingly, Amazon, a major e-commerce rival of eBay, stopped accepting Venmo payments following the 2023 holiday season. Amazon did not give an official reason for dropping Venmo payments, while in. a public statement Venmo said the two companies agreed to disable digital Venmo payments.