The U.S. Postal Service has added PayPal as a payment option for their online shipping application, “Click-N-Ship“. Customers can now choose to use either their credit card or have the option of paying with PayPal. This isn’t an entirely new service as previously customers could use PayPal but only via the Bill Me Later service which is still offered as an option. Now you don’t need to use Bill Me Later though, once Click-N-Ship customers have completed their shipping labels and are ready to check out, they simply select the PayPal option.
“Our customers have told us they would like more payment options when shipping online and that’s why we are excited to announce we are now accepting PayPal” explained Kelly Sigmon, U.S. Postal Service Vice President. PayPal provides flexibility to pay with multiple options, including PayPal account balances, bank accounts, credit cards or promotional financing.
Alternative payment methods are increasingly important to USPS as almost 40% of their revenues now come from sources other than traditional post office transactions. Over half of the alternative transactions are carried out online so offering PayPal, especially as so many marketplaces sellers use the service, makes sense.
Of course if you’re selling on eBay you also have the option of buying online USPS postage directly from within My eBay, but the option of easily printing out your USPS labels for non-eBay transactions and still paying with PayPal makes perfect sense.
Now that USPS accept PayPal for payments perhaps other postal services around the world will take note and also offer more payment options for their customers.
