Payments

Paypal introduced PayPal Checkout with Smart Payment Buttons in the US three months ago, to give consumers more choice in how they can pay. Now, the international payments company has launched these payment buttons in Europe.

Alipay, the biggest payments firm of China, will be available in 20 countries across Europe at the end of this year. The mobile payment platform is said to have signed deals with over 100 banks and 40 digital wallets companies in Europe.

The popular Dutch payment method iDeal performed well last year. The number of payments with iDeal has increased by 33.8 percent during that period, which is a growth the method hasn't seen since 2011. More and more foreign online stores are now offering iDeal to Dutch customers.

Adyen, a major Dutch company that processes payments for companies such as Airbnb, Uber, Spotify and Netflix, confirmed it plans to list its shares publicly in Amsterdam. The company announced it will go public on the Euronext stock market next month.

When it comes to paying, German consumers are rather conservative when they are shopping online. Four in ten Germans prefer to pay on account. The second most popular payment method is PayPal, favored by almost one in three online shoppers in Germany.

PayPal and VISA dominate the European ecommerce industry. In almost every country in Europe, one of these two is the most popular payment method for online shopping. Only in the Netherlands, the most popular payment method isn't PayPal or VISA. Let's have a look at the top 3 per country.

When you are an online retailer that's active in the Netherlands, you can't go around offering iDeal. The payment method now has a market share of 57 percent in its home market. Last year, Dutch online shoppers paid almost 33 billion euros in over 378 million iDeal transactions.

Paylobby, a young startup founded in Munich last year, offers an online comparison portal of payment service providers and consultations. With this tool, it wants to help ecommerce businesses optimize their payment systems for their customers' needs, while reducing their online payment costs.

Card fraud losses in Europe hit approximately 1.8 billion euros in 2016. The United Kingdom saw the highest losses. The value lost to fraud was worth 646 million euros in 2015, but increased by 9 percent to about 703 million euros last year. Together with France, the UK accounts for almost three-quarters of card fraud across Europe.

Visa will invest in Klarna, one of Europe's fastest growing online payments companies. Today, the two companies announced they have the intention to develop a strategic partnership in the future. Visa and Klarna want to accelerate ecommerce and mcommerce for the benefit of consumers and retailers in Europe.

The American online payment platform Stripe has expanded its services in Europe by launching in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. With Stripe, companies can easily accept online payments on their websites or via a mobile application.

Payments processor Worldpay has launched a pilot scheme, which enables microbusinesses to accept payments from costumers with an app instead of needing a card terminal. What is said to be an industry first could really help small businesses with accepting card payments easily.

Klarna has been granted a full banking license by the Swedish financial supervisory authority Finansinspektionen. This means Klarna can operate as a bank, something it wanted for a long time. With a banking license, Klarna kan now broaden its product portfolio for customers and merchants.

Ulmart, the biggest online retailer of Russia, has announced it has plans to start accepting bitcoin as one of the payment methods. When things go through, the popular crypto currency will be accepted on Ulmart starting the first of September later this year.

German consumers still like to pay for their online purchases only after they have received the goods. Most online retailers adapt to this, even when they offer payment by e-wallet or credit card in the first place. Purchase on account has further strengthened its leading position as the most revenue-intensive payment method in the German ecommerce industry. It's followed by direct debit and PayPal.