Today, PayPal announced that it will be introducing “Tap to Pay” for American retailers that have an iPhone and use the Venmo and Zettle applications. The capability would enable businesses to accept contactless card and digital wallet payments straight on their iPhones without any additional cost or hardware, according to PayPal, the company that owns both Venmo and Zettle. Eight months have passed since PayPal first made the capability available to retailers who use Android phones.

Without the need for extra hardware, Tap to Pay enables businesses to take payments using cards as well as digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. It also helps them calculate taxes, take tips, send receipts, and give refunds. According to the company, money from sales is promptly transferred into a company’s Venmo or PayPal Zettle account. For each sale made using Zettle and Venmo’s tap-to-pay feature, PayPal costs 2.29% + 9¢.

Venmo business profile users will be able to reach out to customers by taking payments from buyers even if they do not have a Venmo account thanks to Tap to Pay on the iPhone. Inside the Venmo app, merchants have direct control over both their Venmo and card payment transactions.

Only a few months after PayPal started testing the feature through an early access programme, the service is now officially available.

Only a few months after PayPal started testing the feature through an early access programme, the service is now officially available.

The new functionality was introduced two years after Apple’s initial Tap to Pay payment partner, Stripe, a competitor to PayPal. A year later, Stripe made it possible for companies to process Tap to Pay payments on Android smartphones with NFC. When using the Stripe payment gateway to make Tap to Pay purchases, Stripe charges $0.10 per transaction. Additional fees apply for payments made with cards and digital wallets.

According to PayPal, millions of small companies will find it easier to adjust to the changing customer behaviour as more and more people choose cashless transactions. This is because Tap to Pay on iPhone eliminates the need for retailers to purchase card readers.