eBay buys German online payment service BillSAFE

Purchase on invoice is “booming business”

“Purchase on invoice is an ideal addition to the
payment options available with PayPal and makes it the most
comprehensive service for consumers and merchants alike”, says
Alexander Ey, BillSAFE’s managing director. “Security-conscious
shoppers can receive and inspect the merchandise they bought online
before paying for their purchases. And merchants can sell to customers
who were previously skeptical of buying online. It’s an ideal
match,”

Purchase on invoice is already the most popular form of payment
in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. According to
eBay, almost one in five German e-commerce payments was billed via
invoice, while 84.8% of online shoppers in Germany have already used the
method.

Countering Klarna

The acquisition is probably a move to counter the Swedish
Klarna, that has offered the purchase on invoice service since 2005 and
has just received
155 million dollar (almost 120 million euro) of financing
“to accelerate global expansion”. Last year, Klarna
has handled over 2.5 billion dollar (1.9 billion euro) for almost 14,000
merchants in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany and the
Netherlands. As Klarna is looking for opportunities to grow outside of
Europe, it starts to pose a direct threat to eBay and its 2008
acquisition “Bill Me
Later”.