WePay is a platform that provides online payment services to small businesses, companies, and IT companies. The company helps them raise private funding, crowdfunding, marketplaces, and others through its application processing interfaces.
Limitations for payment, fees, and restrictions may vary according to the amount of money transferred, making it more attractive than other payment platforms.
What is WePay?
WePay is a private company that offers services in the online payment sector. It provides fraud and risk protection services because of its secure payment system. Its system’s algorithms and machine learning technology help detect fraud by using data sources.
WePay was the second-fastest-growing online payment platform in 2015, raising funds of almost $74 million. Due to its sudden growth, JPMorgan Chase acquired WePay for a value of over $220 million in 2017.
Company Profile
Given below is WePay’s company profile.
| Company Name | WePay, Inc |
| Website | go.wepay.com |
| Founded in | 2008 |
| Founders | Richard Aberman (CSO), Bill Clerico (CEO) |
| No. of employees | 250-300 |
| Business Model | Online Payment Platform |
| Services | Online Payment Services |
| Net worth | $220 million (2017) |
| Funds Raised | $74.15 million (2015) |
| Competitors | PayPal, Amazon Pay, BlueSnap, Stripe Connect, GoCardless, Authorize.Net, Venmo for Business, etc |
How Does WePay Works?
WePay works by providing crowdfunding sites, marketplaces, and small platform businesses with software to facilitate payments non-disruptively. It also works as a third-party vendor and lets companies use its platform while also promoting its brand. WePay usually targets small and medium-level vendors or companies. It helped them grow their business by processing $1 billion in payments in the last six years.
WePay works as a back office for payment processing for many of the e-commerce platforms. The business model of WePay is different from other payment processing companies. Users can make accounts under a single name. They can make payments under a single individual name. However, WePay separates transaction history for different accounts.
WePay also differs from the competition by allowing vendors to accept and process payments through different applications integrated on WePay’s website. It does not share user information with payment providers, thus limiting the payment problems faced by users.
What is WePay Business Model?
WePay provides two platforms, i.e., a payment processing website and a third-party payment service partnered with the companies. Its users can directly use WePay to transfer and collect money. WePay also offers services to companies that promote the brand by using the WePay integrated system. There are some platform types:
- Event Management (Constant Contact)
- Accounting/Invoicing (FreshBooks)
- E-Commerce/Shopping Carts (Ecwid)
- Fundraising (GoFundMe)
The goal of WePay is to make a platform that can facilitate payments. Traders and vendors will be able to collect and transfer money without leaving the software. WePay is expanding its range as it has started offering such software platforms that are self-branded payment solutions. For example, FreshBooks, partnered with WePay, provides a payment solution with the brand name called FreshBooks Payments by WePay.
WePay’s Products
WePay provides three different products or services to its users.
Link
WePay offers a transaction mechanism called Link, by which merchants conduct their transactions. The company earns fees related to the amount of money transacted. It is a Chase integrated system in which the charges will directly deposit in Chase’s bank accounts. The fee for each transaction is 2.9% + $0.25, which the user pays.
Clear
It is the second service offered by WePay. It is a White label payment approach in which the vendor sets their own pricing. Vendors, companies, and traders provide online payment services to their customers by integrating their systems with WePay’s technology. In this way, it can generate more revenue for both the company and for WePay.
Core
This service basically is for the big giants that want full control over cash management and payment processing. WePay offers this service which is fully integrated into Chase’s infrastructure. Companies can provide better offers and services by experiencing the user’s experience and control the transaction life. This service is not for small-scale businesses and is very costly. WePay provides these services to companies that perform massive amounts of transactions and hope to shape the economies of their customers.
WePay’s payment services
WePay’s approach is different from other payment platforms. It directly targets the owners of companies, not the vendors using those platforms. It clearly highlights the overall value of the integrated payment solutions rather than highlighting trivial advantages. WePay offers several services to platforms. Some of them are below:
White-Label Payment Service:
The sole function of this service is to customize and personalize the payment process according to the company. It eliminates the redirection process in which most companies use the 3rd party processor websites. WePay’s integrated software powers the system, but these companies control the payment checks.
Developer Documentation:
WePay is an API Company. It means it can customize the software and solutions according to the needs of its users or companies interested in using white-Label payment services.
Offers Payment Processing to Different Countries:
Its payment processing differs from the conventional methods. After getting success in the US, WePay is expanding its business across the world. WePay has a merchant agreement with UK-based clients. WePay has also entered Australia. It is also working in Canada. Many European companies are also looking forward to working with WePay.
Discounted Rates:
Customers running non-profit registers can get several discounted interchange rates through WePay.
Fraud & Compliance:
WePay also offers integrated fraud tools to reduce the risk of identity thefts, money frauds, and many more. WePay restricts companies from taking possession of funds. This way, they face fewer regulatory requirements. WePay claims 100% coverage of risk-related payments. It means the company takes responsibility to cover losses resulting from frauds.
Split Payments and Revenue:
WePay powered software can split payments between charity-funded partners and itself and allows the company to collect fees non-disruptively. It provides the opportunity to add markups to transaction fees to generate revenue.
Mobile Point of Sale (mPOS):
WePay provides vendors with a platform that they can access on mobile devices. They can use this platform to collect payments. Some information related to mPOS is below:
Customizable Payouts: This will enable the merchants to carry daily, weekly or monthly payouts.
Automatic Account Updater: Vendors or traders can upgrade their existing customers’ accounts based on their transaction history. Merchants can give more attractive offers to their customers.
Apple Pay: WePay has also partnered with Apple Inc. to reach out to the maximum users on a higher level.
IOS & Android SDKs: These apps can help in providing integrated payments.
Customizable EMV-Certified Card Readers: Cards with EMV chips can transact money anywhere in the world. It is code generated by EMV chip, which only certified cards can decode to collect money by eliminating the fraud factor.
How Does WePay Make Money?
The target market of WePay is medium and small e-commerce businesses, enterprises, and crowdfunding sites. WePay makes money through transaction fees on credit cards and other payments like ACH payments. It also charges a research fee and chargeback fee. The number of medium and small business customers is high. It is the reason behind WePay’s success and growth. WePay has grown at the rate of 276% from 2012 to 2014.
WePay works as a third party. It offers a white-label payment service to the companies by which the companies are independent of charging transaction fees. WePay works with each platform or company to roadmap the pricing between them. There is no influence and involvement of WePay in the pricing set by those platforms for its customers. WePay’s pricing may vary from client to client, depending upon the services.
There are some basic rates of WePay
Per Transaction Fee: 2.9% + $0.25
Chargeback Fee: $15
ACH Return Fee: $15
Research Fee: $25
These are some primary rates that WePay charges. They can vary depending on the clauses and agreements between the platform and WePay.
What are the Benefits of WePay?
Given below are some of the benefits of WePay.
Integrate Seamlessly
WePay is an API company and provides the ability to integrate easily for the transaction of payments. It provides merchants with a frictionless solution.
Increase in Revenue
When the transaction procedures and processes are simple with no complications, users become satisfied. Upon this satisfaction, the usage of such platform increases, which means more transaction resulting in more fees generation and hence more revenues.
No hidden fees
No extra charges or hidden charges are involved. There is no application fee.
Conclusion
WePay is the second-fastest-growing online payment platform in the world. It provides fully integrated and customizable software to its clients to transfer and collect money. The rise in its usage is because it provides a secure and risk-free system.
With the introduction of WePay Clear, more and more companies are showing interest in this model. As the consumers are shifting to e-payment services, WePay must invest in R&D to continue its growth and present more services that benefit its clients.
