The new programme will replace ‘Honey Gold’, the rewards programme for Honey browser extension users, which allows customers to redeem their points for cash, gift cards, or PayPal shopping credits. With the new PayPal Rewards, consumers will be able to track and redeem their points directly inside the PayPal app and will have new ways to earn.
The deal for Honey was intended to give PayPal a better position in the face of the increased competition in the payments space from larger rivals, including Apple, Google, and even Facebook (now Meta). The battle for consumer adoption of online and mobile payments had shifted away from the checkout page itself, to compete against all the other places people go to discover, browse, get inspired, and deal-hunt, including on retailers’ sites and on social platforms, like Instagram, Pinterest and, today, TikTok.
A rewards programme, like the one offered by Honey, works to entice users by offering promo codes and coupons for favourite retailers, while redirecting them away from Amazon with better prices. Features like the price tracking ‘droplist’ also help consumers find the best deals on items they’re considering. And, with the 2021 revamp of the PayPal app, personalised deals and rewards became a larger part of the mobile experience as well. In 2021 alone, PayPal customers have saved nearly USD 200 million through the Honey cash back and discounts programme, says PayPal.
With the launch of PayPal Rewards, the company is now combining the rewards being offered to its customers across multiple PayPal products, including the Honey browser extension, the PayPal app and, in the future, various card products. Rewards will also be given its own dedicated spot in a new part of the PayPal app, where shoppers can track and redeem their points as they earn. When customers want to redeem their points, there won’t be category restrictions or account minimums, the company notes, and the points can be converted to cash back at a rate of 100 points equalling USD 1. Once redeemed as cash, the funds can be transferred to a linked bank account, deposited into a PayPal Savings account, donated to a charity, or sent to someone else as a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment.
With the new in-app hub, customers will also be able to earn points through personalized engagement in the PayPal app, in addition to the browser extension, and these points will be able to be stacked with the rewards earned from their payment card programmes. This personalised engagement introduces a new way for a customer to earn PayPal Reward points by doing things like linking a debit card or bank account to their PayPal, for example. If the customer has already done so, they might be presented with a different action to take.
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