PayPal is preparing an important step to adapt to Russia’s local conditions by accepting account replenishment by cash. The news was reported last week by Russian business daily Vedomosti, which received confirmation from PayPal.
Such operations will be made possible in the physical outlets of Euroset and Svyaznoy, the leading retailers of mobile devices and accessories with more than 8,000 outlets across the country, and processed by payment operator Rapida.
This past summer PayPal Russia’s General Manager Vladimir Malyugin told the Russian media that his company is also seeking partnerships with cash-in kiosk operators. This will make replenishment operations possible from an even larger pool of cash acceptance points.
The move towards cash acceptance – which is very unusual for the international payment operator – is almost an obligation to reach larger audiences in Russia, where cash transactions are still predominant. Most other electronic payment systems – including electronic currencies that compete with PayPal, like Yandex Money, WebMoney and the Visa QIWI Wallet – already offer a diversity of replenishment methods, including by cash, as shown by EWDN research reports.
For example, Yandex Money claims no fewer than 170,000 offline cash replenishment points.
PayPal was made available to Russian users for domestic transactions in September 2013. At the end of the year, the company claimed 1.4 million active users, far from equalling the superior customer base of its main Russian competitors.