Chirpify goes beyond PayPal, adds credit card payments

Chirpify looking to make in-stream social media commerce cheaper and simpler by eliminating fees

It may have taken a few years, but social media networks, especially Twitter and Facebook, finally seem to have figured out how to successfully become a great place for businesses to advertise. That success has not translated to e-commerce, though, despite some effort of the part of Facebook. For whatever reason, getting businesses to buy and sell their goods on social media has never truly taken off.

Chirpify, a platform for in-stream commerce on social media, is trying to change that. And, in order to do so, it has decided to branch out, and begin accepting both domestic and international credit and debit cards, as well as ACH (Bank Account) payments, it was announced Tuesday.  

Before today, Chirpify only accepted in-stream payments on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram via PayPal, forcing sellers to pay a PayPal fee. That was on top of Chirpify's regular 2.9% transaction fee, plus 30 cents per transaction. Now, by becoming less reliant on PayPal, Chirpify is allowing sellers to eliminate that extra fee.

"By expanding our payments capabilities we’re not only providing more optionality, but also eliminating the need for additional PayPal fees. Our goal is to provide a unified wallet that enables the most frictionless way to send and receive payments anywhere," Chirpify wrote.

That is not to say that Chirpify is completely getting rid of the PayPal option. For sellers, payments can now be accepted to an ACH bank account or to PayPal. A U.S. bank account is required for ACH payouts, and Chirpify says that it will cover the transfer fees for both ACH and PayPal payouts. 

For buyers, Tuesday's news does not change much for them, except that it simply gives them more options to be able to pay. They still buy, donate or pay the same way they always did, and there is no fee to use Chirpify on their end,

By adding new payment options, Chirpify is simply attemtping to streamline the entire process of in-stream payments, making the prospect of buying and selling on social media even more attractive to its potential customers by reducing costs. 

How does Chirpify work

The Portland, Orgeon-based company was founded in July 2011, and is a platform that enables transactions with a simple reply or comment on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Whereas all other platforms require a user to click on a link on a link that then takes them to another website, Chirpify completes the transaction with the customer never having to leave the site. Users buy, donate or get a free item on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram with a reply or comment of "buy," "donate" or "gimme."

Chirpify has raised a total of $3.3 million, including a $1.3 million seed round from Voyager Capital, angel investors Geoff Entress, BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu, former Facebook executive Rudy Gadre, HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes, and TiE Oregon Angels, and a $2 million Series A round of financing from  Voyager Capital in April.

The company's enterprise partners include Puma, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Adidas, the Portland Trailblazers, Green Day and Keith Richards.

(Image source: https://chirpify.com)