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by alapshah 5240 days ago
I asked them about this - they don't handle marketplace businesses (Taking money on behalf of another customer), for the same regulatory issues previously stated. PoundPay (also YC) is trying to solve this issue but I haven't heard a peep out of them... Also it is quite annoying because I paid for a zaarly and it showed poundpay on my statement, I had no idea what it was.
3 comments
cwilson 5240 days ago
PoundPay is super interesting, because from what I can see, only Amazon has a solution that essentially handles escrow transactions (which is what KickStarter uses). You're right however, I haven't heard much from them lately (as opposed to Stripe, who seems to be killing it). There was also a limitation with PoundPay of being US only, which is not an option for many companies.
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jjb123 5240 days ago
Stripe's model depends on marketing and press, PoundPay has gotten really good word of mouth by the companies that currently use it (for our startup we've looked at our own processing, paypal, amazon, and just about all the options)
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zende 5240 days ago
US merchants, international buyers -- just like Amazon (FPS) and Etsy's current systems. Which countries would you be most interested in us adding?
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pbreit 5240 days ago
Etsy could have implemented Stripe and not be the middleman while still offering a "direct pay-like" experience. Of course, each Etsy seller would need to sign up for Stripe. But I would think Stripe would be very keen on that.
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ozten 5240 days ago
Did anyone at Etsy look into this integration? Why didn't this seem viable?
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subpixel 5240 days ago
That approach would remove a couple big wins:

1) the ability to sell Etsy-wide credit, e.g. gift certificates.

2) interest-earning cash in the bank (the days/weeks between the sale and when the seller marks the item as shipped)

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zende 5240 days ago
it now says ZAARLY.COM on your statement for Zaarly. This was a previous bank limitation, not technical or design, that has been resolved.

new business comes in through referrals and press by our marketplaces, so we haven't focused on press.

if you want to sign up as a marketplace: https://www.poundpay.com/developers/application

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