Two years ago, digital payment service Xoom was acquired by PayPal. Since then, Xoom has not only maintained an impressive rate of growth, but has also added plenty of value for its users.
According to the latest figures, Xoom has increased active users by more than 30%, bumped up monthly transfers by more than 50%, more than doubled usage of its bill pay service, and reports that nearly 75% of transactions occur via mobile.
While these numbers are promising, Xoom executives are much more focused on how their partnership with PayPal has improved the overall experience for Xoom users.
“What we do is much more than a transaction. It's the money people are using to eat, to pay for the doctor, to pay the water bill... What we do helps people collectively help their families,” said Julian King, General Manager of Xoom. King added that the company's improved ability to develop solutions means that Xoom can make a real impact in people's lives.
In fact, this ability to innovate is what attracted Xoom to PayPal in 2015. Xoom's desire to make international payments easier and scalable was a natural supplement to PayPal's mission of simplifying financial services.
“What gets us up in the morning is the chance to make [the Xoom] platform available to PayPal's global network of 200 million users," King said.
Enhanced experience
Because of its partnership with PayPal, Xoom has been able to expand its network and fully integrate with PayPal for a smoother end user experience. Xoom has also expanded its international money transfer receiver nations to 67 — with 12 new countries added in 2017 alone. They've also added a Request Money feature to their services.
Xoom now offers a high-value payments product, raising the ceiling on transfer limits from $3,000 to $10,000. This gives customers the ability to send cross-border payments for large-ticket items like tuition, medical bills, cars and real estate. Increasing transfer limits affords users the opportunity to move larger sums of cash, usually for a lot less than many alternative transfer methods.
Looking ahead
Currently, Xoom's most active service areas are Mexico, India and the Philippines. This is certainly no surprise, as those three countries send the most immigrant workers to the United States. Yet Xoom expects more subtle shifts in focus moving forward.
Some channels are sure to evolve more quickly than others, but the overall trend is already in place. According to King, the international transfers space is destined to become more and more consolidated over the next several years, and most companies will place major emphasis on the scalability of their service models.
For Xoom, the PayPal partnership presents some unique opportunities on the horizon: receiver countries becoming digital payment and e-commerce hubs, the capability to move money between Xoom accounts and PayPal accounts, initiating transactions with local merchants to pay bills and shop online. These are just some of the innovations King says Xoom is interested in.
-
Xoom Mobile App Review
