In December 2020, GoDaddy announced that it was buying payments processor, Poynt, for a cool $320 million in cash, plus an extra $45 million in deferred future payments. We’ve delved into the details of the deal to find out what such a large acquisition means for both current and future customers of the hosting behemoth.
What Is Poynt?
Poynt was founded in 2013 and is a point of sale (POS) payments processing platform. It specializes in integrating online and offline shopping experiences, and the company’s software is already found in mobile apps, payment terminals, and on websites across the country. GoDaddy is hoping to assimilate this ecommerce tech into its own hosting platform.
Why Is It Important?
The changes are going to be primarily of interest to GoDaddy customers that use their websites for ecommerce purposes. The biggest advantage will most likely be to small businesses, as this is an area Poynt has poured a lot of research and development into in the past.
Entrepreneurs will now have access to 16 different payment processors, Poynt’s intuitive mobile and desktop apps, and remote selling options. The platform has been designed to sell to anyone, anywhere, and at any time, providing multiple avenues for customers to purchase and send money through various payment options.
This isn’t just limited to online sales; those made in traditional bricks and mortar stores and anyone that employs Google and Apple Pay can use it too. The platform currently has more than 100,000 merchants on board and processes over $16 billion of payments each year.
For GoDaddy customers this means that their ecommerce and payment options just expanded dramatically. It’s going to be particularly useful for those that use the host’s website builder, as they’ll be able to tailor the perfect online store that integrates with just about every sales channel you can think of.
The Future For GoDaddy?
Does this expensive acquisition mean GoDaddy will attract more customers? Only time will tell, but we certainly think this is only a good thing for the platform’s users. These days we expect everything at our fingertips and convenience is king. If GoDaddy can pull off a seamless integration, offer multiple sales channels, monitoring of statistics and dozens of payment methods, we can definitely see it dominating the hosting market for small businesses in the near future.
