PayPal+ launches in Germany: loyalty points for the costliest way to pay

What happened

PayPal has launched its own loyalty programme in Germany. Trade media reported the announcement consistently on 17 September 2026. The rollout will be phased in over several months.

The mechanics are simple. Customers register once in the PayPal app. Eligible online purchases then earn one point per five euros spent, and 1,000 points are worth ten euros. In physical shops, points only come with the PayPal Card or PayPal Ratenzahlung To Go (PayPal’s instalment option). In-store earnings are capped at 1,000 points a month.

There are two free tiers, Blue and Gold. Gold starts at 4,000 points and raises the value of points at the online checkout by 20 per cent. 100 points are then worth 1.20 euros instead of one euro. PayPal mentions no registration or monthly fees. None of the reports says what the programme costs merchants.

Who is affected

Online merchants that offer PayPal at checkout. And physical retailers whose tills will now see a card that earns the customer points.

Assessment

A loyalty programme at this point in the journey is not marketing. It is a lever on payment method choice. And in German e-commerce, payment method choice is the most expensive dial a shop has.

The EHI study Online-Payment 2026 surveyed 172 merchants and measured where the money goes. PayPal leads with a 28.7 per cent share of revenue. Purchase on invoice follows with 26.1 per cent, direct debit with 14.4 per cent. On costs, the order reverses. PayPal averages 1.94 per cent of revenue, direct debit 0.65 per cent. Every percentage point that shifts from the cheap method to the convenient one costs around 1,300 euros a year per 100,000 euros of online revenue. Nobody books that as a marketing expense.

I find the second part more interesting, and almost nobody has commented on it. In-store, points only come with the PayPal Card or Ratenzahlung To Go. An online provider is rewarding customers for bypassing girocard, Germany’s domestic debit card scheme, at the shop till. The cap of 1,000 points a month shows that PayPal knows what this costs.

Merchants should look at this calmly. A loyalty scheme run by someone else does not bind the customer to the shop. It binds them to the payment method. If you hand out your own points, tie them to the receipt, not to how the customer pays.

What to do now

1. Break down your checkout statistics for the last twelve months by payment method and multiply each by its fees. Only that figure makes shifts visible.
2. Keep cheap payment methods visible and pre-selected at checkout. Do not hide them in drop-down menus. Display order is the most effective steering a shop controls itself.
3. In physical retail, watch your card mix. If the share of internationally issued debit cards grows noticeably, review your terminal statement.