'Elevated' Online Consumer Spend ‘Ongoing’: PayPal CFO

COVID-19 restrictions “started to relax” in Q2 across PayPal’s core markets, “and we saw the beginning of a return to normalcy in consumer behavior,” said Chief Financial Officer John Rainey on a quarterly call Wednesday. “Consumers are spending again in verticals that had been severely affected and have become more comfortable shopping in person and dining out.” Merchants in the PayPal ecosystem “are repositioning for the post-pandemic world,” said Rainey. “Relative to our expectations, which were for reopening spend to closely track vaccination rates, we've seen travel and events volumes return more rapidly.” Even in markets that have reopened fully for in-person shopping, “elevated e-commerce spending above pre-pandemic levels is ongoing and indicative of permanent shifts in consumer behavior,” he said. “We continue to see the categories that benefited from quarantine measures and shelter in place activities last year maintain higher levels of e-commerce volumes in comparison to pre-COVID levels.”