Asian Tech Press (SEP 16) -- Adobe said it will add payment services to its e-commerce platform this year to help merchants accept credit cards and other payment methods, increasing competition with e-commerce company Shopify.

Adobe acquired Magento Commerce from private equity firm Permira for $1.68 billion in 2018 to begin offering software to help retailers run their online stores.

Adobe will launch a new payment system in the U.S. by the end of this year and use PayPal to process a variety of payment types, including credit and debit cards as well as PayPal's payment and buy-now-pay-later services.

Until now, Adobe's e-commerce customers have had to set up their own payment systems. Peter Sheldon, the company's senior director of commerce strategy, said that this applies to large businesses that can negotiate with payment processors. Still, Adobe wants to make it simpler for small merchants.

Payments service is an essential part of the e-commerce business. In 2020, Shopify achieved $2.93 billion in revenue, more than two-thirds of which came from the services division, including payments.

The payments service comes on the heels of Adobe's partnership with FedEx earlier this year to help Adobe merchants manage shipping and logistics services.

Market research firm IDC digital commerce research director Jordan Jewell said Adobe's move is in some ways similar to Shopify, but it is also just trying to cash in on the various needs of sellers in the online sales process.

Adobe plans to expand to regions such as Canada, Australia, and Western Europe in 2022. Sheldon revealed that the company's payment processing agreement with PayPal is not exclusive. It may partner with other payment processing services as Adobe expands further into international markets beyond 2022.