GoDaddy Launches Payable Domains to Add Utility to the 40-Year-Old Domain Name System

Ever since its 2021 acquisition of the payments-technology company Poynt Inc., the big Web registrar GoDaddy Inc. has been pressing steadily into a variety of payments markets. In its latest move, the company said early Thursday it will let businesses accept payments through a registered domain name.

The new Payable Domains service, said to be the first time such capability has been available, allows a company to register a related domain name that can be shared with customers and that invokes a branded checkout page. In an example provided by GoDaddy, a business whose domain name is www.roohshad.com would receive the payable domain pay.roohshad.com, on which the company can accept payments. With receipt of the first payment, the company would link its bank account to its GoDaddy Payments account, go through GoDaddy’s verification process, and then begin receiving payments routinely.

GoDaddy Payments, the processor for Payable Domains, was created as a result of the Poynt acquisition. “We’re intensely focused on building connected commerce solutions that make growing a business easier, whether you’ve just named your business or are in the process of expanding its sales across the country,” said Osama Bedier, president of commerce for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based GoDaddy and founder of Poynt, in a statement.

With its latest move, GoDaddy sees itself expanding the usefulness of an Internet designation that has been largely taken for granted over the years since 1983, when the Domain Name System was introduced. “Domains have largely been used as a digital identity for businesses, but with this new commerce capability we view the domain name taking on a far more versatile role for up-and-coming small businesses,” said Paul Nicks, GoDaddy’s president of domains, in a statement. “The Payable Domain ultimately serves as an innovative and cost-effective tool for entrepreneurs to accept online payments before even setting up a Web site.”

GoDaddy says the new service levies a transaction fee of 2.3% plus 30 cents. Businesses can customize the Payable Domain and give it out through such methods as text messages, social media, or QR codes, GoDaddy says.

The move to add payments capability to a seller’s domain name follows GoDaddy’s introduction in December of technology to help sellers open and manage a store on the WordPress online platform. That service includes GoDaddy Payments.