PayPal unveiled an app payment feature, which enables uses to
pay via a single touch to the handset screen. The "OneTouch" has been
enabled using technology from Braintree, which parent company eBay acquired in
September 2013 for around $800 million.
The feature will also be integrated into mobile apps which
support PayPal. In the first instance that the consumer makes a payment for a
product using one of these apps, he or she will be redirected to the PayPal app
for authorization. For subsequent purchases, the one touch feature kicks in and
purchases can be made within the merchant app.
PayPal is already one of the behemoths of mobile payments: in
2013, it was responsible for around $27 billion in mobile and tablet
transactions, representing 15% of global payments by transaction value, and the
introduction of this feature on a commercial basis is likely to give those
volumes a further boost.
Furthermore, not content with being a big fish in the online
payments space, PayPal updated its Windows Phone app to enable in-store
payments, to accompany the iOS and Android apps which have had this facility
since 2012. Last autumn, it also unveiled an in-store payment mechanism,
enabled by a combination of BLE and Wi-Fi. The PayPal Beacon runs on its own
Wi-Fi and plugs into an outlet at a retailer with a compatible POS system. When
a consumer who (a) has the PayPal app and (b) has opted in to the ability for
retailers to use Beacon enters a store, the technology triggers a vibration or
sound to denote a successful check-in; the handset owner’s photograph appears
on the screen of the merchant POS system so that the customer can be greeted by
name.
PayPal have said that if a
consumer enters a store and either does not wish to check in or ignores the
check in request, no information will be transmitted. The customer set up
preferences as to where they can be automatically checked in and then
automatically charged when collecting goods or when they leave; payment
requires only a verbal confirmation.
In short, PayPal continues to be a very busy bee across remote
and in-store payments. Its competitors will have to up their games to keep up.
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