Mobile payments are clearly the future of commerce and we are seeing everyone from retailers to banks claiming their territory for what’s to come.
With a number of recent announcements, PayPal is clearly making the biggest play in this space.
- PayPal launched PayPal Here (a means for merchants accept credit cards via a mobile device.)
- Back in May the in-store payment app system, ShopKeep POS, which is utilized by over 2,000 merchants, announced that they would now be incorporating PayPal as a payment option.
- Now PayPal just announced that they are partnering with15 national retailers that will allow their customers the option to use PayPal as a payment method in-store. A special app will provide users with a unique barcode and transaction number, which is used for deducting payment from their PayPal balance. Participating retailers include Abercrombie & Fitch, JC Penny, and Nine West.
- Home Depot will be the first retailer to incorporate this technology into nearly 2,000 of their store locations.
With a number of different applications available, it is unclear how PayPal will roll all of these efforts out to consumers, but here is a video showing how the ShopKeep app experience currently works.
When you mobile payments battle really heats up, do you think PayPal has a chance against major credit card companies like Visa and Discover? What about banks? Bank of America?
Everything is really fast-evolving. And Paypal is surely making the changes to stay not only relevant, but to keep pace with various customers as well. I think it will Paypal will keep up with the competition.