PayPal is touting the launch of Payment Code, which is the eBay-owned company’s new in-store payments platform.
The platform helps consumers complete purchases directly from their mobile phones.
“When you’re ready to pay, simply open the PayPal app (or the specific merchant’s app.) and check in,” PayPal says. “Once you’re checked-in at that location, the app prompts you with a QR code, or a four-digit short code, to authenticate your purchase.”
If the merchant has a barcode or QR code scanner, the merchant scans and, just like that, you have paid. If the merchant doesn’t then a four-digit code pops up on your phone, you (or the merchant) simply punch that code into the PIN pad at checkout. Boom, done!
PayPal believes the benefit to consumers is profound.
“As we have said many times before,” writes Don Kingsborough, PayPal’s VP of Retail Services, “the problem that needs to be solved is not paying at a POS terminal. While payment code does make the checkout process smooth, with easy access to all funding sources in one simple place (your phone), the real benefit is that it will allow consumers to automatically redeem any special offers, gift cards, merchant rewards programs or other forms of payment that might be saved in their PayPal wallet in one quick transaction.”
As of this writing, more than 40 million Payment Code-ready point-of-sale terminals are in use around the world today.
