At its developer conference in San Francisco today, Paypal debuted its long-anticipated two-click mobile payment system called Mobile Express Checkout.
At the heart of the new solution is the ability for users to opt-in to the service and stay logged in between various mobile apps. As such, Paypal feels it’s solved a major problem facing mobile payment solutions, which is finding the balance between security and ease of use. So far, beta partners using the new solution have seen excellent results, the company said, with many beta-testing merchants reporting double-digit sales growth on their mobile stores since adding the feature. Paypal plans to give Mobile Checkout Express merchants the ability to accept credit card payments in addition to PayPal (through a VeriFone partnership) in early 2011.
As an example of its usage, Starbucks will let customers quickly reload their Starbucks Cards from within the company’s iPhone app. It’s not hard to see the vast potential this solution provides, especially in terms of in-app purchases and other micro-payments. Paypal has done a lot on the mobile front this year, introducing image-based check-depositing via its iPhone app, for example, among other notable advancements. With Paypal’s reach, security and reputation, it has the ability to make huge strides in terms of mobile commerce, and by the looks of things, already is.
