Tuesday, October 8, 2013

PayPal offers QR codes for retail-store purchases


The online payments company wants you to use its mobile payment app at any retail store, so it takes a page out of Square's book and uses a generated code that is acceptable just about everywhere.

CNET - Last month, PayPal introduced a new piece of hardware that would let customers pay for items without taking out their phones, similar to how Square's merchant app works. Now, it's taken another page out of its competitor's book -- the PayPal app will generate a payment QR code that any business with a scanner or PIN code machine can accept.

The company, which announced the feature Tuesday, plans to roll it out globally early next year.

Don Kingsborough, VP of Retail and Prepaid Products, said it's something PayPal has "researched for a long time," and he believes it's the fastest way to get consumers to adopt mobile payment technology. He said consumers know how to use the technology, thanks to existing apps like Starbuck's, which can be powered by any mobile payment app, including PayPal.

"They've been to a Starbucks and they've seen how it works...so many people have been habituated to this action already," he said.   More