By Duane Barnhart | @dailydisrupt
PayPal Inc. says 15 retailers, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Office Depot and Jamba Juice, are adding its online payment system in their stores.
PayPal, which is owned by eBay Inc. ( Nasdaq: EBAY ), already is in place in about 2,000 Home Depot ( NYSE: HD ) locations nationwide.
This week, the company announced that its payment system also will be available at Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), Advance Auto Parts (NYSE: AAP), Aéropostale (NYSE: ARO), American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), Barnes & Noble Inc. (NYSE: BKS), Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL), Guitar Center Inc., Jamba Inc. (Nasdaq: JMBA), J.C. Penney Co. Inc. (NYSE: JCP), Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. (Nasdaq: JOSB), Nine West, Office Depot Inc. (NYSE: ODP), Rooms To Go, Tiger Direct and Toys “R” Us.
All but six of the retailers have stores in Hawaii, and most of them have locations in the state’s largest shopping malls, including Ala Moana Center and Pearlridge Center on Oahu.
“Consumers are relying on technology now more than ever to simplify their lives when it comes to shopping and paying, and retailers must adapt to this shift or risk becoming irrelevant,” PayPal CEO David Marcus said in a blog post announcing the initiative.
Additionally, PayPal has made deals with point of sale systems developers, like Leapset, Shopkeep, ERPLY, and Vend, as well as point of sale terminal manufacturers such as Verifone and Equinox. These partnerships give PayPal access to over 40 million payment terminals across the world through which it can handle transactions.
What does all of this mean for us, as consumers? Well, hopefully this will mean that if you have a PayPal account, it will be seamless and easy to purchase goods and services in many retail locations with it by just using an app on your phone. PayPal stresses that its system does not require NFC capabilities or require retailers to massively upgrade their point of sale systems, so adoption for both consumer and retailer is smoother than with other mobile payment platforms.
Even though mobile payments are still a relatively new concept for many, the scene is divisively fragmented already, with many players all trying to put their hat in the game and use their own proprietary systems. Google Wallet, which was at the forefront of mobile payments last year, still has yet to gain traction thanks to device and network compatibility issues, while the Isis mobile payment joint venture from AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile still hasn’t launched. For consumers, who generally just want something to work wherever they go without hassle, these incompatibility issues present major roadblocks to the adoption of mobile payments. With PayPal investing heavily in its own mobile payment solution, consumers will have yet another choice on their plate, but that doesn’t mean they will eat it up, despite PayPal’s best wishes.
