PayPal has lined up the biggest partnership to date for its
in-store payment campaign with credit card company Discover. The deal will ultimately bring PayPal
payments to seven million merchant locations in the U.S. Under the partnership, PayPal will utilize
Discover’s credit card network to enable PayPal users to make payments at
Discover is integrating PayPal’s payment system into its
software, which will be uploaded to point-of-sale terminals that support
Discover Card payments. PayPal’s
branding and rules will be presented to consumers who choose to pay in store
with PayPal. PayPal currently has more
than 50 million U.S. customers who will be able to take advantage of in-store
payments.
At launch next year, PayPal users will be able to pay with a
PayPal Access Card, which connects to a PayPal account and can be funded from a
bank account or credit card. Users will
be able to use the card in conjunction with a PayPal mobile wallet app, which
will deliver e-receipts, offers and other services.
PayPal has said that this year is still a testing and
experimenting year for in-store payments and the real work will begin next
year. But with deals like the one with
Discover, it’s really showing that it wants to go big and really compete in the
market for mobile and in-store payments. Getting acceptance at seven million locations
is going to really help PayPal because they can soon tout how many locations
they are in. That’s important for
consumers, who will want a mobile payment system that is widely accepted in the
areas they shop.
