PayPal hasn’t been asleep all this time and actually has been working on something really great. According to sources quoted mobilepaymentstoday.com the company is reportedly testing a new NFC mobile payment application over in Sweden. The trial will be extended over the holiday period and should enable the introduction of NFC payments to the points of sale.
This sounds a little odd, since PayPal has expressed in the past, certain concerns regarding the use of NFC in the retail market. But all questions aside, the service is here and it even has a name: PayPal In-store. It uses a smartphone app with a NFC sticker that’s glued to the user’s device and will allow for mobile payment. Costumers will have to download the app for iPhone or Android, link it to a tag and ship the phone over to the terminal. Using the app, the costumers will be informed of discounts as well. NFC might prove to be a real golden mine as Intel has recently expressed its intention to develop NFC chips for smartphones.
PayPal is working with two shops in Stockholm; the first one is called Alpinagaraget who sells ski gear and the other Webhallen, which is an electronics store. Earlier this year, a chief executive of eBay, PayPal’s guardian, John Donahoe stated that a retailer told him that NFC actually means “Not for commerce”. Surely things have change and this news certainly indicates that PayPal doesn’t not think so harshly of NFC anymore. Especially since it demonstrated the technology in a New York, in a conference for retailers.
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Since contactless payment transactions have grown significantly in the last year (by a whopping 50%!). PayPal has made no wrong in taking the initiatives to launch NFC awareness campaigns in hopes to accelerate the adoption of contactless payment technology.