As PayPal Tests BLE Payments, Consumer Readiness Questioned

US Consumers aren’t so open to new payment technologies, as we’ve seen with the slow adoption of NFC checkout and mobile wallets in general.

Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacons are a frictionless solution that may gain traction, but a recent survey shows that consumers aren’t yet comfortable with the idea.

PayPal is currently testing its Beacon checkout system in Palo Alto, California.

PayPal mobile app-using customers can shop at retail locations and walk out with goods and merchandise after name and facial confirmation from the merchant.

This means that a customer has to check-in to a store with their phone, but never has to take out their wallet since PayPal completes all steps of the transaction.

While this payment method will allow for a faster turnaround and the promising incentive for loyalty rewards and consumer data on the merchant side, are customers open to shopping with Beacon tech?

A study conducted by Retale, a weekly shopping circular and deals aggregator, shows that consumers just aren’t ready.

Location tracking is one of the main benefits for merchants that choose to enable BLE at their retail locations. If your phone communicates to the beacon that you’ve been standing at the LED-tv section for a while, you may receive an offer on that product to try to get you to purchase it.

71 percent of respondents do not want to be tracked while they go about their shopping.

Only 29 percent are onboard with being tracked through the store, but this number may increase if location tracking is explicitly incentivized.

What about the deals and offers that promise customer engagement and an increase in sales?

Half of iOS users do not want to be sent push notifications for these incentives. Nearly 62 percent of Android users feel the same.

These results show that consumers are clearly concerned with privacy, and that push notifications are seen as an annoyance, rather than a benefit.