PayPal Expands Mobile Payment Offerings With QR Tech

A new digital platform from e-commerce giant PayPal will soon allow customers a new way to make mobile purchases in stores.

The service, called Payment Code, was announced on Tuesday at the Money 2020 industry conference in Las Vegas. With its latest technology, PayPal aims to gain control of a rapidly growing mobile payment market.

The company has taken steps to help ensure that Payment Code will be widely implemented when it is rolled out globally next year. PayPal is partnering on the launch with Discover Financial Services, which has a network of 7 million stores in the U.S. alone.

Because Payment Code utilizes bar code scanners and PIN pads already installed in millions of stores, it should be relatively easy for merchants to adopt. To make a purchase, consumers simply check into a store on their smartphone, which generates either a QR code or a four-digit PIN number depending on the equipment that the store uses.The retailer processes this data to finalize the transaction.

Starbucks already uses a similar process for in-store smartphone purchases, which involves consumers paying with a bar code on their mobile device. Payment Code will provide an additional perk by allowing users to automatically redeem special offers, gift cards and merchant reward programs saved in their PayPal digital wallet.

Don Kingsborough, vice president of retail services at PayPal, calls this “the real benefit” of the service. “Our approach isn’t to push technology for technology’s sake, but to truly make the paying experience better for consumers and to give merchants more opportunity to innovate without a costly investment,” he said.