eBay’s PayPal service is adding new payment technoligies including mobile payments, barcode scanning in mobile devices, and location-based offers.
PayPal announced the new features in a blog. PayPal president Scott Thompson said in the blog that the new payment technologies for businesses will help give their customers a much better shopping and buying experience through PayPal.
"And let’s be clear about something – we’re not just shoving a credit card on a phone," he added.
Thompson said that PayPal is re-imagining money and making it work better for merchants and consumers, irrespctive of the kind of device, the place and the mode of payment — whether cash, credit, or installments.
He said, "We’re rolling out a one-stop shop for merchants to engage their customers directly during every part of the shopping lifecycle – generating demand from consumers through location-based offers, making payments accessible from any device (not just from the mobile phone), and offering more flexibility to customers even after they’ve checked out."
Earlier this year, Thompson had said that PayPal is ahead of its competition.
Both Apple and Google are working towards embedding their devices with the near-field communications (NFC) technology that allows users to make contactless payments. PayPal also faces competition from start-ups and credit card companies such as MasterCard, Visa and American Express, which are aggressively buying Internet-based payment processors.
PayPal said it is banking on its focus and past record. Among the advantages PayPal believes it has over competition are its early lead, fraud management, and over 15,000 banking partners and networks across the world.
Unveiling its three-year plan for expanding its online payment service and to tackle threats the unit faces from Google and Apple, Thompson said in February, "No one comes close — not the banks, not the telecos and not the startups."
"These competitors can claim any one of the capabilities we have, but no one comes close to the breadth we have."
