Editor’s Note: The following blog post was originally published on The PayPal Blog on May 24, 2012.
It’s been two months since I was given the opportunity to lead PayPal and I’ve never been more excited about the future of commerce and PayPal’s opportunity to help shape it. From our successful worldwide launch of PayPal Here™, to last month’s unveiling of PayPal Payments (our redesigned suite of business products) we’ve gathered incredible momentum. We continue to improve the way businesses conduct and redefine commerce in the modern age by bringing innovation at scale to retailers of all sizes.
At an event at PayPal headquarters today, we announced 15 new national retailers who are going to bring innovation and flexibility with PayPal’s offline payment and shopping solutions. These include: Abercrombie & Fitch, Advance Auto Parts, Aéropostale, American Eagle Outfitters, Barnes & Noble, Foot Locker, Guitar Center, Jamba Juice, JC Penney, Jos. A. Bank Clothiers, Nine West, Office Depot, Rooms To Go, Tiger Direct and Toys “R” Us. We can’t wait to launch with these great retailers, and help them serve their customers better through PayPal.
Consumers are relying on technology now more than ever to simplify their lives when it comes to shopping and paying, and retailers must adapt to this shift or risk becoming irrelevant.
Innovative retailers everywhere are looking for ways to improve the shopping experience, extend loyalty programs and better engage with their customers. PayPal makes it incredibly easy for them to do so…at scale. Our first retailer, The Home Depot, went from a five store pilot test to a full rollout to their nearly 2,000 locations in just two months!
With PayPal, retailers don’t need to rip and replace, install NFC or conduct a massive upgrade to bring innovation to their customers. PayPal works seamlessly with a retailer’s existing point of sale hardware. This simple integration allows consumers to pay quickly, easily and securely.
PayPal’s offline solutions are much more than just a way to pay. We’re helping merchants connect with consumers at every stage in the shopping cycle. Before they come into the store, while they’re in the store, or even after they’ve left.
We’re able to drive consumers through a retailer’s doors with relevant offers, coupons and discounts, then maintain a relationship with that consumer that keeps bringing them back to the retailer, in store or online.
Mid-Market Solution
In addition to announcing these 15 new major retailers, we were also pleased to announce new deals that will enable us to reach “mid-market” businesses across the U.S. This includes businesses with multiple retail locations as well as those that might only have a few store locations but possess more sophisticated payment and inventory management systems. There are literally millions of these mid-market businesses out there and they represent about one third of the U.S. economy. Most of them already have some form of point-of-sale system in place. We’re very excited to announce our relationships with innovative point of sale software providers Leapset, ShopKeep, Vend and Erply to help their retailer customers take advantage of the new technologies while integrating into their existing systems. These companies already work with 50,000 mid-market businesses offline. With the flip of a switch, their merchants could use PayPal in their stores without ripping out and replacing their existing systems and investing in new or expensive upgrades. Starting today some of their merchants are live with PayPal’s local feature in their stores so customers can alert merchant that they’re in-store, and get the “VIP” treatment while paying with the best possible user experience.
Point-of-sale Terminal Relationships
Earlier this morning, we also announced deals with VeriFone and Equinox, the number one and number three point-of-sale terminal manufacturers in the world, to integrate PayPal functionality into their payment terminals. They join Ingenico, who we’re already working with, in bringing the entire suite of PayPal payment options to these critical consumer facing terminals. With these deals in place, PayPal now has access to nearly 40 million payment terminals worldwide to help us drive innovation at scale.
In every market we’ve entered PayPal has changed the game. We did it for online payments in 1998, creating a business from nothing and building it to one with more than $118 billion in total payment volume last year. We were the first major player to enter the mobile space in 2006 and we plan to exceed $7 billion in mobile payment volume this year. And we’re on track to change the game again in offline payments.
While 2012 is a “test and learn” year for us with regards to the offline retail market, we have no doubt that with newest retailers we are off to a great start.
It’s truly an exciting time to be driving change in commerce and payments.
We can’t wait to share what’s next, because there’s a lot more coming!
David