Ahead of Big Retail Push, PayPal Inks Deals With Top Hardware Vendors
In advance of the company’s press conference today, Paypal is announcing that it has secured partnerships with three of the top point-of-sales providers, giving it access to nearly 40 million terminals worldwide.
The partnerships are important because it makes rolling out PayPal’s in-store payments technology to retailers much easier.
PayPal is hosting an event at its San Jose headquarters later this morning to announce the next batch of retailers that are adopting the company’s in-store payments solution. AllThingsD’s Liz Gannes will be there to cover the announcements live, starting at 10 am PT.
To date, PayPal has deployed its service to all 2,000 Home Depots, but it has a long way to go in meeting its goal of having 20 major retailers by the end of the year.
One reason why PayPal is able to deploy its services to retailers so quickly is because it only requires sending out a software update to the retailers’ terminals — in other words, retailers won’t have to purchase all new hardware. This morning, PayPal confirmed it has signed up VeriFone and Equinox Payments, the largest and third-largest providers, respectively, which will handle those software updates. PayPal already had a relationship with Ingenico, the second-largest provider.
The relationships inked today are focused on solving back-end integration problems for merchants. But the front-end experience is all about the consumer.
At participating stores, consumers will be able to pay with PayPal by either using a PayPal-issued credit card or by entering a mobile phone number and PIN code into the terminal. Down the road, PayPal could also support near field communication technology.
All told, the three terminal providers manage about roughly 40 million terminals worldwide, representing a large majority of the terminals in existence.
