PayPal Test Program Will Let Home Depot Shoppers Pay at Checkout
EBay Inc.’s PayPal division plans to announce a partnership with Home Depot Inc. that lets shoppers use the payment system at checkout, taking aim at Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc.’s credit card-swiping customers.
The agreement marks the company’s first retail partnership that allows payment on in-store terminals, said Anuj Nayar, a spokesman for the PayPal. Until now, the company has focused on e-commerce transactions.
PayPal, one of the fastest-growing parts of EBay, is trying to maintain its expansion by challenging traditional payment systems. The company is developing a so-called mobile wallet, which could be stored on a consumer’s smartphone or a special PayPal card, letting shoppers pay for items at checkout. The Home Depot project will roll out to consumers later this year, serving as a test project.
“Home Depot has a significant reach,” said Brian Blair, an analyst at Wedge Partners Corp. in New York. “PayPal has been historically in online payments. Now it becomes real-world currency.”
A small number of PayPal employees are already testing the Home Depot payment system at five stores, Nayar said.
The idea of the mobile wallet is to store credit- and debit-card information from a range of providers, with PayPal controlling the experience. The company plans to give customers the option to choose which provider they want to use up to 30 days after the sale.
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