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In its bid to boost its acceptance in physical retail stores, PayPal has introduced technology that will enable people running its app on smartphones to automatically check in at stores and restaurants.
Paying only requires a verbal confirmation, the payment processor said in a blog post describing its hands-free Beacon technology that uses the Bluetooth Low Energy standard for wireless communications between the store's point-of-sale system and the customer's smartphone to identify and authenticate users.
The PayPal Beacon.
Beacon also does away with the requirement to swipe credit cards when making payments. PayPal said its team started working "on designing an integrated solution that would enable a transaction to take place without having to open up an app, without GPS being turned on, and even without a phone signal for those places with thick concrete walls."
Consumers will be able to choose those stores they will want to get prompted to confirm payment for, and stores where their walking into the store will trigger a vibration or sound to confirm a successful check in. "If you enter a store and decline to check in, or just ignore the prompt entirely, no information is transmitted to PayPal or the merchant," PayPal said.
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