Shoppers will see a more streamlined payment experience online from eBay’s payment unit PayPal, as well as more outlets to use it to make purchases in the coming year. PayPal announced its latest updates in conjunction with the opening of the NRF Big Show in New York.
There is significant news for online sellers who utilize PayPal for their checkout process. This new checkout experience, currently in testing with a few partners, means the whole process will take place within a merchant’s website.
Further, checking out with PayPal will require fewer steps, something which should be well-received by paying customers. “In addition, merchants only need to do one integration to get the same seamless checkout experience on a computer, tablet, or smartphone,” PayPal’s Don Kingsborough, Vice President of Retail Services, wrote.
While larger merchants will see the new PayPal checkout process earlier in 2014, the company expects to roll it out to small and medium sized merchants very soon. However PayPal has other features planned for its ecommerce customers.
Kingsborough said later in 2014 merchants will be able to get Log In with PayPal functionality for their sites. This will provide a single login for customers to an online seller’s site, rather than requiring people to create a login for the individual site. For participating merchants, allowing PayPal to manage the login process also shifts the burden of keeping customer information secure to PayPal as well. This could be a selling point for ecommerce pros, given PayPal’s established brand and security processes, one that can be used to promote the safety of shopping with a site.
See the full announcement, including an update on its new Beacon in-store technology, on the PayPal blog.
