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PayPal’s Pitch To Retailers To Use Its Mobile Wallet: Making The Most Of A Few Temporary Differences
I think it’s fair to say that smartphones—defined these days as phones that can download third-party apps—are where this battle will be fought. As a practical matter, RIM’s BlackBerry has opted to sit this out in the U.S., which is fine, given that it has not been on the list of mobile-payment partner candidates—or even the list for mobile-site-optimized platforms—for most retailers for quite some time.
That really leaves Android and Apple. As the owner of Android, Google has a lock there, and Apple still hasn’t shown its hand. Apple may cut a deal with Google or it may make its own move, which could make it the player to beat.
PayPal is correct that it’s the only currently discussed option that can process digital wallet payments through Android, Apple and BlackBerry.
It’s a strong argument, but it’s sharply hampered by the calendar. Google has multiple public trials active right now. PayPal has none now and is promising to have a single national retail partner by the end of this year (mostly likely this month, probably to go live right before Thanksgiving). Given the trial is unidentified, that doesn’t give much of a push—nor does the fact that it’s just a single chain.
More at issue is that Apple will likely make its move within the next several months. Because of the slow PayPal rollout, retailers will have the luxury of sitting back and waiting to see what Apple does before making any firm decisions.
Smaller chains—plus tons of mom-and-pop single-location retailers—will have an easier time. And PayPal’s device-agnostic pitch could make it a strong force there, with Google focusing much more on the major national chains. PayPal’s popularity with smaller retailers, especially online, could also prove critical. In turn, that could help PayPal build out the rest of its infrastructure with thousands of small shops across the country.
Until then, PayPal’s pop-up will be making its pitches among the bundled holiday shoppers for several more weeks. One of the demos—which PayPal calls vignettes, most likely because that was what was needed to get the professional actors to participate (performing a vignette goes on a resume, doing a demo doesn’t)—had an interesting moment.
The presenter is pointing out the joy of having completed a digital transaction of a barbecue grill at a hardware store, all without a sales rep bothering him with upsell attempts. But within a minute, he’s pointing out that the app is now flagging some important grill accessories that he should really consider adding to his purchase. Yes, why have an annoying sales associate trying to upsell you when your iPhone can do it instead?
Cards issued by European banks when used online cross border don't usually support AVS checks. So, when a European card is used with a billing address that's in the US, an ecom merchant wouldn't necessarily know that the shipping zip code doesn't match the billing code.
-Marc
