Action Line: Retailers offer new 'check-in' pay option
BY PHIL MULKINS World Action Line Editor
Thursday, November 29, 2012
11/29/12 at 3:59 AM
Dear Action Line: There is some new way you can use your PayPal account - the service used for paying taxes online - to shop for gifts in stores as if you had their in-store credit cards. And it involves "facial recognition." What's this? - V.L., Tulsa.
PayPal and ERPLY - a leading provider of cloud-based "point of sale" software - have announced a strategic integration "to provide businesses, from single to multistore, a new way to accept mobile payments and manage business operations."
Check-in shopping: Consumers may simply "check-in" at participating retailers, on their smartphones, and pay by PayPal. Customers don't have to produce credit cards or cash and will not have to input information into terminals at checkout. This will make the buying process faster and easier. All they have to do is have the PayPal app for iOS or Android on their wireless devices and follow easy steps on entering the store, according to an ERPLY press release.
ERPLY announced "strategic integration" with PayPal to provide businesses a new way of accepting mobile payments and managing business operations. With the system, retailers can accept payments from consumers' mobile devices while creating better shopping experiences for both, ERPLY says.
Retailer benefits: By accessing 110 million active PayPal buyers globally, retailers will be able to grow their businesses, ERPLY says. Participating retailers will appear in the PayPal mobile app, used by millions of PayPal customers looking for local shops and services. Joining up will show managers what their customers buy and when they shop, providing them a better shopping experience.
Paying with PayPal is a quicker transaction, leaving staff to focus on more customers and provide better service, ERPLY says. It will help customers save money by offering them what they want, when they want it and to build coupons or incentives around what matters to them. It will decrease fraud, as PayPal customers' identities have already been verified, freeing retailers from bounced-check and stolen-credit-card worries.
LikePOS: Merchants can download ERPLY/PayPal POS information at tulsaworld.com/LikePOS or learn more by calling 917-210-1251.
Checkout: The ring-up process, which now requires cashiers to match customers' names with photos, will provide quicker transactions at registers and increase efficiency at check-out. "Facial recognition allows your sales staff to identify PayPal shoppers utilizing its check-in function and check them out fast without card swiping or printing of paper receipts," ERPLY says. "This will eliminate traditional ways of buying products through card swiping or reaching into pockets for cash, and funds will be instantly available in the retailer's PayPal account."
Consumers wishing to use the new payment method should download the free PayPal iPhone app. To use the service, they will log in to the PayPal app, click the "Local" button and select a store from the list. Shoppers will slide the "pin" down to let the store know that they have arrived. To pay at checkout, consumers will simply say they want to pay with PayPal. Shoppers will automatically be checked out of the store and receive a receipt by email.
Original Print Headline: Retailers offering 'check-in' payments
Submit Action Line questions by calling 918-699-8888, emailing phil.mulkins@TulsaWorld.com or by mailing them to Tulsa World Action Line, PO Box 1770, Tulsa OK 74102-1770.
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