Home Depot Expands PayPal POS Pilot to 51 Stores

The five-store Home Depot pilot of PayPal's point-of-sale solution that began in Q4 2011 will expand to 51 stores this week, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area. John Donahoe, CEO of PayPal owner eBay, promised even more expansion later this year, both with Home Depot and in other national retailers' stores.

"PayPal customers will be able to easily and quickly pay for purchases in the [pilot stores] by either swiping their PayPal card, or simply entering their mobile phone number and PIN," said Donahoe during a recent conference call. "You can shop without your wallet, without your credit cards or even your mobile phone, just pay with PayPal."

PayPal is moving aggressively into the brick-and-mortar payments arena. In addition to exhibiting at this week's National Retail Federation Big Show, PayPal's own Shopping Showcase in New York demonstrates its payment solutions in retail-like environments. More than 100 retailers have visited the Showcase since it opened in November 2011, according to Donahoe.

"We anticipate [the PayPal solution] will give consumers better shopping experiences and more flexible payment choices," Donahoe added. "And for retailers, we believe this will give them opportunities to not only engage consumers at checkout, but also throughout their entire multichannel shopping experience."

PayPal is also increasing its presence in the m-commerce payments market. In 2011, "our mobile payment volume hit $4 billion, more than five times the volume of the year before," noted Donahoe. "The number of PayPal customers regularly making a purchase through their mobile phone more than doubled during the second half of the year. Simply put, consumers are shopping more frequently via mobile and merchants who adopt PayPal Mobile Express Checkout are seeing significantly higher conversion. We expect PayPal's mobile growth to continue, with mobile volume in 2012 estimated to hit $7 billion."

For related content: Home Depot Pilots PayPal Technology at Point-of-Sale