Rupert Keeley, SVP, PayPal EMEA

 

Today we announced that PayPal payments would now be accepted at 1,500 locations across the Netherlands. These are not online locations. These are cafes, cinemas, restaurants and parking meters. From today, it becomes possible to order and pay for food or drinks ahead of arriving at a cafe; to pay at the table in a restaurant without calling over the waiter, or pay for parking without searching for the closest meter. All that's needed is the PayPal smartphone application linked to a PayPal account.

 

By clicking on the local tab, app users will be able to see participating local businesses nearby, swipe to check-in to the one they want, and pay directly with PayPal. It’s all part of PayPal’s mission to make life easier and give people more control over their money.

 

This development was made possible thanks to a partnership with MyOrder, the mobile order and payment system backed by Rabobank in the Netherlands. MyOrder has done a fantastic job building a nationwide community of businesses, any of which can now accept offline PayPal payments with no additional investment.

 

It is one of many such partnerships that PayPal is signing to bring mobile payments to life:

 

In Germany, we announced a trial with payleven that will introduce cashless payments nationwide, while our partnership with orderbird is expanding PayPal Check-In beyond Berlin to 70 towns and cities around the country. In France and Austria, McDonald's customers can order ahead and pay with PayPal before picking up their food at a restaurant of their choice.  Visitors to Westfield London, one of largest shopping and leisure destinations in the UK, can pay for parking from their PayPal app without having to fumble for change. 

Payments are changing. Last year, of the $180 billion of payments processed by PayPal, $27 billion were made from a smartphone or tablet. That was up 99% on the previous year. Mobile payments are happening now and businesses are adapting, whether that’s by integrating their locations into the PayPal app, or adding PayPal as an easier way to check out in their own mobile app.

 

The value that PayPal brings is the trust we have established with 152 million account holders across 203 markets around the world. That trust is built on 15 years of managing electronic payments, the reassurance that we never share financial information with anyone and the confidence that PayPal Buyer Protection can help recover funds if something goes wrong.

 

That trust puts us in a unique position to lead mobile payments on a global scale. Whether it’s helping people pay from their table in the Netherlands or authorizing a payment with a fingerprint in Italy, PayPal will continue to work with other forward-thinking companies to change the way we shop and pay in Europe and around the world.

Original author: PayPal-Forward