PayPal, the online payment service, is serious about giving Visa, Mastercard and Amex a run for consumers' money and that includes moving into brick and mortar stores.
"If you'd asked me two years ago when would PayPal be in retail environments, I don't think I'd have said 'by the end of 2011,' but that's the truth," wrote Scott Thompson, president of PayPal, on the company's blog. "Our developers started taking us there as soon as we opened our platform in 2009 and now many of our developer partners, like Yorder and Bling Nation, have delivered new services and products that are designed primarily to reach consumers offline."
"These new ideas, coupled with the incredible rise in connected devices and smart phones, have pushed traditional lines between online payments and offline purchases together -- opening up an entirely new market for PayPal as the megatrends of mobile, social and local collide," Mr. Thompson added.
PayPal management, according to a Bloomberg News report, believes that in-store transactions could help the eBay division double its revenue by 2013.
"The top executives of Visa and MasterCard must lay awake at night wondering how many years it's going to be before these folks are substantially impinging on their business," Bill Smead at Smead Capital Management, told the news service.
PayPal announced this week that it has hired Don Kingsborough, founder and former CEO of Blackhawk Network, the subsidiary of Safeway responsible for placing gift cards in thousands of retail stores, to help bring PayPal into physical stores.
"Don's experience in consumer product development, technology, retail, POS and merchant relationships will prove invaluable as we work to bring PayPal to connected devices and the offline world," wrote Mr. Thompson.