PayPal Introduces Mobile Point of Sale Solution For iPad

PayPal is expanding its PayPal Here mobile card reader technology to the iPad, bolstering its products in the mobile point of sale market where it competes with Square. The company launched PayPal Here a year ago with a dongle card reader and smartphone app similar to Square’s solution. The new iPad version features a redesigned app with some new capabilities, according to a post on PayPal’s blog, by Hill Ferguson, the company’s vice president of global product.

Ferguson wrote that several PayPal Here customers had a preference for using the iPad over the smartphone because of its larger screen. The new PayPal Here app for iPad was designed to fit that bigger screen and use it to offer some new functionality, he added. The iPad app incorporated bar code scanning technology from eBAy Inc., which owns PayPal, that will allow faster checkout, Ferguson wrote.

[See Related: Bank of America and the "Point-of-Sale Revolution"]

The iPad version of PayPal Here can also wirelessly connect to a cash drawer and a receipt printer, and provides sales tracking through a “daily summary” feature. The iPad version is still targeted at small merchants, Ferguson said, which is the same customer segment that Square is targeting as well. Ferguson added that the company is looking partnering with retail point of sale solutions providers like NCR and others to allow small businesses to take advantage of the mobile card reader without having to replace their current solutions.

Ferguson also mentioned a couple of other recent international announcements dealing with PayPal Here. The company introduced a version of the solution in the U.K. last month that accepts chip and pin, and also expanded the solution into Japan through a partnership with Japanese bank SoftBank. PayPal is clearly invested in growing its market share in retail point of sale solutions. And Ferguson cited a survey by Bank of America that would help explain why. The survey questioned 1,000 American small business owners, and 45% of them said that not getting paid on time by customers was the biggest issue with their cash flow, Ferguson wrote.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio