PayPal Shutters Legacy In-Store Checkout Service

PayPal is gearing up to terminate the in-store mobile payment services it launched several years ago.

Citing an email PayPal sent to customers, Bloomberg reported that the payment services – one of which is based on a phone number and PIN and the other that uses payment codes – will be discontinued as of the end of March.

“When this payment experience was developed, there were some technology limitations, and this was a way for us to engage with our customers, giving them the ability to make a purchase at the point of sale,” PayPal spokesman Joseph Gallo wrote in an email. “As mobile technology has become smarter, we are looking to engage with our customers in ways that leverage the true potential of the mobile device and their PayPal wallet.”

According to Bloomberg, the PIN and phone number service was rolled out in 2012 at Home Depot, Toys”R”Us and Office Depot, but the service failed to catch on.

The move on the part of PayPal to discontinue the services comes as it has been forging partnerships with traditional payment companies, including Visa. Earlier this month, it announced a collaboration through which the bank’s business customers can make international payments in local currencies to clients with PayPal accounts, only an email address. In a press release at the time, Bank of America said payments are initiated through its Global Digital Disbursements product and can be made from the U.S. to PayPal account holders residing in Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and the Philippines.

“We’re excited to add the PayPal payment option to our Digital Disbursements solution, and [to] offer another way for clients to disburse funds quickly and efficiently across borders,” said Hubert J.P. Jolly, global head of financing and channels for Global Transaction Services (GTS) at BofA Merrill. “The agreement will help our clients access the growth in the use of digital wallets, which, in many parts of the world, are the preferred method of payment.”