What PayPal’s Partnership With Discover Means to Business Owners and Consumers

By Mikal E. Belicove|For Entrepreneur.com|August 28, 2012

The announcement last week that PayPal is partnering with Discover Financial Services to offer a retail “digital wallet” paymentoption could result in a windfall for millions of brick and mortar merchants who already accept the Discover Card.

Beginning in May of 2013, PayPal’s 50 million customers in the U.S. will be able to use their service as a payment option at any of the 7 million U.S. retail stores that accept Discover card. That’s good news for merchants, because no additional hardware will have to be installed or upgraded to accept PayPal.

The offering is also simple for PayPal users, who will be able to make purchases at participating stores and businesses by using their cell phone number and a PayPal pin code. As the program evolves, PayPal plans to provide users with a card that is connected to their PayPal account.

PayPal, a division of eBay, is known as a leader in online payment and, since its beginnings in 1999, has proven to be an easy way for consumers and online merchants to send and receive money. Discover card ranks second behind American Express in overall customer satisfaction, according to the latest figures from J.D. Power and Associates’ U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study.

PayPal and Discover aren’t alone in developing a mobile payment program. Recently, a collaboration of leading retail companies, including Best Buy, Target, 7-Eleven and Walmart, formed a joint venture called the Merchant Customer Exchange to offer a new…

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