PayPal to move further into brick-and-mortar territory with Discover partnership

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN JOSE, Calif. — PayPal is expanding its brick-and-mortar payment services to more than 7 million stores across the U.S. in a partnership with Discover Financial Services.

EBay Inc.’s payments unit said Wednesday that retailers that take Discover cards will be able to process PayPal payments beginning next year. People will be able to pay using PayPal cards and later, mobile devices.

The move marks the latest step in PayPal’s push into physical retailers as it expands from offering online payments.

PayPal, which eBay bought a decade ago, has more than 50 million active users in the U.S. and is the e-commerce company’s fastest-growing business.

Earlier this year it unveiled a mobile payments service, PayPal Here, that lets businesses process credit card payments with smartphones. It rivals mobile payment services such as Square, which recently signed a deal to process payments at Starbucks locations.

PayPal is also accepted as a form of payment at physical Home Depot stores and other retailers as part of its offline push.

The deal with Discover lets retailers use the point-of-sale systems that they already have in their stores to accept PayPal payments.

San Jose, California-based eBay climbed $1.48, or 3.2 per cent, to $47.33 in midday trading. Earlier, the stock hit $48.08, its highest level since 2005.

18:26ET 22-08-12