PayPal testing InContext Check-Out, to simplify checkout experience

PayPal, the popular electronic payment gateway, which allows users to carry out financial transactions online, has recently debuted a simpler checkout experience online for merchants to use on their e-commerce websites. The launch of the InContext Check-Out feature comes close on the heels of the launch of Beacon, a device that enables handsfree checkouts at stores.

Speaking recently at the NRF (National Retail Federation) 2014, Don Kingsborough, Vice-President of Retail Services at PayPal, said that with the new InContext Check-Out when customers pay with PayPal online, the entire checkout experience can happen entirely within the merchant website, in a process that takes just a few seconds and requires fewer steps than before. In addition, merchants only need to perform the service integration once to get the same seamless checkout experience on a computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Essentially, when a customer chooses to pay via PayPal, instead of being taken to a PayPal page, the entire payments experience, including logging into PayPal, choosing a credit card/account, inputting billing/shipping info and more, takes place in a small window on the retailer's page. The firm says that that it is piloting the new project with partners and will eventually expand to small and medium-sized businesses.

PayPal also announced that the tests for the Beacon device are expanding to Australia, UK, Canada, France and Germany. It also plans on integrating Beacon into PayPal within the next few months. Kingsborough says that PayPal is "working hard on integrating PayPal Beacon into the PayPal app, which will eventually complete by 2014". The company also announced of the expansion of the Payment Code feature, a new technology that allows shopper to pay for goods using apps that generate QR codes readable by merchants' existing scanning devices.

The PayPal announcements to seamlessly merge the online payments and checkout services come in the wake of rapidly increasing competition. How the new services will help them cement the company's market foothold is something that will be determined in the forthcoming days.