PayPal Introduces Its Remote Cashbox Technology

PayPal has started to geographically expand its brand new payment terminal, called Beacon. In fact, the technology with such a mysterious name is a Bluetooth antenna, which is a connection between the given store network and the end user, who has been using the device. It is an offline-mode system, actually considered as a long-range NFC module. Thus, it is very similar to a remote cashbox. A buyer can register the purchase on his own, and there is no need to proceed with payment immediately. PayPal only provides an invoice for this particular purchase, and the buyer will be able to pay as soon as he is connected to his account online.

However, the main idea of this concept is to allow users with Beacon bypass the queues in supermarkets, and simply leave the shop after picking the wanted goods. What is more, Beacon will provide the user with all the necessary information about any product, e.g. its availability in the given store, availability of a needed size (if it is a piece of clothing), or how many items are left in stock.

Currently, this technology is quite successfully implemented around in the United States, and in the first half of this year, Beacon will be introduced in Australia, Britain, Canada, France and Germany. 

Nonetheless, there a lot of open questions: for instance, PayPal does not comment on how it would be possible to know if a user has paid for the particular item he has picked in a store, or guarantee that the user would not grasp anything else with him. It is known that Beacon recommends sending a photo of the shopper together with the goods he has “bought” to the store administration. Also, despite the additional costs, it would be possible to install a special Bluetooth marker on each item, so in case if paid, the item will not beep while leaving the shop. Yet, it is still unclear what to do with those unfair buyers, who can simply register the purchase in the system, but never pay for it. Since PayPal is responsible for the security of purchase on all sides, it still in question if it can manage such a tremendous load.

Therefore, Beacon seems to have more downsides than advantages, especially when it comes to shopping in huge malls with a corresponding buyers stream.