Looking to ease contactless payments for cash wary consumers and businesses, PayPal has launched QR code payment acceptance in its iZettle point-of-sale application for small businesses in the U.K.
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PayPal timed the launch to help merchants not only during the pandemic, but also during the holiday shopping season as local businesses reopen.
“We are extremely happy to have reopened our Concept Store again last week following November’s lockdown and I’m looking forward to offering customers a safe and secure checkout with PayPal QR Codes within the iZettle POS," Anissa Damoussi, founder of independent retailer So Marrakech in Manchester, said in a Wednesday pess release. "We believe the more we can offer in terms of touch-free retail, the better."
PayPal referenced U.K. retail research that found non-essential retail store closures earlier this year cost retailers £1.6 billion of lost sales each week with the British Retail Consortium predicting the second lockdown would also have a significant impact on small businesses, especially during the holidays.
“Small businesses need access to commerce tools that help them sell securely and meet their customers wherever they are, in-store, online and in-between.” Jacob de Geer, vice president of small business products at iZettle/PayPal, said in the release.
To begin accepting QR code payments within the iZettle app, merchants need to refresh the iZettle app to update to the latest version and activate PayPal as a payment method. For each transaction, a dynamic QR code will appear. As soon as the customer confirms the amount and scans the code with their PayPal app, the payment is complete.
