PayPal Purchase Your Posh Frock InStore from Aurora Fashions

Ever been out shopping with your girlfriend/wife/sister when she’s found that ‘must have’ dress, skirt or top but she seems to have misplaced her purse? Well, from today, make sure she has her phone and a PayPal account then you don’t need to hand over your card.

PayPal has launched its mobile payment application, PayPal InStore, here in the UK on iOS and Android which means that you don’t need to have cash, cards or even NFC in order to buy stuff!

The first British high street chain to allow customers to use PayPal InStore is Aurora Fashions, which owns women’s clothing shops Oasis, Karen Millen, Coast and Warehouse. That should be enough choice surely? 😉

The app is free to download from iTunes and Google Play and hooks up directly to your PayPal account.

To use it you just need to tap in your assigned PIN number, select to pay in store and a unique barcode and transaction number will appear.

The helpful and smiling shop assistant will then scan the barcode on your mobile either at the cash register or they can go free-range and use an iPad.

When that’s done your PayPal account will be charged for the item(s) bought – and then it’s the “don’t wrap it; I’ll wear it now” moment. Done 🙂

“We’ve created a simple, secure way to use a mobile phone to pay in your favourite stores,” said Cameron McLean, managing director of PayPal UK. “Research we carried out last year amongst major retailers suggested that 2016 will be the year you won’t need a wallet to shop on the British high street. A phone will be enough.?” He went on to add “Today’s move also underlines our view that mobile payments don’t need near field communication (NFC) technology to succeed. PayPal’s ‘pay by mobile’ service works with the phones most of our customers already own. And our retail partner doesn’t have to install new systems to take in-store mobile payments,”

As I said earlier, there’s no NFC contactless tech used here, unlike solutions such as PayTag, so your current iPhone and iPad can be used from tomorrow – May 31st 2012.

Currently it’s just the lady’s fashion outlets mentioned above using InStore but PayPal is currently talking to a wider range of retailers with the aim to make more announcements over the coming months.

Would you prefer to use PayPal or swipe your NFC phone as championed by the London 2012 Olympics?