PayPal has announced that Venmo users will be able to use the popular mobile app at more than two million US high street retailers.
A big hit with American teens, PayPal believes that Venmo integration at merchants terminals will present new opportunities for retailers to follow the app's social feed, where users share shopping tips with their friends, and tap into the purchasing power of the millennial generation.
In a blog post signalling the move, PayPal COO Bill Ready says: "The investments we’ve made in our platform architecture allow us to enable Venmo as a payment method for millions of PayPal merchants at one time without any additional integration work on the merchant’s part, mirroring the approach we used to successfully launch One Touch."
To avoid confusion at the checkout, PayPal is testing the ability for merchants to offer dynamically-painted payment buttons, which will show Venmo customers a custom dual-branded button that allows selection between PayPal or Venmo payment options.
Says Ready: "Our vision for Venmo is to not only be the go-to app for payments between friends, but also a ubiquitous digital wallet that helps consumers spend wherever and however they want to pay, regardless of device."