Ebay Inc (NASDAQ: EBAY)’s PayPal Releases OneTouch Mobile Checkout

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By Mark Michaels on August 19, 2014 Company, Technology & Software

The current level of development for mobile commerce is still challenging and complicated for consumers – with the lack of effortless checkout processes, toggling between screens, and entering checkout information on tiny keyboards into tiny tabs. PayPal is making efforts to improve the user experience, and today, it has unveiled its latest product to do so – One Touch.

One Touch is a service for merchants and app developers. It was developed in partnership with Paypal and its newest acquisition, Braintree. The features and logistics behind the product are very similar to Braintree’s Venmo Touch service.

Venmo is a startup that was purchased by Braintree in 2012, and it provided early stage mobile payments processing. Braintree was then bought out by PayPal last year in 2013. Venmo is primarily a social app that facilitates users sending money to each other, then enables the user to transfer the money to a bank overnight. Venmo Touch was created to allow users of mobile apps to access their stored payment information through a collection of apps supported by Braintree, including Airbnb, HotelTonight, and Uber.

The concept is that users will no longer have to enter their credit card and payment information every time they checkout and pay within these apps. Instead, this information will be stored within the Venmo Touch service.

While this idea is certainly useful, Venmo’s presence dwarfs in comparison to that of PayPal. Thus, while PayPal’s OneTouch product is not an entirely new innovation, it does have greater significance. The release of this product will provide an expansive number of merchants that use PayPal with an easier way to accept and process mobile payments in their original applications. Consumers, the majority of which are PayPal users rather than Venmo users, will now be able to shop and pay through their mobile devices more effortlessly.

Additionally, One Touch boasts the benefits of PayPal’s extensive security practices and protection against fraud. PayPal also offers a greater set of data to use, and being a mobile service allows PayPal to detect fraud as it happens and confirm with the user when unusual activity occurs.

PayPal’s One Touch and Venmo’s Touch To Share The Same Space

PayPal’s One Touch is certainly the next big product launch for the giant payment processing firm, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that Venmo’s Touch is getting pushed out. According to the CEO of Braintree, Bill Ready, consumers will be given a choice on which product to use, depending on which payment apps that they have already installed on their phones.

The One Touch product is beginning to bring together PayPal and Venmo’s networks, while still allowing customers to choose which product to use and experience. Venmo offers a more social experience, while PayPal boasts customer loyalty.

It is also important to note the importance of improving checkout and payment services on mobile devices. Over 50 percent of e-commerce shopping sessions happen on mobile devices, but only 10 to 15 percent of actual purchases are done through mobile. This is due to the challenges and inconveniences of the mobile checkout experience, which both PayPal and Venmo is trying to change.

As of today, One Touch has been launched into beta, with select merchant partners. The product will be available to all of the public in September.

Developers who already have the SDK installed will be able to log into their dashboard and enable the option for One Touch.