Aurora Fashions Group retail brands – Coast, Oasis Warehouse and Karen Millen – are to enable their customers to use their smartphones to pay at their 230 stores via PayPal, starting tomorrow.
The PayPal inStore app, available for Android and iOS devices, provides the customer with a unique barcode and transaction number, which the cashier scans to take payment from the customer’s PayPal account. Payments, refunds and discounts are all managed via the app. Payment is secured by the customer entering a PIN to open the app. No personal or financial information, or money, is stored on the phone, and the service also works even if there is no mobile or wi-fi. The app also enables shoppers to request a refund in store for something bought online or on the high street from the same retailer.
“Customers demand more from physical stores: outstanding service and a more personalised experience enabled by new technology,” says Ish Patel, group omnichannel director at Aurora Fashions. “Catering for payment flexibility is a now a crucial part of ensuring we are providing customers with a seamless experience by merging digital commerce with physical retailing.
“Our partnership with PayPal allows us to take the next step in our omnichannel journey, ensuring customers can safely and securely purchase items using their own mobile phones. We’re proud to be innovating on the UK high street and continuing to lead the way in providing a new kind of shopping experience.” 
PayPal UK managing director Cameron McLean says the move marks the start of “a quiet revolution” in the way we shop on the high street. “Weve created a simple, secure way to use a mobile phone to pay in your favourite stores,” says McLean. “The revolution starts today at Oasis, Warehouse, Karen Millen and Coast. The lines between the online world and high street will soon disappear altogether: 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.
“Todays move also underlines our view that mobile payments dont 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 doesnt have to install new systems to take in-store mobile payments.”
The launch with Aurora follows the launch of a similar service in the US, where PayPal has in-store partnerships with The Home Depot and 15 other national retailers. PayPal handled $4bn in mobile payments globally in 2011, and expects this to rise to $7bn this year.”
You can get more information and download the app here. And there’s a video showing how easy it is to pay in store via the app here.
