PayPal Opens One Touch Checkout to Any User, With Or Without the PayPal App

With the rapid spread of commerce on mobile devices, a key problem for merchants is getting customers to follow through with checkouts on tiny screens. PayPal Inc.’s answer to the problem is a solution that lets consumers check out with a single touch or click, and on Thursday it made the capability available to a wider audience by dropping the need to log in exclusively via the PayPal app.

The new solution allows account holders to log in to PayPal on a mobile device using either the PayPal site or its app. They can then check out with a single click or touch on a laptop, tablet, or smart phone. The solution works with a merchant’s Web site or its app.

The latest twist comes on a solution dubbed One Touch, which was developed by PayPal’s Braintree unit and was originally launched last September. But the original method worked on retailers’ mobile apps, requiring integration work by PayPal client merchants. Last month, PayPal extended One Touch to the Web, allowing most PayPal merchant to accept the expedited checkouts without the need for integration work.

Now, by dropping the need to log in via its app, PayPal has opened the method to just about all of its 165 million account holders. Information about how many of those account holders also have the PayPal app was not immediately available.

Also on Thursday, PayPal said customers can pay for food at more than 5,000 U.S. Burger King restaurants after a nationwide rollout of a PayPal integration with the burger chain’s mobile app. The new service relies on a collaboration with Tillster, a San Diego-based company that provides an ordering and customer-engagement platform for the fast-food industry.

PayPal claims One Touch should solve mobile and online merchants’ checkout frustrations by raising so-called conversion rates, or the rate at which consumers follow through with the checkout process after selecting products for purchase. On mobile screens in particular, checking out can be tedious because of the need to type in names, addresses, and shipping details.

“One Touch on mobile has led to as much as 50% or greater improvement in conversion rates and we believe ushers in a major upgrade in the way consumers and merchants will connect with one another in the coming decade,” said Bill Ready, a senior vice president at PayPal and formerly chief executive of Chicago-based Braintree, which PayPal acquired in 2013 for $800 million. Ready made the comment in a PayPal blog post on Thursday.

The 50% improvement refers to the experience of online ticket marketplace StubHub Inc., which says it experienced the rise in conversions after integrating One Touch in its mobile app last year. StubHub also reported a 13% increase in average order value. Other merchants adopting One Touch for their apps are Airbnb, Boxed, Jane.com, Lyft, Munchery, and YPlan, according to PayPal.

PayPal also said Thursday it has made One Touch available to the 90,000 online merchants that rely on BigCommerce, an e-commerce platform.

The opening of One Touch to PayPal users regardless of whether they have the PayPal app, as well as the Burger King rollout, were among a flurry of announcements the San Jose, Calif.-based company released Thursday at its Commerce:Rewired event in San Francisco.